Snow Angels: A Novel
by Stewart O'Nan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stewart O'NanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-05
ISBN: 0312427697
Number of pages: 305
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Snow Angels: A Novel
Book Review: Nobody does such real characters as O'Nan
Summary: 5 Stars
I was watching EBERT AND ROEPER one night and was delighted to learn that one of Stewart O'Nan's books, SNOW ANGELS, had been made into a movie. Since LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER has been one of my favorite books this year, I decided to give O'Nan's first novel a go. I was surprised to learn he wrote it so long ago, 1994.
O'Nan has a gift for characterization far beyond anything you will find on the best-seller list. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER was non-fiction. That's also the case here. SNOW ANGELS starts out with a murder and we get details from two different viewpoints: from the murdered woman Annie Marchand in flashback, and from a fourteen-year-old boy, Artie Parkinson, whom she babysat before she was married. Artie's parents are also going through a divorce, and Artie tries his level best to pretend he doesn't care. Annie Marchand was murdered by her estranged husband and there are parallels between the two adult relationships. The characters seem to be driven more by emotion than anything else. O'Nan is a very subtle writer. He shows us the beginning of a romantic relationship between Artie and a girl on his bus whom he had made fun of previously.
Most of the novel is gut-wrenching, especially the murder scene and another one where a toddler goes missing, but O'Nan manages to sneak in some humor as well, especially in the scenes between Artie and his pot-smoking buddy Warren. They mutter under their breaths when Mr. Chervenick, their band director, tries to teach the marching band "the tornado' for the umpteenth time, and they smoke "a roach" when they're supposed to be looking for the missing toddler. The humor is irreverent and politically incorrect but definitely true to life.
There is an intriguing quote at the end of the novel regarding human relationships. Artie says, "Though it was already happening to me, I could not see how I would ever come to hate the people I loved." O'Nan is being purposefully ambiguous I think. It could he his mother he's talking about or it could be Lila Raybern, his new girlfriend.
O'Nan writes these short, working class novels, SNOW ANGELS is only 305 pages long in bold print, but he packs more into these few pages than Michener did in his thousand-page tomes.
Summary of Snow Angels: A Novel
Soon to be a major motion picture from Warner Independent starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale
Arthur Parkinson is fourteen during the dreary winter of 1974. Enduring the pain of his parents' divorce, his world is shattered when his beloved former babysitter, Annie, falls victim to a tragic series of events. The interlinking stories of Arthur's unraveling family, and of Annie's fate, form the backdrop of this intimate tale about the price of love and belonging, told in a spare, translucent, and unexpectedly tender voice.
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