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Snow, Ashes
Adams breathed through the thick weave of his pulse. Hobbs.
Again. His return likely meant trouble. Care and trouble.
The uneasy friendship between Fremont Adams and C. D. Hobbs worked best when both men had a job to do, when they could fall into the rhythm of hard labor. Neglected by his mother at an early age, Hobbs found his way into the Adams family. But everyone could tell he was always a bit off. Fremont resigned himself
to watching out for Hobbs, who had the innocence and optimism that can come only from ignorance. After a grueling tour of duty in Korea, however, Adams and Hobbs return to the ranch marked in dangerous ways.
In four parts--alternating between the Wyoming ranch and Korea--Alyson Hagy reveals the intricacies of a profound friendship between two very different men. Snow, Ashes is a suspenseful, engaging exploration of survival and failure and of how the most vulnerable among us can have a wisdom beyond measure.
Again. His return likely meant trouble. Care and trouble.
The uneasy friendship between Fremont Adams and C. D. Hobbs worked best when both men had a job to do, when they could fall into the rhythm of hard labor. Neglected by his mother at an early age, Hobbs found his way into the Adams family. But everyone could tell he was always a bit off. Fremont resigned himself
to watching out for Hobbs, who had the innocence and optimism that can come only from ignorance. After a grueling tour of duty in Korea, however, Adams and Hobbs return to the ranch marked in dangerous ways.
In four parts--alternating between the Wyoming ranch and Korea--Alyson Hagy reveals the intricacies of a profound friendship between two very different men. Snow, Ashes is a suspenseful, engaging exploration of survival and failure and of how the most vulnerable among us can have a wisdom beyond measure.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 8, 2012
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67 people want to read
About the author
Alyson Hagy
11 books106 followersAlyson Hagy, a novelist and short story writer, was raised on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and now lives and teaches in Laramie, Wyoming.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 1, 2012
This powerful, short novel begins with a quote from another writer of spare and poetic fiction, James Galvin. Any reader appreciating the deep pleasure of his novel "The Meadow" will be thoroughly absorbed in this character study of two men shaped as much by a lifetime on the near-desolate reaches of Wyoming ranchland as they are by a soul-fracturing ordeal on the killing fields of Korea.
Told out of sequence, with its beginning and ending in 1995, this wonderful novel follows the fortunes of a pair of men much like George and Lenny of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." One has been his brother's keeper, though not always successfully, and the other has retained a child-like innocence that has survived a lifetime of neglect and abuse. Both are set on a collision course with the harsh and unforgiving realities of old age.
Set on a sheep ranch somewhere outside Baggs, Wyoming, on the Colorado border, Hagy's novel captures the vast sweep of open spaces and seasons of raw weather. Her handful of characters include the two life-long friends, Adams and Hobbs, a derisive older brother who lawyers in Cheyenne, and a recklessly independent younger sister, who returns for a time from California to overturn the steady order of the family ranch. Brilliantly written, scenes often crackle with sharp dialogue, which itself is haunted by ghosts of the past as people long dead live on in the memories of the living. Highly recommended.
Told out of sequence, with its beginning and ending in 1995, this wonderful novel follows the fortunes of a pair of men much like George and Lenny of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." One has been his brother's keeper, though not always successfully, and the other has retained a child-like innocence that has survived a lifetime of neglect and abuse. Both are set on a collision course with the harsh and unforgiving realities of old age.
Set on a sheep ranch somewhere outside Baggs, Wyoming, on the Colorado border, Hagy's novel captures the vast sweep of open spaces and seasons of raw weather. Her handful of characters include the two life-long friends, Adams and Hobbs, a derisive older brother who lawyers in Cheyenne, and a recklessly independent younger sister, who returns for a time from California to overturn the steady order of the family ranch. Brilliantly written, scenes often crackle with sharp dialogue, which itself is haunted by ghosts of the past as people long dead live on in the memories of the living. Highly recommended.
September 29, 2019
Stark, beautiful Wyoming landscape... Two men in their 60s, friends from childhood with many, many issues between them. The Korean War in the middle of it all.
How can this not be a great American novel? Perhaps it's not RIGHT up there with Sometimes a Great Notion or The Sport of Kings, and if it falls short at all it's only in that to measure up to some of these other GAN works, it would need a little more direct treatment of the older generations and the history of this family on the land. (My def of a Great American novel: large canvas, grappling with landscape, generational, and societal issues. If stylistically innovative, a plus.) So perhaps this book is slightly thin in that the scope is a little more narrowly defined (apart for some memories of the ranch and its characters in its glory days) to these two guys, and the ranch after the parents' death and the siblings' departures.
All narrators are unreliable, but this case is interesting because the POV is close 3rd, and yet still a bit unreliable. We start out sharing his view, for ex, that the sister is irresponsible and reckless with emotions. Then she accuses him of being afraid of openness and love. I thought she had a point. Has everyone abandoned them, or has he crushed them all out of his life with his narrowness of thought and feeling?
The wounded American male--here he is, for sure. I mean that seriously--the wound to the American male psyche is deep, or else we wouldn't have so many young men shooting people. The novel is interested in probing and exposing that wound, but there isn't enough here to go on to understand its roots.
There is a huge lack of literature on the Korean War. I read Bridge over the River Kwai when I was in high school (not for any assignment, I don't think, just because that's been how I've rolled for a long time), and there is a FANTASTIC book by GW Hawkes, Surveyor, about 2 KW vets living together in the vastness of the New Mexican desert, which I also HIGHLY recommend. Perhaps the lack of literary attention has to do with one of the things Adams says in Snow, Ashes, when his friend, Hobbs, wants to go into town to the VFW: I don't go there, because those Vietnam boys talk too much.
The KW, it seems to me was like tour 3 for WWII combat vets who couldn't really settle into home. Many of the soldiers were older vets with major PTSD issues. Then there were the boys from sheepfuck Wyoming or wherever who enlisted because who knows why. With not much in between, it seems. WHY? It's a good question, not really explored in the book (suggestion that the narrative of glory around WWII is critical), but probably related to to the wounding issue I mentioned above. These two men worked hard on the ranch, went to war because America asked even when she didn't really need, and wound up too weird for anyone to deal with. That is, being a good, real man only turns you into a freak.
Changing times and the external pressures on ranching don't help. That's mentioned, but we don't see as much of that as we could, either.
All in all the writing is gorgeous and I think it leans more 5 stars than 4.
::
_You hate everything that's different from you._ He didn't. Not really. He had tried to accept things that were awkward and different into his life. But he was cautious, and he'd too often been slow to act. The result was a man as taut and insubstantial as his fences.
"You do live hard and think hard," Hobbs says, sipping. "You got everybody's respect on that. But there's one thing you don't seem to get no matter how many times it's laid out for you. People don't follow your plans. You don't get to choose what returns and what doesn't. You only get to decide how you'll treat it when it comes."
How can this not be a great American novel? Perhaps it's not RIGHT up there with Sometimes a Great Notion or The Sport of Kings, and if it falls short at all it's only in that to measure up to some of these other GAN works, it would need a little more direct treatment of the older generations and the history of this family on the land. (My def of a Great American novel: large canvas, grappling with landscape, generational, and societal issues. If stylistically innovative, a plus.) So perhaps this book is slightly thin in that the scope is a little more narrowly defined (apart for some memories of the ranch and its characters in its glory days) to these two guys, and the ranch after the parents' death and the siblings' departures.
All narrators are unreliable, but this case is interesting because the POV is close 3rd, and yet still a bit unreliable. We start out sharing his view, for ex, that the sister is irresponsible and reckless with emotions. Then she accuses him of being afraid of openness and love. I thought she had a point. Has everyone abandoned them, or has he crushed them all out of his life with his narrowness of thought and feeling?
The wounded American male--here he is, for sure. I mean that seriously--the wound to the American male psyche is deep, or else we wouldn't have so many young men shooting people. The novel is interested in probing and exposing that wound, but there isn't enough here to go on to understand its roots.
There is a huge lack of literature on the Korean War. I read Bridge over the River Kwai when I was in high school (not for any assignment, I don't think, just because that's been how I've rolled for a long time), and there is a FANTASTIC book by GW Hawkes, Surveyor, about 2 KW vets living together in the vastness of the New Mexican desert, which I also HIGHLY recommend. Perhaps the lack of literary attention has to do with one of the things Adams says in Snow, Ashes, when his friend, Hobbs, wants to go into town to the VFW: I don't go there, because those Vietnam boys talk too much.
The KW, it seems to me was like tour 3 for WWII combat vets who couldn't really settle into home. Many of the soldiers were older vets with major PTSD issues. Then there were the boys from sheepfuck Wyoming or wherever who enlisted because who knows why. With not much in between, it seems. WHY? It's a good question, not really explored in the book (suggestion that the narrative of glory around WWII is critical), but probably related to to the wounding issue I mentioned above. These two men worked hard on the ranch, went to war because America asked even when she didn't really need, and wound up too weird for anyone to deal with. That is, being a good, real man only turns you into a freak.
Changing times and the external pressures on ranching don't help. That's mentioned, but we don't see as much of that as we could, either.
