The Cloud Sketcher: A Novel

By Richard Rayner

Book Overview

As the liner Ile de France docks in New York harbor, passengers notice with surprise the policemen gathered below and speculate as to which criminal among them will soon be apprehended. Here and there a single word floats above the general din: murder. Now and then a sage head tips knowingly in the direction of a flamboyant bootlegger: a crime of passion. But when the crowd begins to make its way down the gangplank, the notorious gangster slips through unmolested. Instead it's a celebrated architect with bums from a childhood accident partly covered by the patch over one eye -- who submits to authorities and is taken away in handcuffs.

So begins The Cloud Sketcher, a passionate tale of love and war and art that ranges from the ice fields of the Arctic Circle at the dawn of the last century to the ruthless world of New York real estate speculation in the 1920s. In a tiny village in the northernmost reaches of Finland, a young boy named Esko Vaananen mourns the death of his mother, who died in the same fire that so horribly scarred his face. Miserably, impossibly in love with the beautiful daughter of a Russian aristocrat, Esko is at the brink of despair when, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him.

This pilvenpiirtaja--"cloud sketcher," or skyscraper sparks Esko's lifelong quest for beauty. He becomes an architect, believing that if he can create something of unparalleled loveliness, surely then he will be worthy of the love of Katerina Malysheva. This obsessive desire will cause Esko to risk everything time and again: as a reluctant hero in the bloody Battle of Tampere (the defining battle in the Finnish Civil War); as a laborer on the treacherous high steel of a riveting gang, hundreds of feet above Manhattan's city streets; as a player in the ruthless world of New York real estate speculation; and, finally, as a man accused of murdering the husband of the woman he loves.

The Cloud Sketcher is a transforming journey into the heart of beauty and the peril of love, a romantic, lyrical epic that resurrects history with such authenticity and drama as to place Richard Rayner in the company of our very best novelists.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060196343
• ISBN13: 9780060196349
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Howard Roark, take a hike -- Esko Vanaanen Has Arrived!

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.

An Instant Classic

It's unfortunate to me that so far this book hasn't attracted the widespread audience it deserves. It begins in Finland with a boy named Esko Vaananen who becomes obsessed with the skyscraper, or pilvenpiirtaja as he knows it. Shortly after he meets a young girl who entrances him, and his destiny converges in his quest for love, and his desire to be a brilliant architect. Spanning nearly thirty years and crossing from the frozen Finland tundra to The jazz infused gang run clubs of New York City Rayner's intricately researched novel certainly brings to mind comparisons with Ayn Rands, "The Fountainhead". Yet for many this will be a much more accessible novel. The dramatic journey the character goes through makes this book an obvious choice for a feature adaptation. A satisfying and wonderfully woven book!

Rayner's best book of several

The book is a fascinating story with historical overtones covering the early 1920's in Finland and NYC. The theme of architecture is gloriously persued wrapped around a love quest. I was crazy about the writing style depicting the elements of creativity, personal drive and interesting character development of the hero architect. Rayner gives indepth visual depictions of people, places and scenes. Three of my family members have passed it around with high praise.

The Cloud Sketcher

I'm a big fan of Richard Rayner's work. I loved "The Blue Suit", "LA Without A Map", and "The Murder Book". "The Cloud Sketcher" is not only his most ambitious, but also his best book to date. This book is a passionate love story that begins in the back woods of Northern Finland in the early 1900's and continues through the Finnish Civil War. It ends in New York during the twenties. What intrigues me most about this book is that it captures a time and a place about which I knew very little. It's got everything: a wonderful love story, history, politics, architecture and murder and it's all interwoven in a very compelling way. I could not put this book down. To me, "The Cloud Sketcher" delivers what I expect from great literature. I highly recommend it to all who appreciate beautiful writing, a riveting story, and a unique journey into an incredibly vivid world.