NEW YORK, Oct 4: Listening to novelist and political commentator Mark Helprin recount his life is a bit like listening to Forrest Gump – an eloquent, New York-born Forrest Gump. Helprin is hardly slow-witted, but like the titular hero of the Oscar-winning 1994 movie, he seems to have been everywhere and met everyone. The sweep of his own life story is similar to one of his many novels – broad, impressive, improbable. (agencies)