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The Big Snow
BIG SNOW
1 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 27, 2018
Warmth in the Snow
On the face of it, The Big Snow,the title story in this collection of five is a police procedural, but I don’t think that is its main point. At 137 pages it is a novella really, half the length of the whole book, and its mystery is insufficient to justify that proportion on its own. But put together with the other four stories, all of which are set in Northern Ireland during the severe blizzard of 1963, it completes a quietly marvelous collection of character studies, all featuring people who are socially awkward or wrong-footed by the extreme conditions, and treating them with love and understanding. Forget the title; this is a warm book. And an especially meaningful one for me, who grew up in that part of the world, and would have been about the same age as the two youngest protagonists.
The opening story, The Light of the World, is the shortest, and hauntingly beautiful. I don’t want to say too much about it (or any of the stories) as Park is so skillful at controlling information. But it concerns a man leafing through a volume of Ansel Adams photographs while talking to his wife, who is also a photographer. She is lying in bed, and he is standing at the window, watching the falling snow, and everything is connected by beauty, pain, and that pure, pure light.
The Wedding Dress is almost as short, and equally mesmerizing. A woman scans the papers for a used bridal dress to buy for her own upcoming wedding, before she too goes out into the snow. White on white, its secret is a terrible one, and oh so sad.
At 35 pages, Against the Cold is more substantial. Mr. Peel, the headmaster of a Belfast school, works with one of his teachers, Miss Lewis, to see the pupils safely home before snow closes them down. Conscious of his noblesse oblige, he escorts her to her door. She invites him in for a cup of tea before he starts his own long trek home, but the snow falls harder and harder. Peel is the only one of the five protagonists we do not like immediately. He is authoritarian and patronizing; he fantasizes about one of the other teachers, and looks down on Miss Lewis; he is a prude, who disapproves of her having a reproduction of a couple kissing on her living-room wall (he has probably never heard of Dante Gabriel Rossetti). But they have a long day ahead of them, and things can change.…
My favorite story was the second longest at 65 pages, Snow Trails. Peter, its principal character, is the son of the local undertaker, in his first year studying French at university, and longing to get away from the small country town. He is attracted to the young wife of a Belfast businessman, who has recently bought property on the outskirts. She is at least a decade older than him, but that doesn’t lessen the intensity of his crush. When they meet, he is reading Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier [ The Lost Estate ], and is thrilled that she has read it too. Indeed, the whole story might almost be a retelling of Alain-Fournier's impossible-to-recapture romantic dream, but it is no less effective in its own terms.
And it is a similarly young protagonist, not the mystery, that is the focus of The Big Snow. Like the young Morse in Endeavour, probationary detective constable Swift is better educated and smarter than most of the people around him. But he is also green behind the ears and touchingly insecure. He is paired with an old-school sergeant named Gracey, who has no time for niceties but gets results by concentrating on the most likely culprit and squeezing a confession out of him. Only this time, Swift reckons he is wrong; most readers too will probably see the way the wind is blowing well before the halfway mark. But the real interest is in the relationship between the cub and the old grizzly, which takes some surprising turns, and in the character of Swift himself. He identifies strongly with the young murder victim, who is probably the first woman he has seen unclothed, and treats the case as a personal chivalric crusade. Once again, Park gets what it is to be young, sensitive, and bright. So it is a pity that, in developing a type he had captured so perfectly in the shorter story, he moves a little too close to melodrama in the longer one. Were this the whole book, my rating would be no more than four stars. But given the strength of the others, I can certainly go to five.
=====
This is the fourth David Park book I have read. I begin to think he has a special affinity for short to medium length fiction. The very fine The Poet's Wives consists of three novellas, focusing on the wives of William Blake, Osip Mandelstam, and a fictional contemporary Irish poet. His The Light of Amsterdam and The Truth Commissioner are full novels, but each consists of several distinct strands that eventually interweave; I was a little lukewarm about the Amsterdam book, but the other is one of the most constructive responses to the Troubles in Northern Ireland that I have read. Long or short, I recommend anything he writes.
