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Forever
This widely acclaimed bestseller is the magical, epic tale of an extraordinary man who arrives in New York in 1740 and remains . . . forever.
Through the eyes of Cormac O'Connor -- granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan -- we watch New York grow from a tiny settlement on the tip of an untamed wilderness to the thriving metropolis of today. And through Cormac's remarkable adventures in both love and war, we come to know the city's buried secrets -- the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and, above all, by hope.
Through the eyes of Cormac O'Connor -- granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan -- we watch New York grow from a tiny settlement on the tip of an untamed wilderness to the thriving metropolis of today. And through Cormac's remarkable adventures in both love and war, we come to know the city's buried secrets -- the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and, above all, by hope.
613 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2002
1167 people are currently reading
15815 people want to read
About the author
Pete Hamill
110 books559 followersPete Hamill was a novelist, essayist and journalist whose career has endured for more than forty years. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. in 1935, the oldest of seven children of immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child. He left school at 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheetmetal worker, and then went on to the United States Navy. While serving in the Navy, he completed his high school education. Then, using the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights, he attended Mexico City College in 1956-1957, studying painting and writing, and later went to Pratt Institute. For several years, he worked as a graphic designer. Then in 1960, he went to work as a reporter for the New York Post. A long career in journalism followed. He has been a columnist for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire. He has served as editor-in-chief of both the Post and the Daily News. As a journalist, he covered wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Lebanon and Northern Ireland, and has lived for extended periods in Mexico City, Dublin, Barcelona, San Juan and Rome. From his base in New York he also covered murders, fires, World Series, championship fights and the great domestic disturbances of the 1960s, and wrote extensively on art, jazz, immigration and politics. He witnessed the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath and wrote about them for the Daily News.
At the same time, Hamill wrote much fiction, including movie and TV scripts. He published nine novels and two collections of short stories. His 1997 novel, Snow in August, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. His memoir, A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times list for 13 weeks. He has published two collections of his journalism (Irrational Ravings and Piecework), an extended essay on journalism called News Is a Verb, a book about the relationship of tools to art, a biographical essay called Why Sinatra Matters, dealing with the music of the late singer and the social forces that made his work unique. In 1999, Harry N. Abrams published his acclaimed book on the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. His novel, Forever, was published by Little, Brown in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. His most recently published novel was North River (2007).
In 2004, he published Downtown: My Manhattan, a non-fiction account of his love affair with New York, and received much critical acclaim. Hamill was the father of two daughters, and has a grandson. He was married to the Japanese journalist, Fukiko Aoki, and they divided their time between New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Author photo by David Shankbone (September 2007) - permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
At the same time, Hamill wrote much fiction, including movie and TV scripts. He published nine novels and two collections of short stories. His 1997 novel, Snow in August, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. His memoir, A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times list for 13 weeks. He has published two collections of his journalism (Irrational Ravings and Piecework), an extended essay on journalism called News Is a Verb, a book about the relationship of tools to art, a biographical essay called Why Sinatra Matters, dealing with the music of the late singer and the social forces that made his work unique. In 1999, Harry N. Abrams published his acclaimed book on the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. His novel, Forever, was published by Little, Brown in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. His most recently published novel was North River (2007).
In 2004, he published Downtown: My Manhattan, a non-fiction account of his love affair with New York, and received much critical acclaim. Hamill was the father of two daughters, and has a grandson. He was married to the Japanese journalist, Fukiko Aoki, and they divided their time between New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Author photo by David Shankbone (September 2007) - permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,809 reviews
December 3, 2008
I generally look over other people's reviews to refresh myself before I add a book I read a long time ago. I was genuinely surprised to see how many people hated this book. It seems like people either got it and loved it (like me), or didn't get it and simply hated it.
Admittedly, the story is far-fetched. You must suspend disbelief in order to swallow the premise of the story, which is of an impoverished Irish boy doomed to live forever until he is able to avenge a wrong done to his family. If you can wrap your mind around a little magic, then you can enjoy the book as it was intended; an intimate and colorful history of New York City. I learned so much, and it was written so well, I never felt I was being lectured to.
This was honestly a book I wish hadn't had to end. I was so sorry to finish it. In fact, this is one I hope to re-read some day.
Admittedly, the story is far-fetched. You must suspend disbelief in order to swallow the premise of the story, which is of an impoverished Irish boy doomed to live forever until he is able to avenge a wrong done to his family. If you can wrap your mind around a little magic, then you can enjoy the book as it was intended; an intimate and colorful history of New York City. I learned so much, and it was written so well, I never felt I was being lectured to.
This was honestly a book I wish hadn't had to end. I was so sorry to finish it. In fact, this is one I hope to re-read some day.
