“The living were put in isolation, the ship itself taken out to sea and sunk, with all the bodies on it left in place. But to get this done someone had to go on the ship to bring out those who were still alive. The doctors and inspectors asked for volunteers from among those interned or waiting. Several who went aboard and who later cared for the survivors caught the disease and died. I suppose it was in the handling; I don’t know about those things. But Elise, that pretty red-haired Danish girl with whom we went into the tower—yes, I remember—was one of them.”
Half in a daze, I left the Commissioner’s office and went outside the main building. Sitting on the quay in a weak spring sun, I watched the ferry pull in and out a dozen times, and still I was not moved. I could see Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Narrows, and the Island itself. In the silence and tranquillity of one privileged or damned (I did not know which), I watched small ships and lighters bringing to the piers of Ellis Island a flood of new immigrants caught in a dream, people who had left their homes and everything they loved to come to a new world.
Unless they were wiser than I had been, they probably did not know that a new world of new dreams is a fierce and demanding thing, that it takes from you as much as it gives, and that their difficult voyage was far from over—for the city itself is like wild surf, and lessons are hard to learn when one is breathless in a cold and active sea. But they must be learned nevertheless. For hardened hearts and dead souls are left to those who do not understand that we sometimes do grave damage to those whom we love. Hardened hearts and dead souls are left to those who harm an innocent and then do not embark on a life of careful amends.
I was not certain of my responsibility to Elise, for I had fulfilled my promise; I had only delayed. But that was no comfort. I remembered how beautiful she had been, like a rising light, as she had ascended the staircase and helped me to see. And then, watching the hopeful immigrants newly arrived at Ellis Island—one of God’s places, I am sure—I realized that part of my life was forever ended. I was no longer one of them, and I, too, was able to cry halting, choking tears, as the dream subsided in favor of what is perhaps the binding principle of this world.
I got home just before Hava returned from the sewing loft. When she came in, it was almost dark. She saw me sitting near the window. What lovely eyes she had in the half light. She lit the lamp, and it came up bright and strong. Hava!
Back Cover:
“A personal metaphysics…”—The New York Times Book Review
This novella and ten stories are capable of working a fierce and beautiful magic. From the turn-of-the-century immigrant in “Ellis Island” whose overactive imagination and unshakable confidence get him in and out of trouble, to the photographer who tries to escape his grief in a desperate assault on the high Alps in “The Schreuderspitze” here is honest humor and amazing truth… and the kind of masterly storytelling that transforms folktales and visions into timeless art.
“Rarely less than breathtaking, every single story sings with purity, vibrates with light” says The Plain Dealer (Cleveland). The Washington Post praises Ellis Island as “one of the best collections of short fiction… a celebration of the transforming power of the imagination” The Baltimore Sun has said that Mark Helprin “writes with the ease and assurance of… Graham Greene or Sean O’Faoláin” and urges: “Read this book. It will delight, open, and elevate you!”
MARK HELPRIN was born in 1947 and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has seen service in the British Merchant Navy and in the Israeli Infantry and Air Force. He is the author of Refiner’s Fire, A Dove of the East and Other Stories, and of the current best seller, Winter’s Tale.
“His eye is precise and his spirit is compassionate, and when we finish the stories we have been rewarded, once more, with that astonishing catalyst of art.”—The Chicago Tribune
“Helprin creates strange, magical worlds. His rich textures alone would be enough to delight a reader… wonderful stories, richly plotted, inventive… moving without becoming sentimental, humorous without being cute…”—The Washington Post
“Maybe it’s just youthful energy or luck. But I don’t think so. I think it’s genius… Ellis Island ascends to the peak of literary achievement.”—The Boston Globe
“The words… beg to be read aloud… Through the humor, the beauty, the sheer delight of Helprin’s creations shines a reverence for life, a gentle faith in the rejuvenation of the spirit.”—Houston Chronicle
“Helprin’s prose looses the mind from its moorings and endows the senses with an almost painful clarity… The title story, ‘Ellis Island,’ is a marvelous blend of pathos and humor.”—The Kansas City Star
Scan Notes, v3.0: Proofed carefully against DT.
Converted to .ePUB by antimist on 06/01/15
Mark Helprin, Ellis Island and Other Stories
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