The Cloud Sketcher: A Novel Paperback – March 19, 2002

I hoped this book would meet the expectations I had when I began it (and promised by the jacket when I saw it in a bookstore)--but alas, it was really somewhat disappointing ....as another reviewer stated, it too closely resembles The Fountainhead and the people --are sort of Ludlumian in that they are larger than life and too heroic to be believable -- the primary love relationship stretches credibility and the author relies too often on ironic and unexpected appearances of the main characters for somewhat contrived dramatic effect. There is some interesting "history"as far as the Finnish Civil War ..but I found it a seriously flawed book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and felt that despite its origins in fiction it was a picture in to the Finnish people, their history and the things that motivate them.The infatuation of the main character with his only love seemed a bit much at times but it did thread its way in and out of many chapters of the book and without it the story would have seemed dull to readers who are not interested in learning about other cultures and countries.I have recommended the book to many people and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.

I read this twice and recommend it often

This isn't my kind of book. Didn't really hold my interest.

We meet Ecko as a young lad in Finland. He is a wonderful character and is fuller developed. In his youth Esko's face is severely burned in a house fire. Also in his youth he meets a young girl and never forgets her. Although, scarred and blinded in one eye Esko's personality is so powerful that people are drawn to him. He has 2 passions, first the beautiful young girl who comes into his life often, but always belongs to another. His second passion is to become an architect and he does that and he is brilliant. This story ends several times, yet Rayner keeps on going and going,------ until this 5 star story dwindles down to 3 stars. We have love, crime, success, and failure, from Finland to New York City. There is never a stop to the action, and Rayner writes well.

Obsession, passions, and buildings all rise to their maximum intensity and height in the roaring 20's as depicted by Richard Rayner in his work, "The Cloud Sketcher". This is the first of his books that I have read, and while not among the best, I enjoyed it enough that I would read his next and possibly backtrack to some of his earlier work.The story develops from two major events in the protagonist's young life. In the first he meets a young woman that becomes a life-long obsession, and the second is a vision of what he wants to accomplish with his life. The setting for the first part of the story is Finland as the Bolsheviks and their revolution damage it. By the time the fighting between the Whites and the Reds takes place, the protagonist has been horribly maimed in a childhood accident, he has lost his Mother, and then as a soldier he fights against the Reds which include his Father, and the Father knowingly like the son fights the other.The consequences of the war bring about a set of contrary beliefs in outcomes of the war that continue to influence future events even if the most unlikely of stretched imagination must bring them to pass. One of these brings the central character that is now a young man, as well as an Architect to America in search not only of building his Skyscraper, but also of pursuing his obsession of a childhood love. His severing of his life and the people who inhabit it in Finland stretched my credulity in the story.Once the story crosses the Atlantic the events continue to be implausibly convenient as well as improbable, and though he has left his Wife in Finland, events there continue to develop that will haunt him later in his life. When he saves the life of a man that will eventually preside over New York, virtually any obstacle can be overcome, and is routinely done so which detracts even further from the story's credibility.As much as I complain about the contrived nature of the book's events it was an enjoyable, light, even if a less than fascinating read. Some books are meant to entertain, and this work lacked enough originality to demand close attention, and like the Skyscraper race for the tallest in the world, a given building, like the book's events, is surpassed by an improbably higher building just as events more implausible than there predecessor unfold.

First off, leave 'The Fountainhead' out of it. Ayn Rand's dense polemic, interesting as it may be, is an exercise in "How to Use the Novel to Convey an Idea Otherwise Distasteful In the Mouth of Your Average Reader," and as such, has no connection to the Real World; Howard Roark and his career, fascinating as it may be, is no match for the genuine pleasures and real lessons to be gleaned from Richard Rayner's 'The Cloud Sketcher.' This is a book for those who loved the intoxicating romance of Helprin's 'Winter's Tale,' the real-life difficulty of making tough decisions that will impact the lives of others found in the novels of John Irving, and the Big City rhythms that provide a strong backbeat for writers as disparate as William Kennedy, James Ellroy, and Michael Chabon. Compellingly readable (I knocked out the first 200 pages + at a midnight sprint), this tale of the life of Esko Vanaanen, and the geas laid upon him by Finland's first elevator, is the very definition of the "Traditional" Modern Novel. Modern in the sense that it takes into account the new approaches to the writing of fiction developed during this most literary of centuries; and modern in that it wrestles with the realities brought to life by the American domination of the 20th century. And traditional in its dedication to character, motivation, emotion, metaphor, narrative, STORYTELLING... Forget the latest ... by the 5th Avenue BOMC taste of the month; if you want to read the kind of book that Dickens, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck all would have loved, then read 'The Cloud Sketcher.' And then be sure to read 'The Blue Suit.' That one is as good, and funnier.

Excellent book absorbing read

二十世紀のはじめに摩天楼がニューヨークに建ちだしたとき、世界中の人の目はニューヨークに注がれた。人類の持つ最高の能力が建築に集約されるまさにその夢のような出来事が次々と実現されていく。そのきっかけは人の根源的な存在から生まれているのだということをこの本を読むと分かる。建築に恋、戦争、旅、ギャングが絡み合い物語が息もつかせぬスピードで進行する。まるでサスペンスのような大河小説が生まれたと言って過言ではない。建築を志す人に必読の本。摩天楼には夢があり、建築には人生のすべてがある。