September 23, 2020
This was not the book that I expected it to be. Every plot summary of this novel describes it as a history of New York City as experienced by a man who is granted immortality only so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Granted, that does happen, but first you have to slog through an annoying, practically-a-novel-in-and-of-itself three hundred pages of trifling back-story. That would have been fine if only it had been more interesting. Hamill seems to back himself into a corner with a curiously apathetic protagonist, Cormac O’Connor, who goes about tracking down the man responsible for the deaths of his parents with all of the passion of a man running errands on his day off. After arriving in Manhattan he wastes time doing … nothing really. He learns a trade as a printer’s apprentice, dabbles in a relationship that he doesn’t seem too passionate about either, and agonizes about how he really kinda should be looking for his sworn enemy. Imagine Hamlet without any of Shakespeare’s wit or dramatic urgency to redeem him and you have a pretty good idea of how frustrating Cormac is. The only thing he feels passionately about is fighting slavery, which ultimately – perhaps fatefully – leads to his gift / curse. That’s another sticky point of this novel for me: there is no grey area when it comes to political issues such as slavery. All of the good guys possess an inexplicably modern perspective when it comes to social issues, while the villains are fierce racists who strive to use slavery to their own advantage. It’s so simplistic, and not historically accurate. I find it hard to believe that people who were raised in a society where slavery and racism were so ingrained into the mainstream would instinctively know how to think outside the box.
The historical aspect of the novel is often interesting when Hamill draws out episodes of history that are unfamiliar, such as the period when Manhattan’s water supply was severely restricted by greedy bureaucrats in the 1830s (leading to city-wide pestilence and frequent cholera outbreaks), but it is less so when Hamill indulges in a lust for big cameos and cheesy set-ups, such as when Cormac saves General Washington’s life during a skirmish at the onset of the American revolution, screaming “We need you alive, God damn you!” (again, it seems, Cormac has been blessed with an unnatural prescience). And despite his ardor for throwing off the shackles of tyranny, Cormac engages in some pretty misogynistic relationships with women (his mandate for eternity in Manhattan even includes an order to “love women,” and while it also orders him to respect and protect them it still results in a series of non-emotionally attached relationships that essentially reduce the woman to the means for sex only).
A lot of people seem to enjoy this book, and I suppose I can see why. What I offer here is a different perspective from someone who did not enjoy it … at all, really.
Grade: D+
The historical aspect of the novel is often interesting when Hamill draws out episodes of history that are unfamiliar, such as the period when Manhattan’s water supply was severely restricted by greedy bureaucrats in the 1830s (leading to city-wide pestilence and frequent cholera outbreaks), but it is less so when Hamill indulges in a lust for big cameos and cheesy set-ups, such as when Cormac saves General Washington’s life during a skirmish at the onset of the American revolution, screaming “We need you alive, God damn you!” (again, it seems, Cormac has been blessed with an unnatural prescience). And despite his ardor for throwing off the shackles of tyranny, Cormac engages in some pretty misogynistic relationships with women (his mandate for eternity in Manhattan even includes an order to “love women,” and while it also orders him to respect and protect them it still results in a series of non-emotionally attached relationships that essentially reduce the woman to the means for sex only).
A lot of people seem to enjoy this book, and I suppose I can see why. What I offer here is a different perspective from someone who did not enjoy it … at all, really.
Grade: D+
October 6, 2016
Forever is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I closed the book with a feeling of regret knowing that I wouldn't read a story this good for quite some time. It's a beautifully written and haunting story that is deeply rooted in the heart of New York, but one that fundamentally speaks about the mysteries of human condition and the things we feel but cannot fully articulate.
This remarkable hybrid is an absorbing, satisfying read and the story stays with you a long time after you close the book.
This remarkable hybrid is an absorbing, satisfying read and the story stays with you a long time after you close the book.
October 9, 2010
I am a bit offended by the current "number one" review that says people either "get" this book or hate it. Just because I hate it does not mean I did not get it.
A book that is about a man who lives forever is going to face challenges. It is either going to be epicly long or going to skim and jump without real depth, or some combination of the two. This book mostly jumped and skipped. This made it hard to become emotionally involved with the book. Because of this, I was planning to give the book two stars, until I got to the end.
The biggest problem in this book is the focus on 9/11 at the end. I told my husband that it reads as if the author had the concept for the book and had been working on it for a while, and then 9/11 happened and the auther was affected by it personally and thought "this HAS to be in my book, this would affect the characters so much!!". Based on the year of publication (2002), and the biography of the author (born and raised in Brooklyn), I would say this assessment is dead on. Pete Hamill could have done us all a favor by having the concluding chapters in this book take place in 2000, and then writing another book to alleviate his feelings about 9/11. The problem is the first 500 pages are all about immortality and relationships and paganism and tribal ideas of justive and a deep sense of loss and belonging, and then all of the sudden the book is about 9/11 instead and modern issues and modern problems. There is no smooth transition or build up, it is just suddenly (and glaringly as some reviewers have pointed out), there.
And that is why I could only give this book one star.
A book that is about a man who lives forever is going to face challenges. It is either going to be epicly long or going to skim and jump without real depth, or some combination of the two. This book mostly jumped and skipped. This made it hard to become emotionally involved with the book. Because of this, I was planning to give the book two stars, until I got to the end.
