Snow Angels

by Stewart O'Nan

Now a major motion picture from Warner Independent starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale

In Stewart O'Nan's Snow Angels , 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.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Novels, Audiobook, Book Club, Crime

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Stewart O'Nan is the author of eighteen novels, including Emily, Alone; Last Night at the Lobster; A Prayer for the Dying; Snow Angels; and the forthcoming Ocean State, due out from Grove/Atlantic on March 8th, 2022.

With Stephen King, I’ve also co-written Faithful, a nonfiction account of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, and the e-story “A Face in the Crowd.”

You can catch me at stewart-onan.com, on Twitter @stewartonan and on Facebook @stewartONanAuthor

Reviews

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by O’Nan. My husband is a fan and has been pushing for me to read his books.I’m glad I finally did!

Arthur Parkinson returns to Western Pennsylvania once a year to visit his mother. He has never gotten over the circumstances that encompassed his life in 1974, when he was 14 years old.

“Over the years it has become a bit of a ritual for me to drive by our old house and stop to contemplate it. It’s a form of stalling, of warming for the hard part.”

“I think that if I concentrate on the details I will be able to make sense of the whole, that I will finally understand everything that happened back then, when I know that I can’t.”

The story is told through his adult eyes as he looks back- the year his parents separated; the year his beloved babysitter is murdered. We follow Arthur as he tries to cope with the fallout of his parents’ separation- the bitterness, the fights- with him smack in the middle. His sister, Astrid, is away, so there is no one else to turn to.

We also learn about Annie and her broken marriage and the paths she takes- mostly not good choices.

This is a bleak book. People lead complicated, messy lives and there are usually repercussions. Stewart O’Nan doesn’t serve us up a tidy, happy ending- no, he gives us a true, honest ending. In both storylines, the ones most affected are the innocent.

Published: 1994

[Berengaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

short review for busy readers: a superb literary novel about the ending of love relationships and the ripple effect that has on those around the couple. An astounding range of individual perspectives, opinions and fates. All real, all gripping. Wonderful, unpretentious prose and deftly drawn characters.

in detail:
After having read Last Night at the Lobster earlier this year and being completely bowled over by it, I decided to try another Stewart O’Nan. And I wasn’t disappointed!

Again the focus is on the interconnectivity of a ‘team’ that’s breaking up. In “Lobster” it was a restaurant crew, in “Snow Angels” it’s the marriages of parents with young children.

Our main focus character and first person narrator is Arthur. He’s an adult now, but events of one particular year when he was a teenager still haunt him. Not only was it the year he was a front row spectator to the creaking break-up of his parents’ marriage, but it was also the year in which his former babysitter, Annie, was murdered and her ex-husband committed suicide after their three-year old daughter died.

These traumatic events and his participation in them shaped Arthur far beyond what he was willing to admit at the time.

In unadorned, gripping prose, O’Nan shows us Arthur and Annie – and their families -- as disaster strikes, taking what remains of their old lives with it.

Neither one of these two are perfect and neither one of them handle the situation like a “reasonable person” might. Arthur is too young and hormonal and Annie is not a terribly bright, nor responsible individual. They make mistakes and fail to do what might have been best for themselves and those around them.

While I enjoyed “Lobster” more, I found myself not wanting to put “Snow Angels” down. It’s sad and touching, the emotional suffering of all these people, but at the same time, the plot develops a rip tide pull that carries you along with it, floating you through the destruction and reconstruction, right to the very end.

A highly accomplished and highly enjoyable read.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small towns are often portrayed as picturesque or quaint; and the inhabitants of these towns are often described as close-knit... having each other's backs and being available for each other in good times and bad. In Stewart O'Nan's novel, Snow Angels, he suggests that many small towns also have a darker side... harboring secrets of tragedies which no one can bear to speak of, even decades later. In this novel, the tragedy occurs in Butler, Pennsylvania. The town really exists but as far as I know, this particular tragedy never actually occurred. Butler is an old town (settled in 1803) and is situated in the rolling hills 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. The story takes place in 1974 and according to census data from that time, Butler had about 18,000 residents; and one of these residents is our narrator.. Arthur 'Arty' Parkinson. The Arty who is relating the story to us is a grown man but as you will see, he feels compelled to tell the story of his childhood and describe how his coming of age came to be so intertwined with the tragic events of the winter of 1974.

Although Arty is grown and has long since moved away from Pennsylvania, every year at Christmastime, he feels a pull toward his childhood home. What draws him back each year are the dual tragedies which occurred in his 14th year of life. There are two tracks to the story Arty tells... there is his own personal family tragedy playing out at the very time of the tragedy which left a scar on the entire town... the tragic death of a young woman named Annie Marchand. Annie's death is not a spoiler as it happens at the very beginning of the book. The story begins with Annie's death and works backward through time , revealing the circumstances which led up to that death.

