Twilight of the Ice

by Harry Mark Petrakis

The newest novel from acclaimed storyteller Harry Mark Petrakis, Twilight of the Ice is a dramatic tale of revelation and redemption set against the backdrop of the 1950s Chicago rail yards. In a classic yarn expertly balancing the realistic with the mythic, Petrakis chronicles the life of Mike Zervakis, a Greek immigrant and the last in the line of the strong, skilled railroad car icemen, in a profession becoming obsolete with the advent of modern refrigeration.   After fleeing from the despotic Turkish occupation of his homeland of Crete, and then escaping from boyhood servitude in his uncle’s shabby Chicago lunchroom, Mike at last finds his calling in the craft of the ice at the Team Track, the desolate ice depot in the heart of industrial Chicago. Here, under the oppressive rule of brutal foreman Earl, and bolstered by the camaraderie of alcoholic former schoolteacher Rafer Martin, Mike carves out his fate.  Mike’s icing world is populated by a rough crew of old-timers and rookies, including the stoic Polish icemen Budny and Orchowski, the buoyant and reckless Noodles, the brooding war veteran Stamps, and Mike’s young helper and surrogate son, Mendoza. This harsh world is also home to Mike’s beloved, the prostitute Reba; Rafer’s temptation incarnate, the fragile Leota; and the old iceman-turned-preacher, Israel, a man plagued with apocalyptic visions of a second ice age in which mankind’s salvation would depend upon the chosen icemen.   Beset by age and a failing body, Mike yearns to find his heir, someone to whom he can pass his skill and his devotion to the craft. After finding only cold indifference among the young summer workers, he finally is introduced to the powerful young giant, S.K., a born iceman. But when S.K. carelessly causes the death of an icing veteran, old hatreds surface and Mike’s dream of a successor seems doomed. All that remains for the master iceman is a final savage struggle against his exacting taskmaster, Earl, and an even more relentless foe, the twilight of his own life.

Genres: Literary Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is depressing on topic but written with rich language.
Harry Mark Petrakis was my writing teacher in the mid-70s.

[R.G. Ziemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read any of Petrakis's novels before this, but Twilight fits the model I expected from his short stories - great descriptions of back-alley Chicago, scruffy, flawed characters in search of some kind of happiness. Hard-working men (and women) with a basic nobility. In spite of their gritty existence in the mean streets, the story is optimistic and powerful. Reminds me of Steinbeck's Cannery Row and the paisanos of Tortilla Flat.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

After loving A Petrakis Reader (which included the "The Passing of the Ice", the 1961 short story which Petrakis expanded into this 2003 novel), I found Twilight of the Ice to be a huge letdown. The original story was wonderful, vibrant and moving, but with the novel it almost seemed like the author didn't have much more to say that hadn't already been in the original story. Little happens in the book until near the end, when two potentially climactic events are told almost in passing, and the grand thematic gesture by the grieving young iceman Suleiman that closes the book seemed stagey and contrived. Petrakis tells the story in alternating chapters which shift focus between the iceman Mike and the recovering alcoholic Rafer, but while Mike is the ostensible protagonist, his character is never fully developed, and I got a much better feel for the characters of Rafer (who unforunately is mostly only an observer and not essential to the plot) and the tyrannical boss Earl. I also never got a good feel for the south side Chicago neighborhood where the story is set - and oddly for a writer who has lived almost his entire life in Chicago, Petrakis even seems geographically challenged. (On at least two occasions, he references the sun setting behind the downtown skyline - which is north of the neighborhood. A minor point, maybe, but the kind of thing that drives me crazy.) Lastly, too much of the narrative is told instead of shown - and often overtold, with explanations of characters' motivations that should have already been obvious to the average reader.

I'm still an admirer of Petrakis, and want to read more of his work. A Petrakis Reader was a compilation of two of his 1960s story collections, so for his next book I think I'll dig into one of his older ones.