The biggest problem in this book is the focus on 9/11 at the end. I told my husband that it reads as if the author had the concept for the book and had been working on it for a while, and then 9/11 happened and the auther was affected by it personally and thought "this HAS to be in my book, this would affect the characters so much!!". Based on the year of publication (2002), and the biography of the author (born and raised in Brooklyn), I would say this assessment is dead on. Pete Hamill could have done us all a favor by having the concluding chapters in this book take place in 2000, and then writing another book to alleviate his feelings about 9/11. The problem is the first 500 pages are all about immortality and relationships and paganism and tribal ideas of justive and a deep sense of loss and belonging, and then all of the sudden the book is about 9/11 instead and modern issues and modern problems. There is no smooth transition or build up, it is just suddenly (and glaringly as some reviewers have pointed out), there.
And that is why I could only give this book one star.
May 30, 2025
A love letter to New York City, with all its diversity, culture, history, and corruption. We travel through time and space with protagonist Cormac from Ireland to Manhattan, with infusions from Africa and the Caribbean for a wonderful tapestry of the human and the humane. A truly wonderful read, just a bit hokey at the last.
June 5, 2021
Pete Hamill’s, “Forever” is a very long novel, highly ambitious, at times brilliant, and enchanting, and at at times, sadly spends too much time on the smell of feces and urine in the 1700 and 1800’s in New York City.
Few major writers, have known and understood the city of New York better than Mr. Hamill. Few have written more accurately and passionately about the city.
Yet, it is the first hundred pages or so of this novel that I found the most spellbinding and they take place in Northern Ireland during the middle of the 1700’s when the British have literally conquered this part of the country and have made the practice of all religions, besides the Protestant religion, unlawful. Only the Protestants can own land, find work, and truly live in freedom.
Cormac O’Connor, the hero of this novel, sees his mother run over and killed by the Earl of Warren and later witnesses the murder of his father by one of the Earl’s men. His father practices the religion of “Irish,” that is deep in folklore and mysticism. Cormac, at the age of sixteen, is given the task of revenging his father’s death by not only killing the Earl but killing the last of his line.
This takes him to New York City, where he is granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. He plays a role in the Revolutionary War when General Washington invades the city at the very beginning of the war. He lives through the great fire of 1835 that destroyed most of Manhattan, he hangs out with Boss Bill Tweed, and is a witness to the bombing of the World Trade Center. Throughout this time, he keeps track of all the Earl’s descendents who travel to the city and take up residence. He is still bound by the oath of revenge, and cannot pass into the ‘Otherworld,’ where his mother, father, friends, and relatives now reside after dying unless he continues to revenge his father’s murder to the end of his time.
Mr. Hamill’s novel is as much about the history of the city, as it is about the oath of revenge. It is the people he befriends and the lovers he takes that give this novel a flavor as rich as the city itself. I highly recommend
Few major writers, have known and understood the city of New York better than Mr. Hamill. Few have written more accurately and passionately about the city.
Yet, it is the first hundred pages or so of this novel that I found the most spellbinding and they take place in Northern Ireland during the middle of the 1700’s when the British have literally conquered this part of the country and have made the practice of all religions, besides the Protestant religion, unlawful. Only the Protestants can own land, find work, and truly live in freedom.
Cormac O’Connor, the hero of this novel, sees his mother run over and killed by the Earl of Warren and later witnesses the murder of his father by one of the Earl’s men. His father practices the religion of “Irish,” that is deep in folklore and mysticism. Cormac, at the age of sixteen, is given the task of revenging his father’s death by not only killing the Earl but killing the last of his line.
This takes him to New York City, where he is granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. He plays a role in the Revolutionary War when General Washington invades the city at the very beginning of the war. He lives through the great fire of 1835 that destroyed most of Manhattan, he hangs out with Boss Bill Tweed, and is a witness to the bombing of the World Trade Center. Throughout this time, he keeps track of all the Earl’s descendents who travel to the city and take up residence. He is still bound by the oath of revenge, and cannot pass into the ‘Otherworld,’ where his mother, father, friends, and relatives now reside after dying unless he continues to revenge his father’s murder to the end of his time.
Mr. Hamill’s novel is as much about the history of the city, as it is about the oath of revenge. It is the people he befriends and the lovers he takes that give this novel a flavor as rich as the city itself. I highly recommend
August 13, 2008
This book had me from the first page. It starts in Ireland in the 1700s and takes us on a fantastic journey ending in New York in 2001. Through the protagonist's eyes we see the humble beginnings of New York City in its infancy and watch as it transforms over the centuries to the mighty metropolis it is today. Saying anything else would be spoiling. I certainly recommend this book if you are a New Yorker like me. It has been said that we are the most forgetful when it comes to our own history and this is an easy to read refresher on some of the major events that helped shape this place. I also feel any fan of the historical novel would appreciate this work. Just one warning however. There was, toward the end, a very vivid description of the events of 9/11 that actually made me feel like I was back in that awful day. The author really captures that "present" feeling throughout the book. You get a feeling that you are there walking through the different ages of the city as you read. This particular portion of the book was no exception. I liked it all the more for the author's ability to pull me back to that time and to truly remember. It is all we can do in the end.