On the face of it, The Big Snow,the title story in this collection of five is a police procedural, but I don’t think that is its main point. At 137 pages it is a novella really, half the length of the whole book, and its mystery is insufficient to justify that proportion on its own. But put together with the other four stories, all of which are set in Northern Ireland during the severe blizzard of 1963, it completes a quietly marvelous collection of character studies, all featuring people who are socially awkward or wrong-footed by the extreme conditions, and treating them with love and understanding. Forget the title; this is a warm book. And an especially meaningful one for me, who grew up in that part of the world, and would have been about the same age as the two youngest protagonists.
The opening story, The Light of the World, is the shortest, and hauntingly beautiful. I don’t want to say too much about it (or any of the stories) as Park is so skillful at controlling information. But it concerns a man leafing through a volume of Ansel Adams photographs while talking to his wife, who is also a photographer. She is lying in bed, and he is standing at the window, watching the falling snow, and everything is connected by beauty, pain, and that pure, pure light.
The Wedding Dress is almost as short, and equally mesmerizing. A woman scans the papers for a used bridal dress to buy for her own upcoming wedding, before she too goes out into the snow. White on white, its secret is a terrible one, and oh so sad.
At 35 pages, Against the Cold is more substantial. Mr. Peel, the headmaster of a Belfast school, works with one of his teachers, Miss Lewis, to see the pupils safely home before snow closes them down. Conscious of his noblesse oblige, he escorts her to her door. She invites him in for a cup of tea before he starts his own long trek home, but the snow falls harder and harder. Peel is the only one of the five protagonists we do not like immediately. He is authoritarian and patronizing; he fantasizes about one of the other teachers, and looks down on Miss Lewis; he is a prude, who disapproves of her having a reproduction of a couple kissing on her living-room wall (he has probably never heard of Dante Gabriel Rossetti). But they have a long day ahead of them, and things can change.…
My favorite story was the second longest at 65 pages, Snow Trails. Peter, its principal character, is the son of the local undertaker, in his first year studying French at university, and longing to get away from the small country town. He is attracted to the young wife of a Belfast businessman, who has recently bought property on the outskirts. She is at least a decade older than him, but that doesn’t lessen the intensity of his crush. When they meet, he is reading Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier [ The Lost Estate ], and is thrilled that she has read it too. Indeed, the whole story might almost be a retelling of Alain-Fournier's impossible-to-recapture romantic dream, but it is no less effective in its own terms.
And it is a similarly young protagonist, not the mystery, that is the focus of The Big Snow. Like the young Morse in Endeavour, probationary detective constable Swift is better educated and smarter than most of the people around him. But he is also green behind the ears and touchingly insecure. He is paired with an old-school sergeant named Gracey, who has no time for niceties but gets results by concentrating on the most likely culprit and squeezing a confession out of him. Only this time, Swift reckons he is wrong; most readers too will probably see the way the wind is blowing well before the halfway mark. But the real interest is in the relationship between the cub and the old grizzly, which takes some surprising turns, and in the character of Swift himself. He identifies strongly with the young murder victim, who is probably the first woman he has seen unclothed, and treats the case as a personal chivalric crusade. Once again, Park gets what it is to be young, sensitive, and bright. So it is a pity that, in developing a type he had captured so perfectly in the shorter story, he moves a little too close to melodrama in the longer one. Were this the whole book, my rating would be no more than four stars. But given the strength of the others, I can certainly go to five.
=====
This is the fourth David Park book I have read. I begin to think he has a special affinity for short to medium length fiction. The very fine The Poet's Wives consists of three novellas, focusing on the wives of William Blake, Osip Mandelstam, and a fictional contemporary Irish poet. His The Light of Amsterdam and The Truth Commissioner are full novels, but each consists of several distinct strands that eventually interweave; I was a little lukewarm about the Amsterdam book, but the other is one of the most constructive responses to the Troubles in Northern Ireland that I have read. Long or short, I recommend anything he writes.
Want to Read
August 1, 2012I love Park's lyrical style, but I started reading this at a bad time--too busy! I am filling out this review simply to preserve a beautiful and moving passage from "The Big Snow" as a reminder of why I will definitely finish reading it in the future:
"He smoothed the map again and made sure the angle was right for her eyes to see, eyes that drifted in and out of unconsciousness, the drug-fuelled respite from the pain. Then he opened the book of Ansel Adams photographs at her favourite--the one where the stretch of lake seems to hold up its fluid, animated face and pull the sky into it, like the embrace of a lover. And everything is open and brushed by light that feels like the light of the world. It was what she wanted to do, take photographs that were bigger than themselves, opening the moment into such light and space. It was what he, too, now had to do, and he was frightened that he wouldn't know how to prise open what was left and fill it with what she wanted, with what he needed" (Park 4).
