Cloud Sketcher, The: A Novel - Softcover

Rayner, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060956135 ISBN 13: 9780060956134

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2014

Synopsis

In a tiny village in Finland, Esko Vaananen is at the brink of despair -- he loves a woman he can never have. Suddenly, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him. This pilvenpiirtaja -- "cloud sketcher" or skyscraper -- sparks a lifelong quest for beauty in Esko. He will pursue and protect these two passions -- his vision and his love -- no matter how great the cost, for the rest of his life. It is a journey that leads him into the Bolshevik revolution and the Jazz Age nightclubs of New York City and to strike a Faustian bargain with a ruthless gangster -- all in the pursuit of artistic perfection and impossible, unattainable love.

About this title

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:

?A book that shines as a consequence of an accomplished writer?s deeply felt (and understood) moral and spiritual energy.?Robert Hass (author of Lives of Moral Leadership)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0060956135
• ISBN 13: 9780060956134
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 428