September 22, 2009
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.
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.
October 17, 2017
A true masterpiece of fiction. Rarely does a book reach this level of storytelling, at least in my experience. I can count on one hand books that i have read that i regard as masterpieces. This is one of those books that I wish would go on for another 600 pages: literally forever. Cormac is someone I will never forget. It will take me many days to digest all that I encountered in these pages, and I think i am forever changed for having read this. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and am certain that i will revisit it many times in the future.
December 6, 2012
I have mixed feelings about this novel. The beginning one third of the story was very captivating and moving. I thought the author did a great job with character development and drawing the reader into an intriguing plot laced with bits of Irish folklore and Celtic Mythology. Somewhere around the middle, however, the story began to drag for me and became quite overrun with characters to follow. An account that takes place over more than two centuries, ending after the events of 9/11/01, lends itself to far too many characters to develop and too much history to cover with detail. As the reader, I would be just getting familiar with the newest set of characters when time would jump ahead and the process would begin all over again. I truly was interested enough to finish the book, however, the last one third was extremely laborious to get through. An incredibly original plot and very descriptive narrative but a bit too much history to cover in 600 pages. It did lend itself to ponder the question of how difficult immortality for a single member of a family and a community would be. This is a fantasy, so the reader must suspend belief going into this. For lovers of the fantasy genre, this book will really appeal to you. For readers more interested in historical fiction, this would be quite a stretch.
July 5, 2016
It took a lot to get even 5 chapters into this. It was mind numbingly slow.
October 3, 2012
Caution: spoilers. All in all an uneven read. Fun, if you aren't critical, but lots to take issue with. The main character is given the gift of eternal life, with conditions. The first quarter of the book which takes place in Ireland, is better, though a bit stereotypical of Irish culture. The plot sounds fun, but in truth makes the main character less than completely sympathetic. Somehow he manages to be consumed by revenge, yet is bland and boring. The sections of the book are vignettes of different times in NYC, but don't have a consistency of writing. Hamill says he took back the completed book after the Trade Center disaster and added a section. In my opinion, that shows, the book would have been better without it. Deus ex machina rules in this book, with the main character saved from sure death by such interventions as a dolphin suddenly appearing, a magical horse, a raven, etc. Coincidence is too easy, such as that his final murder target just happens to have bought his father's historic sword, so it is handy, should he need to use it. And when he decides not to kill him, the guy dies in the World Trade Center disaster. The main figure just happens to save George Washington's life, has an affair with the historical person who betrayed the slave revolt (or just made it up). Women are generally one-dimensional, mostly whores or witches. He is supposed to be able to be released from his vow when he finds a certain special women, but the one he seems most enraptured with is Madam of a brothel, and she isn't the one. Its hard to understand why the woman who IS THE ONE, is very appealing, certainly not as interesting as some of the other women he beds down. The ending just ignores the main source of motivation, and makes no sense. The main character is supposed to be on an life(s) long search so he can enter the Otherworld, but when he get the chance, he doesn't do it. Hamill tries to rehabilitate historical figures like Boss Tweed, which is questionable at the very least, and has poor Irish and Blacks as allies in 18th century civil strife, while they were actually not at all... more like adversaries competing for the same low wage jobs. Women are basically for sex, and sometimes become traitors, blacks are the "mystical negro" trope, all either into voodoo, or have magical powers. Hamill is best at describing New York City's history. He puts light on some seldom known periods and events, as well as giving insight into the sounds, smells, and sights of old New York. A literature prof I know, was frustrated by Hamill's constant use of sentence fragments, and said the book "is not great literature." On the other hand, if you are less critical and don't mind wading through over 600 pages of a repetitive fantasy, have fun. I hope Pete doesn't read this review, because he is a really great guy and a great writer, and I have all kinds of respect for him. But this book just didn't work for me.
April 24, 2008
The idea of a first-person account of the whole history of Manhattan was really intriguing to me, so I was really excited to read this book, and assumed that the whole "you're immortal but you can't leave Manhattan" thing was just a weird plot device in order to make this first-person narrative make sense. Instead, the opposite seemed to be true: the history of Manhattan seemed to be just a setting for the whole strange spiritual-mythological side of the story.
That said, I loved the first 1/3 of the book, set in Ireland in the hero's 18th century childhood. The next portion, set in downtown Manhattan, also had a great point of view and was well-paced. Then there's this weird bit about Boss Tweed dying in jail that I didn't get. The whole last 1/3 of the book is set in 2000-2001 -- amidst flashbacks to the 20's and 30's that seemed like an afterthought -- and follows the hero finding and falling in love with his "true love" or whatever. This part was so bland, so drawn-out and detached, I plodded my way through it and found myself skipping paragraphs, then pages. Good lord. The book culminates with the World Trade Center attacks, the descriptions of which could have been written by any writing major at NYU (I'll throw him a few bones for the description of the dust cloud; that was okay). And the ending? Man, C'MON!!