And this whole first chapter was moving and beautiful--a walk through a gallery of Ansel Adams photographs that parallel the memories of a husband watching his beloved wife slip away at the hands of a terminal illness. I will definitely return to his book at a later date.
"He smoothed the map again and made sure the angle was right for her eyes to see, eyes that drifted in and out of unconsciousness, the drug-fuelled respite from the pain. Then he opened the book of Ansel Adams photographs at her favourite--the one where the stretch of lake seems to hold up its fluid, animated face and pull the sky into it, like the embrace of a lover. And everything is open and brushed by light that feels like the light of the world. It was what she wanted to do, take photographs that were bigger than themselves, opening the moment into such light and space. It was what he, too, now had to do, and he was frightened that he wouldn't know how to prise open what was left and fill it with what she wanted, with what he needed" (Park 4).
And this whole first chapter was moving and beautiful--a walk through a gallery of Ansel Adams photographs that parallel the memories of a husband watching his beloved wife slip away at the hands of a terminal illness. I will definitely return to his book at a later date.
March 8, 2016
Short of having a gun at my head or my children's lives at risk, I don't think I'll ever read another David Park hook again. His writing style is vague. Someone compared his prose to a poet and I can see that...you read things and think "is that what he's saying?" Lots of words, little action. And 3 or 4 stories. Different people in different places...which is fine. EXCEPT they never get tied together. NEVER!! 3 separate stories, only 1 has any kind of closure, the rest just end. Seriously. Add to that foul language and police brutality and this book is a bummer. Skip it.
January 26, 2012
While Parks' writing is descriptive, he failed to bring the separate stories together. Additionally, a good portion of the book dealt with only one of the character's stories.I enjoyed the descriptions, but did not enjoy the book.
April 7, 2019
What a wonderful read. Lyrical prose. Must read more
December 26, 2017
The Big Snow is a set of five short stories (or perhaps, more accurately, four short stories and a novella as the final title story takes up the whole second half of the book). All are set in Northern Ireland in the dreadful winter of 1963, and vividly portray various aspects of life in the frozen landscape. Ranging from the poignant first story, The Light of the World, which deals with a life tragically cut short by cancer, to the young infatuation of Snow Trails and the the possibility of an old cold heart being thawed in Against the Cold, many of these stories owe something to the work of William Trevor. The title story changes gear altogether, being an exercise in tense and powerful Belfast Noir that gets to the heart of the city's corrupt local government.
January 26, 2019
This is a collection of loosely interlinked short stories, which are bound together only by the fact that they all take place in the same town/area in Northern Ireland hit by a big snow storm. All the stories are very atmospheric; an effect created by Park’s lyrical writing style and his depiction of characters which are all a bit ‘off’ and focuses on relating their internal struggles with love and death. I enjoyed Park’s prose, but the stories didn’t fully gel with me. Particularly throughout the stories ‘Snow Trails’ and ‘The Big Snow’ I kept feeling uncomfortable with the narrator and the way in which they related to the woman in the story.
December 1, 2013
I neither loved nor hated this book. I think I was a little disappointed more than anything. I had expected the other characters at the start of the story would have interlinked more than they did with the main story of the murder.
Not for me.
No aliens.
Not for me.
No aliens.
January 4, 2019
Extremely well written, almost a collection of short stories held together by a "big snow" event. One book that kept me running to the dictionary to look up new words.
October 27, 2023
DNF when I started this book I had no idea that it wasn't a novel! I read about 100 pages but got bored and realised that this was a book of short stories. They might have been linked in some way but I struggled to read a whole page and tended to skim some of it. It was far too wordy for me which is why I gave up on it!
February 7, 2022
I assumed this was a novel but other than a small link between two of the books, I couldn't get the connection between the chapters. Only on reading the reviews here, do I see it described as short stories and a novella. No wonder I was confused!
I enjoyed it though.
I enjoyed it though.
April 20, 2021
The snow is what connects these short stories together.
February 2, 2023
Three or four stories that did not tie together (except for the snow) which is fine but they didn’t have any closure, they each just ended. I found the writing not great, dragged on, slow.
