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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Even in the midst of some structural clumsiness, though, he frequently astounds with the freshness of voice and the oddly soaring majesty of this admittedly silly and inconsequential fable. [1 Apr 2005, p.374]
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Outstanding
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Ray Robertson
Freddy and Fredericka... is as searing in its denunciation of contemporary life as anything in recent fiction, possessing a greater satirical breadth than anything written by Evelyn Waugh, and as relentlessly probing as Don DeLillo at his most acutely paranoiac. [16 Jul 2005]
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
Rarely does the narrative shimmer with the lyricism that distinguishes Helprin's best work, but readers can have fun with this book, which is probably all Helprin intended. [9 May 2005, p.37]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Michiko Kakutani
This novel is great silly fun -- a rowdy, rambunctious read that's part acid farce, part bittersweet fairy tale.
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Favorable
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Wall Street Journal Joseph Bottum
"Freddy and Fredericka" is far from brutal. Mr. Helprin's first full novel in a decade, it is, in the end, a rather sweet book about kings and queens and why human beings might sometimes need them. About America, as well, and why human beings might sometimes need it, too.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Nick Owchar
An unexpected, delightful departure for the author. [28 Aug 2005]
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times Natalie Danford
No book in recent memory takes the risks that this one does, and it scores big in terms of innovation, cultural commentary, and humor.
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Favorable
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New York Observer Priya Jain
One of the most delightfully odd and truly surprising novels to come around in a long time. [11 Jul 2005]
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Mixed
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San Francisco Chronicle Selina O'Grady
The problem is that the lyrical fairy tale that extols an American paradise, and the farce that laughs at what America has made of itself, do not often jell.
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Mixed
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The New Yorker
Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” perhaps wields too overt an influence, but at its best the novel achieves genuine lightness.
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Mixed
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Christian Science Monitor Yvonne Zipp
Helprin clearly lacks [an] insider's knowledge - for the first third of the novel, Fredericka sounds more like Paris Hilton than an English aristocrat.
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Mixed
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Houston Chronicle Logan Browning
There were frustrations, delights, pleasures and pains of an extraordinary variety. At times I grew so impatient with the book that I thought I couldn't possibly finish it. At others I could not wait to get back to it.
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Unfavorable
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Library Journal Misha Stone
It feels more like an empty exercise or a stop-gap for Helprin, lacking the emotional depth of his earlier work. [1 May 2005, p.72]
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Unfavorable
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Washington Post Allen Barra
The book never congeals as a fable, satire, farce or anything except a royal self-indulgence.
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Unfavorable
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The New York Times Book Review Sven Birkerts
A premise that might suit up well at 200 pages looks vastly overdressed at 550. At that point it asks to be considered not merely amusing but important. I can concede the former, but I won't grant the latter.
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Unfavorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Though he gets off lots of sassy lines, Mark Helprin has taken the tiniest sliver of a clever conceit and blown it up into a severely bloated door stopper.
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Unfavorable
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Boston Globe Sandra Shea
Alas, what his publisher promises as ''de Tocqueville rewritten by Mark Twain" is instead a strained, overstuffed, and overlong work that reads more like Evelyn Waugh rewritten by Benny Hill.
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