I know that Pete Hamill is known for his love of the history of New York, and I'd say that that's obvious in a good portion of this (rather large) book. I just wanted way more history and way less pseudo-romance and pseudo-spirituality/voodoo than this book delivered.
That said, I loved the first 1/3 of the book, set in Ireland in the hero's 18th century childhood. The next portion, set in downtown Manhattan, also had a great point of view and was well-paced. Then there's this weird bit about Boss Tweed dying in jail that I didn't get. The whole last 1/3 of the book is set in 2000-2001 -- amidst flashbacks to the 20's and 30's that seemed like an afterthought -- and follows the hero finding and falling in love with his "true love" or whatever. This part was so bland, so drawn-out and detached, I plodded my way through it and found myself skipping paragraphs, then pages. Good lord. The book culminates with the World Trade Center attacks, the descriptions of which could have been written by any writing major at NYU (I'll throw him a few bones for the description of the dust cloud; that was okay). And the ending? Man, C'MON!!
I know that Pete Hamill is known for his love of the history of New York, and I'd say that that's obvious in a good portion of this (rather large) book. I just wanted way more history and way less pseudo-romance and pseudo-spirituality/voodoo than this book delivered.
March 10, 2009
There were about 100 pages or so about halfway through this book that didn't really capture my interest and I had a harder time enjoying reading this during that time. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning and by the time I reached the final hundred pages or so, the ending.
I think the concept of this story was more interesting, to me, than the reading of the book, but most of that was due to how disjointed the one section of the book was that dealt with Manhattan as he skimmed over time periods.
I think the concept of this story was more interesting, to me, than the reading of the book, but most of that was due to how disjointed the one section of the book was that dealt with Manhattan as he skimmed over time periods.
August 15, 2007
Like Hamill from A Snow in August, but this novel was awful, i only finished it to see how he tied it together. The plot too ambitious, you can't pack the history of new york into a story of one man. Hamill can't properly end it and does an awful job of foreshadowing the 9/11 attacks. The towers seemed to be mention in every paragraph when the story shifts to the recent past, poorly alluding to what will come. I do not recommend this at all and wish i didn't waste money on it.
January 22, 2022
I greatly enjoyed the first 400ish pages of this book, but after that it felt like the author had told his story, but still wrote another 200ish pages. The end was far less creative and interesting.
June 29, 2015
I started reading Pete Hamill’s critically acclaimed Forever when I was a senior in high school. For some reason I don’t remember, I stopped reading 150 pages in and ever since then I’ve been meaning to come back to it. Now that I’ve finally read this book I think I remember why it didn’t hold my teenage attention: one word to perfectly describe this book would be “uneven.”
Forever tells the story of a young boy in 18th century Ireland whose family follows the Old Religion of the ancient Celts. They believe in the Otherworld and the Irish gods. Cormac O’Connor learns about his heritage and his secret religion, and then finds his world turned upside down when both of his parents are murdered by a rich man named the Earl of Warren. Cormac’s religion states very clearly that murder must be avenged, and that the sons and daughters of the murderer must also be killed. The family must come to the end of the line. Cormac’s mission is now clear.
Because the Earl has fled to the small colonial town that New York City was in 1741, Cormac O’Connor must go to hunt him down, and while he’s there, he finds himself embroiled in the struggle for freedom—for the African slaves, and eventually, for the new United States of America. During his frequent battles, he saves the life of an African slave named Kongo. As a gift, Kongo bestows upon Cormac eternal life as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Boom. All of the threads of an excellent story seem woven into this book. But truly, it sounds better on the back cover than it actually is.
This book kept losing my attention, and it’s truly rare that I ever want to abandon a book mid-read. Because the narrative is so punctuated across 260 years, the story never develops fully enough to make the reader care. The story first jumps thirty years each section, and then in the last, goes from the late 1800s to 2001 for seemingly no other reason than the author was tired of creating these period episodes and decided to tell the character’s 20th century story in anecdotal form. It did not seem well thought out. Sometimes I read at a gallop, at others I didn’t pick the book up for days because the narrative was so stagnant and limp.
Cormac as a character is pretty unbelievable and at times, wholly unlikeable. He doesn’t have to be likable necessarily, but the author makes it clear that we’re supposed to admire this man, and it’s hard to. He’s a bit of a misogynist. Also, his life’s purpose is to track down and kill all the descendants of the man who killed his parents, people who have no culpability in that crime, all to adhere to the strictures of an ancient religion that the author makes clear is inherently superior to any form of Christianity. Only by killing these innocent people will Cormac be able to avenge his father and reunite with him in the Celtic Otherworld, their heaven. Eh. And even though he’s semi-aware of the immorality of his mission, he never feels remorse or even PTSD for all the killing he’s done.
