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Forever
Forever
Author: Pete Hamill
This is the magical, epic tale of Cormac O'Connor, who arrives in New York City from Ireland in 1741 and remains, well, forever. For Cormac has been given the gift of immortality, but only on the condition that he never leave the island of Manhattan. Through Cormac's eyes, we watch the city transform from a burgeoning settlement on the t...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780316341110
ISBN-10: 0316341118
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 613
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 51

3.6 stars, based on 51 ratings
Publisher: Little, Brown
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Forever on
Helpful Score: 6
If you liked last Fall's TV Show, Amsterdamn, you'll love this book. It follows a young irishmen, Cormac, from Ireland over to America on a mission of revenge and ends up staying for longer than he expected. You receive two stories for the price of one: his life in ireland and another life in New York. Impressions go along with detailed discriptions of the drastic changes New York has seen over the last two centuries as Cormac tries to fulfill a promise. I loved it and reread it on a regular basis.
lectio avatar reviewed Forever on + 88 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
one of those books that's almost impossible to put down.
reviewed Forever on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book was the basis for a summer TV show about a man who lived forever as long as he stayed in Manhattan. As usual, the book is better than the TV show, giving an interesting history of Ireland as well as New York City. This was a perfect vacation book-fantasy, history, love story.
rjeffers83 avatar reviewed Forever on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Forever was a book that I could not put down. The fantasy elements are blended perfectly with the historical facts about New York City. It's a great read.
galnsearch avatar reviewed Forever on + 143 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is amongst the best books I've ever read! Extrememly well written and a page turner. A young Irishman saves a slave who turns out to be a babalawo (like a shaman). The babalawo grants him eternal life as long as he doesn't leave Manhattan. You watch the city change from the early 1700's to the present day. Reading it was like living in history.

Donna V.
Read All 31 Book Reviews of "Forever"

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reviewed Forever on + 47 more book reviews
Great book for traveling - wonderful story
reviewed Forever on + 28 more book reviews
Very good historical fiction. At the end of the book, the author gives his background and thoughts behind the writing of this book.
Excellent.
reviewed Forever on + 14 more book reviews
This book was a national best seller. It is very well written. I would caution readers that it contains adult situations
vmachapy avatar reviewed Forever on + 215 more book reviews
his novel demands that the reader immediately suspend disbelief, but if this summons is heeded the reward will be a superior tale told by Hamill (Snow in August; A Drinking Life) in the cadence of the master storyteller. The year is 1741 and this is the story of Cormac O'Connor-"Irish, and a Jew"-who grows up in Ireland under English Protestant rule and is secretly schooled in Gaelic religion, myth and language. Seeking to avenge the murder of his father by the Earl of Warren, he follows the trail of the earl to New York City. On board ship, Cormac befriends African slave Kongo, and once in New York, the two join a rebellion against the British. After the rising is quelled, mobs take to the streets and Kongo is seized. Cormac saves Kongo from death, but is shot in the process. His recovery takes a miraculous turn when Kongo's dead priestess, Tomora, appears and grants Cormac eternal life and youth-so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan, thus the "Forever" of the title. What follows is a portrait of the "city of memory of which Cormac was the only citizen." Cormac fights in the American Revolution, sups with Boss Tweed (in a very sympathetic portrait) and lives into the New York of 2001. In that year he warily falls in love with Delfina, a streetwise Dominican ("That was the curse attached to the gift: You buried everyone you loved"), and comes into contact with a descendant of the Earl of Warren, the newspaper publisher Willie Warren. His love, his drive for revenge and his very desire to exist are fatefully challenged on the eve and the day of September 11. This rousing, ambitious work is beautifully woven around historical events and characters, but it is Hamill's passionate pursuit of justice and compassion-Celtic in foundation-that distinguishes this tale of New York City and its myriad peoples.


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