Touching Winter

by Ron Rozelle

Ron Rozelle’s new novel, Touching Winter , is a four-part evocation of memory and place and the yearning for home. Each part of the novel begins with a meditation on one aspect of the protagonist’s life as he watches the unpredictable weather of East Texas. When Will was a young boy, he and his grandfather enjoyed being out in the spectacular East Texas storms. These sessions taught Will many things about life—ranching, weather, character; how to be a man—and bound Will to the family land and to his grandfather. Only at the ranch does Will feel like the person he was, or would like to be, before wrong decisions turned his life down an entirely different path.

A powerful, early romance turned disastrous, but the relationship haunts him. To compensate for lost love, Will carved a niche for himself in the competitive concrete industry, inventing a technique to make mixing trucks more efficient and becoming wealthier than he could have dreamed. His marriage to a Houston socialite is thin and brittle, unsatisfying for his wife, Lauren, and for himself. Their daughter Aimee lives in California, as far away from her family as possible.

As Will ages, he turns to the ranch as a place of clarity in times of crisis, eventually moving back there entirely. He exchanges the public life he and Lauren led in Houston for the simplicity of walks along the rustic fence, lunch at the town’s only diner with old friends, and long evenings on the porch watching the stars. Along the way, a fierce, red-breasted hawk comes to represent the spiritual for Will, and he is forced to face the consequences of earlier decisions.

152 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2005

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was suggested to me by a friend as my home town is where the author currently resides. And I love to read fiction books about Texas! This is a good book, but not great. There are so many parts of the main character's life that were left out, I wish some of the aspects of his life had been added to make the story more rich and vibrant. The main character felt somewhat hollow. Lots of questions left unanswered in the end that left me feeling confused and dissatisfied with the tale. There is a lot of good detail in the imagery though.

[R.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written novel tells the story of Will who is raised in a lonely farmhouse in Texas but ventures to the big city of Houston for work when he is older. The story progresses and ends back at the farmhouse. The well-drawn characters and the depth of emotion in this work make it a stellar read. I highly recommend this book. It is a keeper.

[Merelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet "memoire" type story. Short, easy read, but lots of info in the bk. Starts outwith boy about 10 yrs, goes till he's an old man. Characters well defined, but not enough story to go with them. An OK bk.