All in all the writing is gorgeous and I think it leans more 5 stars than 4.
::
_You hate everything that's different from you._ He didn't. Not really. He had tried to accept things that were awkward and different into his life. But he was cautious, and he'd too often been slow to act. The result was a man as taut and insubstantial as his fences.
"You do live hard and think hard," Hobbs says, sipping. "You got everybody's respect on that. But there's one thing you don't seem to get no matter how many times it's laid out for you. People don't follow your plans. You don't get to choose what returns and what doesn't. You only get to decide how you'll treat it when it comes."
June 21, 2010
I couldn't figure out why Buran, Charlotte, and Adams were so angry with each other, or why Buran followed Sugar. I'm not fond of an author who uses a suicide to end a story. It's true the author built in reasons for Hobbs suicide, but it still seems a cop-out. Adams and Hobbs experienced horrific wounds in the Korean War, and Hagy in her notes says, "The Forgotten War is not forgotten." She seems to have a personal reason for writing about the Korean War. Or maybe curiosity? It was a tough read for me, and if I didn't love Wyoming, I would have abandoned this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2007
Alyson Hagy is my friend; that's true. And I had the privilege of reading this book in early draft form, of watching her shape and perfect it. But man, this Alyson has a way with words. And she's not afraid of darkness.
October 31, 2019
Hagy is amazing. She drops you into a scene and trusts you to wallow through it, just like her characters have to do.
December 22, 2025
A good read with a Western theme that I enjoyed reminding me a little of Cormac. A good brotherly love story but missing the compelling elements of story telling to make it a “must read”.
May 1, 2024
This is my favorite Hagy novel. The dual setting is fantastic, a rural atmosphere in Wyoming, and a lethal war scape in Korea. Conflicts and compassion within the lives to two friends and partners unfolds in profound ways throughout the story. And it features the sheep industry, which was a dominant enterprise in Wyoming for a long time. That part of the novel was particularly appealing to me.
December 1, 2012
I know it's a story told from just one person's POV but i still don't feel like we see enough complexity in Charlotte especially and even in Hobbs. Adams view of them both is pretty reductionist. If you're going to tell a story from a single POV I think it makes it much more interesting if that character can see nuances in others. Why was Charlotte so headstrong and destructive? She just is. Why did she do what she did? She just did. Not much explanation for what motivates her or how she thinks. Hobbs is always leaving but why? He just is. Adams is much more developed so he's more interesting, if not always sympathetic.
I did like the tragic theme of the story, about lives damaged and relationships broken. Who is really taking care of whom and how many casualties did the war really have? I liked the way the story unfolds in non-chronological time, and the writing style was great.
It's not a bad read.
June 27, 2008
There is a lot to chew on in this novel, and especially at the end. I think about family and friendships, and how some friendships can be as strong as blood ties. Or even more impactful. There is a toughness in the writing, honoring and reflecting the settings of a Wyoming ranch and the Korean war. And then luminous moments, as when Portia Adams assists with a lamb's difficult birth and quietly departs. It's a beautiful novel.
November 30, 2015
A beautiful, haunting story There is friendship, family conflict, love of the land. I can hear Steinbeck here, for sure. How can such a brief novel feel like I've been intimate with it for ages? Every word counts, that's why. The language is precise and weighted.
The scenes in Korea gave me chills. I could feel the cutting mountain wind, and the petrifying fear of "Don't let the Chinese take you alive." Hagy perfectly depicts the way the war comes home inside a man.
The scenes in Korea gave me chills. I could feel the cutting mountain wind, and the petrifying fear of "Don't let the Chinese take you alive." Hagy perfectly depicts the way the war comes home inside a man.
November 29, 2012
This book tells the story of two bachelor friends and their relationship from their childhoods in rural Wyoming through combat in the Korean War and the impact it had on later points in their adult lives. A well-written but fairly sad book.
September 15, 2007
Creepy. Set in Wyoming and Korea. Starts with boys learning how to castrate their first lambs. And that's just the start. My first Graywolf read for my internship!!!
January 21, 2010
This book was slow moving. Quite sad and tragic for all lives in the story. Added an interesting perspective. Not quite sure who to feel more sorry for in the book - many messed-up lives.
October 11, 2011
I interviewed this author back in March and am really excited to finally read her book! I'm 66 pages in and love it so far.
December 25, 2011
Beautiful, and chews you up/spits you out. You think you have a reprieve and you don't. Such a book of Wyoming, in the best possible way.
April 5, 2015
Another excellent Barbara Kingsolver book. This time she takes on climate change/global warming.
May 21, 2009
this will devastate you, so be careful.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews