Helprin, Mark

Paris in the Present Tense

New York, NY: Overlook Publishers, 2017. First Edition. Hardcover. “Paris In The Present Tense,” the latest of Helprin’s works, as of the writing of this particular curation, is widely considered not only his most ambitious, but also his best. With musical, oftentimes eloquent and powerful language, Helprin weaves a multi-layered narrative that not only follows the life of protagonist Jean Lacour, but also explores the violent and gloried past of the city of Paris itself. The inside cover of the dust-jacket sums up the themes and plot thusly: “Powerful, rapturous new novel is set in a present-day Paris caught between violent unrest and its well-known, inescapable glories. Seventy-four-year-old Jules Lacour—a maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widower, veteran of the war in Algeria, and child of the Holocaust—must find a balance between his strong obligations to the past and the attractions and beauties of life and love in the present.” Helprin’s prose is often elegiac, ephemeral, and concise, seemingly conjuring both Joyce and Cormac McCarthy–passages that are hauntingly beautiful, and prosaic yet musical often litter the page, easing the reader into the complex and dramatic narrative. As per his website, Helprin’s career is summarized in the following way: “Helprin belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend. As many have observed, and as Time Magazine has phrased it, “He lights his own way.” His three collections of short stories (A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Ellis Island and Other Stories, and The Pacific and Other Stories), seven novels (Refiner’s Fire, Winter’s Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir From Antproof Case, Freddy and Fredericka, In Sunlight and In Shadow, and Paris in the Present Tense), and three children’s books (Swan Lake, A City in Winter, and The Veil of Snows, all illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg), speak eloquently for themselves and are remarkable throughout, for the sustained beauty and power of their language. Helprin’s academic training, military service, decades of journalism, and involvement in politics and statesmanship as an obligation of citizenship, although secondary at best, have gained some attention nonetheless.” A Novelist's novelist, Helprin’s strong sense of tension, drama, and writerly intuition imbues “Paris In The Present Tense” with a compelling and complex narrative with beautiful language throughout. [ISBN: 978-1-4683-1476-2]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket; first edition as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. Book is in very fine condition with wear to fine edges; dust-jacket is in very fine condition with minor smudging to front and back covers. All in all this volume is nearly pristine and is perfect for any lover of fiction. Very Fine / Very fine. [Item #5538]

Price: $35.00