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Viola
read and liked
Matt's
review of Snow Angels: A Novel:
"This is the second novel I've read by Stewart O'Nan, after Last Night at the Lobster. While I enjoyed Lobster," it really is a trifle compared to Snow Angels, which is an immensely quiet, powerful book. Essentially, it tells the story of two rel...more
This is the second novel I've read by Stewart O'Nan, after Last Night at the Lobster. While I enjoyed Lobster," it really is a trifle compared to Snow Angels, which is an immensely quiet, powerful book. Essentially, it tells the story of two relationships, both disintegrating, set against the backdrop of rural Pennsylvania in the 70's (my onetime hometown of Bloomington, MN makes an appearance, as does that pansy Fran Tarkenton, getting chased down by the Steelers D).
In it's way, Snow Angels reminded me of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, with the small town and big secrets; the insular lives; the omnipresent snow and cold; the lonely single road that leads to Tragedy. The story is told, in part, by Arthur Parkinson, who relates the story in flashback. He tells his own story - of his parent's divorce, of his first love, Lila, and his memories of Annie, his one-time babysitter who is murdered (you know this on the first page, so it's not a spoiler)- in the first person. He narrates the second strand of the story, the relationship of Annie and her estranged husband Glenn, in the third-person (you know he is the narrator because, at one point, he interjects himself, to powerful effect, into the third-person strand).
O'Nan's writing is simple and direct, yet he manages, with great efficiency, to describe indelible characters. His description of the breakdown of Arthur's parent's marriage is spot on. I say this from experience, having seen my own parents get divorced. He eerily captures the feeling of a child torn between two warring factions in the most bitter of all conflicts: the conflict that occurs when love turns to hate (see, e.g., Star Wars). The scenes with Arthur warily dealing with his mother and father are among my favorites. The first-person narration adds to the strength of these sections.
The story line with Annie and Glenn is a bit more prosaic. On the first page we learn that Annie is murdered. The rest of the novel tells you how we got to that point. Needless to say, it has to do with some of the choices she makes, choices relating to the fickle emotions emanating from our chest cavities. While believably told, it is a bit obvious. We've all read plenty of murder stories and know how we're supposed to feel; it's more interesting to read a detailed story about a divorce, with its emotional complexity, because even though it is far more familiar to our experience, it doesn't often get explored.
This is not a book with happy endings. The theme, reiterated over and over, is how we come to part from the people we love. It's a subject I've spent the last year mulling. Once upon a time I was engaged to a girl I thought I'd see every day for the rest of my life. Now, there are times I can't remember her face, or the sound of her voice, or the way she smelled (and they say smell is one of those memories that last the longest). I always wonder at that: how you go to a wedding, everyone is happy, smiling groom, blushing bride, weeping parents. Oaths before God and all that. And somehow, in some way, so many of those perfect unions are rent asunder. When it is all over, and there is nothing but ashes, you start to wonder if love is a cosmic joke that lures us with delusions of infinity, then smacks us with the reality that it's as fleeting as an evening shadow.
The theme is stated succinctly near the end, after Arthur's father tries to reconcile with his mother, and his mother rebuffs him. She tries to explain to Arthur why she did what she did:
'I hope you understand what just happened,' she said, 'and why it has to be this way...'
'I guess,' I said, and it was not an evasion. Because though it was already happening to me, I could not see how I would ever come to hate the people I loved. Yet at the same time I could do nothing to stop it, and that would not change for a very long time.
When you are done reading it, you will probably want a hug, so it is best to read this in a room full of people who will be willing to hug you, or perhaps with a dog, though the dog will not hug you back, unless you've trained it to do so. You should also hug Stewart O'Nan if you see him, because I think he needs one.
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