Hanging From A Star

Have you ever looked up when crossing the vast, marble expanse of Grand Central Terminal and wondered what’s behind the stars twinkling in their aqua blue sky?

If you’ve ever read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, you have an inkling, probably a very unrealistic inkling, but one, all the same, that fills you with awe each time you look up.

In Helprin’s epic love story, the hero, Peter Lake, takes refuge from the Bowery gang the Dead Rabbits in Grand Central’s vault.  He pulls up a star to act as his bedside light and nearly makes a daring escape by lowering himself through a hatch, hanging perilously above the clueless commuters.

Some may find Helprin’s novel tedious and needlessly wordy, but I love it for changing the way I look at the world.

~ by ann on October 24, 2007.