I also found his character totally unbelievable because the author fails to incorporate elements like accent, the varieties of language and the total overhaul of customs and culture that Cormac is sure to have been influenced by in his 260+ years in New York. Cormac mentions that the computer has changed culture the same way that the printing press did in earlier decades, but there is no description of his language peculiarities or his accent that others are sure to find confusing.
The English language has changed unrecognizably since the 1740s, not just slang or common phrases, but how it’s spoken and pronounced. I find it so ridiculous that this isn’t even mentioned. Even in freaking Twilight, Bella mentions that Edward’s language and his accent are weird. But not in this critically-acclaimed bestseller?
Cormac, in this novel, feels like he’s just walking through his eternal life, not like he’s being influenced by it at all. It feels all too self-indulgent, too neat, too cool, like author’s wish fulfillment. Cormac isn’t a real person in these pages. It’s like Cormac is just a vehicle put there so the author can name drop all the endless historical and cultural figures that have appeared on New York streets, and imagine himself meeting all of them.
The last “phase” of the novel is in September 2001, and obviously included are the horrors of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The last hundred pages of the novel are littered with heavy-handed foreshadowing I found totally amateur, and I also felt like including 9/11 was gratuitous and irreverent. I would have liked it to have ended with Cormac passing into the Otherworld without having witnessed that. It would have felt more poignant and more respectful.
Still, sometimes it was beautiful, real and well turned out. Sometimes:
“I don’t know what that means. To truly live.”
“To find work that you love, and work harder than other men. To learn the languages of the earth, and love the sounds of the words and the things they describe. To love food and music and drink. Fully love them. To love weather, and storms, and the smell of rain. To love heat. To love cold. To love sleep and dreams. To love the newness of each day.”
Overall, I’d give this book 2 1/2 stars. So many times while reading I just wanted to finish it already. I thought, “this book never ends,” and then I thought how ironic that was considering it’s called Forever!
Sorry, Pete Hamill.
Forever tells the story of a young boy in 18th century Ireland whose family follows the Old Religion of the ancient Celts. They believe in the Otherworld and the Irish gods. Cormac O’Connor learns about his heritage and his secret religion, and then finds his world turned upside down when both of his parents are murdered by a rich man named the Earl of Warren. Cormac’s religion states very clearly that murder must be avenged, and that the sons and daughters of the murderer must also be killed. The family must come to the end of the line. Cormac’s mission is now clear.
Because the Earl has fled to the small colonial town that New York City was in 1741, Cormac O’Connor must go to hunt him down, and while he’s there, he finds himself embroiled in the struggle for freedom—for the African slaves, and eventually, for the new United States of America. During his frequent battles, he saves the life of an African slave named Kongo. As a gift, Kongo bestows upon Cormac eternal life as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Boom. All of the threads of an excellent story seem woven into this book. But truly, it sounds better on the back cover than it actually is.
This book kept losing my attention, and it’s truly rare that I ever want to abandon a book mid-read. Because the narrative is so punctuated across 260 years, the story never develops fully enough to make the reader care. The story first jumps thirty years each section, and then in the last, goes from the late 1800s to 2001 for seemingly no other reason than the author was tired of creating these period episodes and decided to tell the character’s 20th century story in anecdotal form. It did not seem well thought out. Sometimes I read at a gallop, at others I didn’t pick the book up for days because the narrative was so stagnant and limp.
Cormac as a character is pretty unbelievable and at times, wholly unlikeable. He doesn’t have to be likable necessarily, but the author makes it clear that we’re supposed to admire this man, and it’s hard to. He’s a bit of a misogynist. Also, his life’s purpose is to track down and kill all the descendants of the man who killed his parents, people who have no culpability in that crime, all to adhere to the strictures of an ancient religion that the author makes clear is inherently superior to any form of Christianity. Only by killing these innocent people will Cormac be able to avenge his father and reunite with him in the Celtic Otherworld, their heaven. Eh. And even though he’s semi-aware of the immorality of his mission, he never feels remorse or even PTSD for all the killing he’s done.
I also found his character totally unbelievable because the author fails to incorporate elements like accent, the varieties of language and the total overhaul of customs and culture that Cormac is sure to have been influenced by in his 260+ years in New York. Cormac mentions that the computer has changed culture the same way that the printing press did in earlier decades, but there is no description of his language peculiarities or his accent that others are sure to find confusing.
The English language has changed unrecognizably since the 1740s, not just slang or common phrases, but how it’s spoken and pronounced. I find it so ridiculous that this isn’t even mentioned. Even in freaking Twilight, Bella mentions that Edward’s language and his accent are weird. But not in this critically-acclaimed bestseller?
Cormac, in this novel, feels like he’s just walking through his eternal life, not like he’s being influenced by it at all. It feels all too self-indulgent, too neat, too cool, like author’s wish fulfillment. Cormac isn’t a real person in these pages. It’s like Cormac is just a vehicle put there so the author can name drop all the endless historical and cultural figures that have appeared on New York streets, and imagine himself meeting all of them.
