[There is evidence in "Ellis Island" that at the back of Mark Helprin's] mind he has a rich canvas—a stiffening, in the best sense—of Jewish folklore, but this is allowed out for a romp only in the title story. "Ellis Island" is really a four-part novella about the arrival in New York of a Russian immigrant, a loving clown of irrepressible resourcefulness and hopelessly innocent susceptibility to women, who falls on his feet even when blown over garden walls from exploding fire engines: it is a preposterous, touching and very disarming little essay. There are also four and a half pages simply describing a group of Israeli soldiers waiting to go into action in the desert …; and there is a more elaborately upholstered story, "Tamar", about the unavowed flaring up of desire in a young Jew when he meets a very rich young Jewish girl in...