Refiner's Fire: The Life and Adventures of Marshall Pearl, a Foundling

Helprin, Mark

ISBN 10: 0394412737 / ISBN 13: 9780394412733

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1977

About this Item

First Thus. Trade Paperback, Edges Worn, Top corner creased, Owner initials stamped on bottom. Square and Tight.

Seller Inventory # 001243

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Refiner's Fire: The Life and Adventures of Marshall Pearl, a Foundling
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication Date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394412737
• ISBN 13: 9780394412733
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Born on an illegal immigrant ship off the Palestinian coast in 1947 and raised by wealthy Americans, Marshall Pearl makes his way through loves, vacations, visions, troubles, triumphs, and adventure after adventure toward the October War of 1973

From the Back Cover

"That best of all possible novels: read ten pages and you can't put it down; finish it and you'll feel it haunt your days and nights." - The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
Refiner's Fire is the story of Marshall Pearl, orphaned at birth aboard an illegal immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine in 1947 and brought as an infant into the "ardent unlimitedness" of America. Determined to see the world in its beauty, ferocity, and ultimate justice, he does so, in scenes of gorgeous color and great excitement, as a child in the Hudson Valley, fighting Rastifarians in Jamaica, at Harvard, in a slaughterhouse on the Great Plains, in the Mexican desert, on the sea, and in the Alps. Finally he is drawn to Israel to confront the logic of his birth, in a crucible of war, magic, suffering, and grace. At the opening of the book, he is one of the dying wounded being transported to Haifa during the 1973 war. We follow him as he dreams, reconstructing his life, until, by the strength of what he has learned, suffered, and hoped, Marshall Pearl rises.
"Every once in a while a book appears that engulfs you in its limitless beauty. This is such a book. Helprin's use of language and imagery is an ineffable joy." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Refiner's Fire is an experience, like being shot out of a cannon - exhilarating, extravagant, vertiginous." - The Boston Globe
Educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, Mark Helprin served in the Israeli army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, Refiner's Fire, Ellis Island and Other Stories, Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir from Antproof Case, The Pacific and Other Stories, and Freddy and Fredericka.