Mark Helprin has points in common with [Isaac Bashevis Singer]. He too writes for the New Yorker. His characters are nearly all Jewish and his settings range from Rome and Sicily to Paris, Tel Aviv and the western United States. His dust jacket [for A Dove of the East and Other Stories] … claims that he is a 'born teller of tales'. After reading the first story, 'A Jew of Persia', I was inclined to agree…. The tale is colourful and resonant and the use of the supernatural is adroit. Clearly, when Helprin has a tale to tell he can tell it. Unfortunately, in the rest of this thin, uneven book, he fails to come up with another. There is some effective writing in the title novella but the structure is weak and Helprin lets words run away with him. The rest of his book makes one wish for...