The City by the Palisades

by Sandy Ikeda
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 at 12:57 PM

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Once before, I blogged a passage from Mark Helprin, one of my favorite novelists. Here's another one, this time from his "Winter's Tale":

A great city is nothing more than a portrait of itself, and yet when all is said and done, its arsenals of scenes and images are part of a deeply moving plan. As a book in which to read this plan, New York is unsurpassed. For the whole world has poured its heart into the city by the Palisades, and made it far better than it ever had any right to be.

The story is mythic and haunting, although the full meaning of this passage I still find elusive (but still wonderful). I will have time to think about it.

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