May 4, 2023
Interesting characters and insights.
May 23, 2025
enjoyed the ending chapter but didn't fully understand the relevance of the other stories
August 10, 2025
Five stories interconnected by place/time. I loved the first story, The Light of the World, the others were interesting but didn’t have the same depth for me.
July 10, 2026
i wanted to like this SO MUCH but it did not deliver
October 14, 2011
This shouldn't be categorized as a novel; it's a collection of four, somewhat-related short stories. All four stories entertained me and kept my interest, the last three, especially. I found the writing good - not great - and at times insightful, albeit somewhat neurotic. Park should be commended for his talent of creating three-dimensional characters, as each main character seemed as real as you or me.
It took me a while to warm up to the final, titular story, as the characters were not the types of characters with whom I ordinarily connect; however, once I became engrossed in the story, I couldn't put it down. The ending was a bit of a let down, but I couldn't really expect a group of stories to go out with a loud bang in the midst of so much dampening snow. I must consider it appropriate. Three and a half stars.
It took me a while to warm up to the final, titular story, as the characters were not the types of characters with whom I ordinarily connect; however, once I became engrossed in the story, I couldn't put it down. The ending was a bit of a let down, but I couldn't really expect a group of stories to go out with a loud bang in the midst of so much dampening snow. I must consider it appropriate. Three and a half stars.
May 27, 2010
This book is more like a series of short stories which are highly pointless and boring. The best part of the entire book was the first chapter. I wish I'd gone with my gut and stopped reading after that, as it was the only story with any meaning in the entire book. Dozens of pages from the delusional mind of an elderly woman looking for a wedding dress, a young man obsessed with a random woman, and a young detective who is almost suicidal with love over a woman he's only seen as a corpse were completely unnecessary. I felt like i was in someone's nightmare and that I couldn't wake up. If only the nightmare had been entertaining rather than slightly psychotic and mostly boring, i might have been more pleased.
March 25, 2011
I really liked this book. David Park tells the stories of several different people over a number of days in the winter of 1963 when their town in Northern Ireland gets buried in a huge snowstorm. While he does tend to go overboard with the descriptions at the expense of the narrative, Park's writing is beautiful and I found myself getting very involved in the stories.
December 3, 2013
David Park writes beautiful prose, if a little more selfconsiously and with less abandon than other writers in this genre. Maybe it feels like this because his characters often have such a bleak existence. The bleakness is exacerbated by his snowcovered landscapes which change all that is familiar to something chilling, dangerous and unpredictable.
May 26, 2025
I enjoyed the writing style in this book at times but involved three separate unlinked stories which the first too had no connection or conclusion. The third part to this book involved a detective who fell in love with a murdered woman whom he had never known alive which was so strange to me and I couldn’t get past it because why. I felt lost and bored throughout this book which was unfortunate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2014
A book consists of 5 short stories:
1- The Light of The World
2- Snow Trails
3- The Wedding Dress
4- Against The Cold
5- The Big Snow
I liked the first and second stories more than the latters. The winter season makes me feel gloomy throughout the book.
1- The Light of The World
2- Snow Trails
3- The Wedding Dress
4- Against The Cold
5- The Big Snow
I liked the first and second stories more than the latters. The winter season makes me feel gloomy throughout the book.
February 18, 2016
Short stories featuring different inhabitants of a small town in northern Ireland during the snowy winter of 1963, some of which intersect. David Park is an excellent atmospheric writer who understands people.
Not sure why the jacket compares it to Atonement though, although it is moving
Not sure why the jacket compares it to Atonement though, although it is moving
February 22, 2008
found @ library 2/21 just in time for our 1st & biggest snow/ice storm of the season!
August 5, 2009
Pretty well written. I'm just not clear, though, what the point was.
January 25, 2012
Fantastic, beautifully written novel which interweaves a number of stories in a highly original, moving and thrilling way, I loved it.
June 28, 2012
Evocative, beautifully-written and memorable. I loved the idea of separate stories that partly interact with each; it reminds me somewhat of life.
October 20, 2015
I enjoyed this book. It is more like 2 shorts stories and a long story than a novel.
October 20, 2020
Last third was engaging, murder, mystery, during first, big, storm, of winter. Was not enough appeal, to elevate status.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews