The most striking thing about this book is how gorgeously written it is. The stream of beautiful images is almost never-ending (there were only a few passages I found a bit dull, which is impressive for a book almost 800 pages long.) The plot is interesting, though not ground-breaking, the characters (especially Peter Lake) are lovable, and the mystical portraits of New York it paints over the decades are a marvel in themselves - though the plot clearly plays the second fiddle.

That's not a bad thing: If you took a stroll through a gallery with paintings depicting the fates of a family, you wouldn't complain if they seem a bit disjointed at times - you'd just enjoy the view for what it is.

Now I'm not going to pretend I actually know what makes a book fall into the "magical realism" category, but I kept thinking this might be one of them. Mostly because it kept reminding me of Rushdie's Satanic Verses, of all things. (And looking at the Goodreads page now, "magical realism" is among the top tags, so yay.)
Lastly, I had this in the audio version narrated by Oliver Wyman, and the man is a genius. How can he even DO all that?!

So, yeah: recommended.