The last “phase” of the novel is in September 2001, and obviously included are the horrors of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The last hundred pages of the novel are littered with heavy-handed foreshadowing I found totally amateur, and I also felt like including 9/11 was gratuitous and irreverent. I would have liked it to have ended with Cormac passing into the Otherworld without having witnessed that. It would have felt more poignant and more respectful.
Still, sometimes it was beautiful, real and well turned out. Sometimes:
“I don’t know what that means. To truly live.”
“To find work that you love, and work harder than other men. To learn the languages of the earth, and love the sounds of the words and the things they describe. To love food and music and drink. Fully love them. To love weather, and storms, and the smell of rain. To love heat. To love cold. To love sleep and dreams. To love the newness of each day.”
Overall, I’d give this book 2 1/2 stars. So many times while reading I just wanted to finish it already. I thought, “this book never ends,” and then I thought how ironic that was considering it’s called Forever!
Sorry, Pete Hamill.
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January 10, 2008If I could give this book zero stars I would. Or negative even. This is the worst book I have read EVER without exaggeration. It ranks up there with Angela’s Ashes, God of Small Things, any John Grisham book, and any other book which makes you want to give up reading whenever you remember your experience reading them. The book is supposed to detail the life of an Irishman granted immortality who ends up in NYC in the mid 1700’s, and follows his life (and the life of NYC) from 1750 through 2001 (9/11). He uses clichés throughout the book (actually stating that a knife cut through a piece of wood like a hot knife through butter), his pacing is ridiculous (spending 200 pages on 1776 but almost zero pages on the entire Civil War), his characters unbelievable (every main character is perfect and good-looking and multicultured and appreciative of the arts -- how PC can you get?). I honestly can’t continue to describe how badly-written this book is without wanting to hurt someone. Thinking about how much I detest this book makes me want to become violent. Honestly, if you have read this book and enjoyed it more than a root canal, don’t admit it to me because I don’t want to think less of you. This book belongs in the Bad Books Hall of Fame. I think I just threw up in my mouth.
September 1, 2022
Whew, this was a good one. Been reading stuff by various storytellers from New York: A Documentary Film, among them was Pete Hamill. Pete's turf is New York history and working class city life, particularly the experience of Irish immigrants.
This story ends up being much more than billed. Yup, it's the history of the city from the perspective of a nigh-immortal, but its trick is presenting Cormac's experience in a way that gives you a palpable feel of how history influences the present. It starts in Ireland with Cormac as a boy, who comes to understand the religious persecution his family is dealing with, and which eventually propels him on to emigrating and fighting for others without power.
After a few hundred years of that, once can understand how he becomes both jaded and overwhelmed with nostalgia for the more pleasant episodes of his very long existence.
I found this really affecting--often terribly sad, wistful, or just plain brutal, but also hopeful and endlessly full of mystery and wonder. Not unlike the city it portrays.
This story ends up being much more than billed. Yup, it's the history of the city from the perspective of a nigh-immortal, but its trick is presenting Cormac's experience in a way that gives you a palpable feel of how history influences the present. It starts in Ireland with Cormac as a boy, who comes to understand the religious persecution his family is dealing with, and which eventually propels him on to emigrating and fighting for others without power.
After a few hundred years of that, once can understand how he becomes both jaded and overwhelmed with nostalgia for the more pleasant episodes of his very long existence.
I found this really affecting--often terribly sad, wistful, or just plain brutal, but also hopeful and endlessly full of mystery and wonder. Not unlike the city it portrays.
January 23, 2012
This book is truly a love letter to New York. Pete Hamill has taken a tantalizing idea — what would you do if you were granted immortality? — and envisions it through the eyes of an Irish teen, Cormac O'Connor.
The book's highest points shine when Hamill documents real people and places in Manhattan. The reader comes along for the journey of New York growing from a wild village into one of the greatest cities on Earth.
The disconnect occurs when Hamill describes the mythical happenings that take place to ensure Cormac's immortality. It is rather jarring when in such a gritty, tangible setting as New York.
Even though Cormac is free to roam the city and become different people for different lifetimes, there is a constant darkness in the book. His quest to kill is always in the background.
Interestingly, Hamill finished the first version of this book on Sept. 10, 2001. The city — downtown especially — changed drastically the very next day, and Hamill intertwined 9/11 as an integral date in the story. It was extremely hard to read the chapters about Sept. 11, since they were very realistic and heartbreaking.
Overall, this book is fantastic. Full of rich details, history and romance, anyone who loves New York should read this impressive saga.
The book's highest points shine when Hamill documents real people and places in Manhattan. The reader comes along for the journey of New York growing from a wild village into one of the greatest cities on Earth.
The disconnect occurs when Hamill describes the mythical happenings that take place to ensure Cormac's immortality. It is rather jarring when in such a gritty, tangible setting as New York.
Even though Cormac is free to roam the city and become different people for different lifetimes, there is a constant darkness in the book. His quest to kill is always in the background.
Interestingly, Hamill finished the first version of this book on Sept. 10, 2001. The city — downtown especially — changed drastically the very next day, and Hamill intertwined 9/11 as an integral date in the story. It was extremely hard to read the chapters about Sept. 11, since they were very realistic and heartbreaking.
