Rayner, Richard The Cloud Sketcher ISBN 13: 9780060196349

The Cloud Sketcher - Hardcover

9780060196349: The Cloud Sketcher
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From the ice fields of rural Finland to the ruthless world of New York real-estate speculation, the life of architect Esko Vaananen offers a powerful evocation of the turbulent Jazz Age and a tragic romance. 75,000 first printing.

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Review:
The Cloud Sketcher is a rich, intricate and satisfying story, and one for which that clichéd term "sweeping historical epic" is probably the most accurate description. Growing up in rural Finland in 1901, 11-year-old Esko bears scars on his face which he received trying to rescue his mother from their burning house a year before. Bereft and meek, Esko is later left by his political activist father with the local priest, who encourages his early interest in architecture by showing him a picture of the very first lift to be installed in Finland.

One morning, out on the ice, not long after my father had given me to Kalliokoski, I understood why this elevator--any elevator--is important. It means a building can be as tall as you like. As tall as you dare to allow it to be. A skyscraper. The Germans call them wolkenkratzers--cloud scratchers. In Finnish, the word is pilvenpiirtaja--cloud sketcher. I'm going to build one.
As the lift transforms Esko's ambitions, so his brief childhood meeting with Russian aristocrat Katerina at a village fete leads to a stubborn pursuit that encompasses decades and continents. It is his blinkered dreams of a skyscraper, and his ephemeral love for Katerina that drive him through his time fighting in the bloody Finnish Civil War, pursuing his career in Helsinki and achieving his ambitions in crime-ridden prohibition New York. The story has a skilful structure, rich prose and an expressive style, although the author's passion for the subject of architecture can lead to passages occasionally becoming somewhat dry and involved. The plot has moments of predictability, but the story is told with enough style and pathos to make this forgivable. Readers will respond to the quality of the writing and be easily drawn into this rewarding saga. --Rachel Ediss
Review:

‘No one who opens “The Cloud Sketcher” will find it easy to stop reading before the last vertiginous page...Passionate and well researched...remarkable [for] its visceral feeling for architecture...Rayner’s eye is excellent.’ Chicago Tribune

‘Irresistible. It delivers surprise after surprise, all the way up to the last page...a complex and absorbing story.’ Time Out New York

‘Breathtaking...a passionate book that threads architecture, war and history through the story of two lovers.’ USA Today

‘A completely engaging read, an impressive meditation on longing and obsession that’s also a searching reflection on the act of creation itself.’ Jabari Asim, Washington Post

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  • PublisherHarperCollins
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0060196343
  • ISBN 13 9780060196349
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages435
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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780060956134: Cloud Sketcher, The: A Novel

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  • 9780007128327: The Cloud Sketcher

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