About this title: Cormac O'Connor immigrates to New York City, and has immortality conferred on him--that is, if he stays on the island of Manhattan. As the decades march by, he watches his small world be transformed from a small settlement to a glittering city.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date Published: 12/2002
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 624 p. read more
Edition: First edition. 1st ptg.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Book near Fine; spine ends bumped; a little edgewear. DJ whole, clean; bottom spine end tattered. 624 p. read more
Edition: First edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good in good jacket. 613 pp. ex-library with usual markings, binding a bit shaken, hinges loose but not cracked, edge wear to boards & jacket; Cormac O'Connor immigrates to New York City, and has immortality conferred on him--that is, if he stays on the island of Manhattan. As the decades march by, he watches his small world be transformed from a small settlement to a glittering city. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. -----Serving the NW Chicago suburbs since 1975----- read more
Binding: Audiobook Cassette
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audioworks, Riverside, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780743509152ISBN:0743509153
Description: Very Good. Audiocassette Audiobook. Abridged. 6 hours on 4 audiocassettes. Read by Stevie Ray Dallimore. Box shows minor wear but cassettes are in excellent shape. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good in Good jacket. 50-W-Add. Ex-library. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316341110ISBN:0316341118
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
The ending seemed a bit rushed, but it may be that I both did and didn't want to know how it came out in the end.
It's amazing that Hamill apparently re-wrote the entire ending after 9/11 -- I can't imagine how he could have ended it before that terrible tragedy.
One small complaint: the Boss Tweed section felt like it had been cut by an editor worried that one more historical epoch in NYC history would lose people. Personally, I would have loved more in that section. But! I was glad to learn that Tweed was the original New Yorker responsible for hollering "WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!?!" at people.
The other thing I loved, in a big nerdy way, was that the present-day action started on the back patio of Chelsea mainstay East of Eighth, described with such loving detail that I can't help but think it has to be one of Hamill's favorite places, perhaps? Oh and: I was walking around a part of Tribeca yesterday that I'd never been to, and it was nice to put a building or a location with some of the places in Lower Manhattan that made appearances in Forever."
"I've been going through a homesick sort of thing lately and this book was like a drug. It's historical fiction that charts the history of New York City from circa 1740 through 2001 as lived and experienced by one main character. (You'll have to suspend your disbelief regarding the necessary fantasy element of this because the book itself is wonderful).
The author, Pete Hamill, is impressive in his dedication to providing endless historically accurate details about the city he adores (this is especially powerful if the reader (me) happens to adore it too), while still maintaining an interesting plot. A main character who is almost three centuries old surely has all of the depth and development I could ever require.
P.S. In addition to writing fabulous books, Hamill's been the editor-in-chief of the Post and the Daily News. In my world, this gives him extra street cred.
P.S.S. Hamill gets bonus points for mentioning my high school in a number of his books. For some reason, this never fails to make me momentarily giddy."
"Part of my disappointment in Pete Hamill's "Forever" is probably based on the fact that I had different expectations when I began reading. There was an extremely misleading quote on the back cover comparing the book favorably to "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter". I also expected the book to focus on New York City, which is does, but only well after a hundred pages based in Ireland.
Okay. The book did have its good points. I thought the concept was fantastic: immortal man witnesses the evolution of a city. The characters were robust and intriguing. Hamill presented interesting, well-researched tidbits from New York City's history. (I especially loved the section set during the city's fetid period.) And although I wasn't expecting such an extended portion of the book to be set in Ireland, that section was actually my favorite. He really placed me in the setting with the mist rolling off the green fields and the mystical lore of the native Irish. He should have expanded this section and made it a separate book. That book might have earned four stars.
Now, onto the bad points. It dragged and I had trouble finishing. In addition, the book abruptly jumps from one time setting to another. I would just start to be engaged in the storyline and to identify with the characters. Then, bam! There's an entirely new era, theme, and cast of characters. Instead of keeping things exciting, it annoyed me. He really needed transitions. And these mini-stories were treated differently by length. Some were short and some just went on and on, which made the book seem unbalanced. Furthermore, the plot suffered from this jarring jumps since the mini-stories are rather poorly connected. Of course, the main character did have two over-arching goals: to kill every descendant of his father's killer and to eventually reclaim his mortality. The second motivation pulled the story along admirably. But Hamill abandoned the revenge plot in a lame matter (I won't write more to avoid spoilers) only to halfheartedly reintroduce it much later in the story. It could have been so exciting! Lastly, I read in an interview that Hamill had actually finished the manuscript prior to 9/11 and then rewrote the ending to incorporate the attack. While I understand that 9/11 was a defining moment in the city's history, its integration into the book never sat well with me. It read like what it was - a last minute add-in
I don't regret reading "Forever", but I would not recommend it to anyone I know. In fact, it is sitting in a pile of two-stars-or-less books to be traded at my local used bookstore."
"This is a book I love re-reading and doing it slowly. I feel the author must have loved writing it. I have visited Inwood Park in NY and imagined hiding in the woods 200yrs ago. I read this some time ago and as my memory goes I remember the story and the setting but forget the character's names. But who cares? The story starts in Ireland when the true Irish people were almost slaves and hid their true selves to survive. A young man escapes to America after he tries to avenge his parents' deaths and wallows in the muck and humanity of New York city in the 1700's. The story follows this same young man from his landing in NY through 9/11. He survives over 200yrs because an African medicine man, escaped slave, blesses him. The trick is that he can never leave the island of Manhattan. If he leaves, he dies."
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