Overall, this book is fantastic. Full of rich details, history and romance, anyone who loves New York should read this impressive saga.
September 28, 2016
How long does it take to find your true love? Is one lifetime enough? What do you do when you do find it? How do you answer life's challenges and choices?
Cormac O'Conner is born in northern Ireland in 1723, loved and cherished by his parents, happy with his parents, dog, horse and home. His father is a blacksmith and makes a very special sword. When he is nine he loses his mother, when he is sixteen he loses his father. The Earl of Warren, who lives in Belfast near them, is indirectly responsible for both deaths. The Earl, who ships slaves, is quite wealthy and he leaves to America to make even more money. Cormac, who has money from his father and the sword, follows the Earl to America after promising to avenge the death of his father.
Through acts of kindness to blacks who have been captured and are in the hold of the ship, Cormac is given the gift of almost eternal life as long he does not leave Manhattan. He needs to kill the Earl as he promised, and then he lives through nearly three hundred years of Manhattan history and makes choices he never expected to make.
I liked this book a lot and recommend it.
Cormac O'Conner is born in northern Ireland in 1723, loved and cherished by his parents, happy with his parents, dog, horse and home. His father is a blacksmith and makes a very special sword. When he is nine he loses his mother, when he is sixteen he loses his father. The Earl of Warren, who lives in Belfast near them, is indirectly responsible for both deaths. The Earl, who ships slaves, is quite wealthy and he leaves to America to make even more money. Cormac, who has money from his father and the sword, follows the Earl to America after promising to avenge the death of his father.
Through acts of kindness to blacks who have been captured and are in the hold of the ship, Cormac is given the gift of almost eternal life as long he does not leave Manhattan. He needs to kill the Earl as he promised, and then he lives through nearly three hundred years of Manhattan history and makes choices he never expected to make.
I liked this book a lot and recommend it.
June 8, 2009
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.
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.
June 1, 2010
Bear with me as I have a hard time reviewing books I really like. Forever has lots of great things going for it: beautifully evocative writing, especially about women, interesting history of Manhattan, constantly evolving plot so as to keep the reader interested and lots of emotion.
I'd probably say my favorite part was the bit about Ireland in the beginning of the book. I'd probably give it 4.5 stars, but this book definitely makes me want to read Hamill's other works.
Oh, and it really captures a living, breathing New York in a way that Winter's Tale could not.
I'd probably say my favorite part was the bit about Ireland in the beginning of the book. I'd probably give it 4.5 stars, but this book definitely makes me want to read Hamill's other works.
Oh, and it really captures a living, breathing New York in a way that Winter's Tale could not.
November 23, 2020
I'm not sure what I was expecting (based on others touting this novel) but it certainly did not meet my expectations. It took at least 1/3 of the book to actually GET to what I thought was going to be the main story. Just TOO much back story waiting for the story to get going and even then it was just meh. I couldn't find myself getting invested in Cormac's life and some periods of history were just plain uninteresting. I did finish it (because at 300 pages in I refused to not find out the end) but did some MAJOR skimming of several sections. Also, hated the ending, blah.
July 16, 2018
The things I do for book club.
April 15, 2021
Sometimes I'm sad when I finish a good book, in this case I couldn't wait to be done with it.
July 2, 2020
This book covers over 200 years of history from the perspective of one Irishman. It was a 5 star book until the final hundred pages. I knew what was coming at the end and just. wanted. to. get. there.
If you're interested in Irish/American history from the 1700s-2000s, I highly suggest this read!
If you're interested in Irish/American history from the 1700s-2000s, I highly suggest this read!
January 18, 2022
Cormac heard that glorious word for the first time in the 1850s, and it came to epitomize for him all of the New York’s touch skepticism. It had much greater weight than the word horseshit. Horseshit was flaky and without substance; it dried in the sun and was blown away in a high wind. Preachers were masters of horseshit. But bullshit was heavier, filled with a crude truth, a kind of black cement. The voters knew the difference and they appreciated bullshit when practiced by a master.
December 7, 2023
This is a verrrrry generous star
August 16, 2019
Surprised at how much I wound up enjoying this. I spent the first 150 pages saying, "When are they are going to get to New York?" and "Pre-Christian Celtic father, Jewish mother, in a Protestant bit of Northern Ireland in 1700s??" . Finally, got into the book enough to suspend belief and accept a character who helps an African shaman, captured as a slave, and is given the gift to live forever so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Maybe this is magic realism?
Anyway, it is interesting to see the history of NYC through the eyes of someone living through the centuries. George Washington is here, so is Boss Tweed, jazz, the old newspapers, and of course, it ends with 9/11. Good writing. Hope to read more by Pete Hamill.
Anyway, it is interesting to see the history of NYC through the eyes of someone living through the centuries. George Washington is here, so is Boss Tweed, jazz, the old newspapers, and of course, it ends with 9/11. Good writing. Hope to read more by Pete Hamill.
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