It was a snowy and cold early-December day in western Pennsylvania when Arty heard the gunshots which ended Annie Marchand's life. Annie's life had been a mess for some time. Annie, who had been separated from her husband Glenn, working as a waitress but still unable to meet her bills and having an affair with her best friend's boyfriend... was living in a small house with her very young daughter Tara. The house they were living in was separated from the local high school by only the width of a small field. Arty, who was a member of the high school marching band, was outside with his bandmates practicing for the last football game of the season when the loud, sharp report of the gunfire was heard. Perhaps in a city, a person becomes somewhat accustomed to such tragedies but in a small town, where every person knows every other person, this tragedy was shocking; and to Arty, this tragedy was personal. He had a history of sorts with Annie Marchand. At one time, she had been his babysitter. She had been the 'cool' older woman and he had been fascinated with everything about her... from the scent of her freshly shampooed hair to the plum color of the nail polish she wore to the way she smoked her cigarettes.

What was most moving to me about this story was just how completely the town's collective tragedy became so intertwined with Arty's grief over his personal family tragedy. At the same time the town was mourning Annie's death, Artie's family was falling apart. His mother and father's marriage was ending and Arty was charged with the task of choosing only his most prized possessions to take along to the efficiency apartment he would be sharing with his mother.. an apartment which could barely hold the two of them.

I found it so easy to paint a mental picture of this scene... there was Arty on the cusp of manhood, caught between warring and bickering parents whom he loved but had put him in an impossible position... feeling the grief over the loss of his family, his home and the only life he had ever known and having no one with whom he could talk about this loss. Combine this loss with his confusion and grief over Annie's murder... probably the first woman to have captured his imagination... and I could easily understand how it came to be that year after year, Artie was still haunted by his losses and having difficulty putting them in any kind of perspective.

With 'Snow Angels', Stewart O' Nan has written a hauntingly beautiful story of loss and grief and how it feels to be a boy on the verge of becoming a man and experiencing the first great losses among what might be a life full of losses.. large and small. I admit that I search for novels written by Mr. O'Nan because he has set many of them in Pennsylvania and I find those stories comforting... not having to IMAGINE those settings but instinctively KNOWING them as intimately as I know the rooms of my own home. In this novel, Mr. O'Nan masterfully used this western Pennsylvania setting to evoke the feelings of desolation, loss and grief.... there is nothing I know of that can evoke those feelings better than the cold and grey wintry Pennsylvania landscape. And Arty... with his down jacket, tasseled Pittsburgh Steeler hat and his "shitkicker" boots, hunched over against the cold, icy wind.. well, he could have been a boy from my own childhood. 'Snow Angels' was Stewart O'Nan's outstanding debut novel but it sure wasn't his last!

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

It really equates to a 4 star in the writing and the balance of the duo marriage stories. But my enjoyment of it was below 3. O'Nan writes actual common folks at a 5 star level, consistently. I love his work much more when he also meanders into whimsy and minutia of era and place, and never as much when he hits his deepest notes of tragedy. This is prime tragedy. Recognizing all of these individuals, there were few that caught my concern- and none that grabbed my affection. Flawed, flawed people making circular decisions in ever downward spirals. Life reflected for sure. Very depressing to read for me. I wanted to grab Annie by her hair to yank her out of her mindlessness and cruelty cocoon into some measure of semi-adult self-identity. Weak and selfish people with lack of sensibility to moral values or emotionally sound focus dominate this novel. They're all predominantly reactive and most rudderless to knowledge of their own purpose. To such an extent that I could not get embedded in their eventual outcomes, so it was a 2.5 in enjoyment for the read.

[Lawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snow Angels, Stewart O'Nan's novel of family life

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

It is 1974 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Arthur is fourteen. His older sister, Astrid is in military service, flying high over Russia, photographing bits and pieces of a very cold country in a very cold war. But the real war is back in Butler, on the home front.

Arthur's mother and father are splitting up. His mother explains to him that she loved another man and his father could not forgive her. She adds that she was not the villainess, Arty's father had his own women on the side.

At the same time, Annie Marchand, the perfect babysitter who had watched Arthur and Astrid while their parents lived out the motions of happiness in a marriage, has problems of her own. Life hasn't turned out well for the pretty babysitter, now grown, married, and the mother of a beautiful little girl, Tara.

Annie's problem is her husband Glenn. He's not a bad sort. In fact, he's so damned nice. He's the excited puppy, bouncing from job to job that he can never keep. No matter how good his intentions, Glenn finds reasons to be late for work. Too much booze. Too little interest. Another job hunt. Annie soldiers on as the family breadwinner, a waitress at the club, overlooking the golf course.

It is a cold winter afternoon. Mr. Chervinick has the band practicing out on the soccer field, preparing for the last half-time show of the football season. Arthur, in the trombone line, a highschool freshman, numbly marches through the drill routine, obliques and a whirlwind maneuver that Chervinick calls the tornado, a movement the band never can perform to their director's satisfaction.

As Jimmy Buffet sings, "There ain't to reason to hurricane season." A tornado is something that can't be controlled, nor can a high school band replicate its movements on a practice field.

During their attempt to swirl and twirl across the practice field, gunshots ring out. This is where our story begins.

From that point on, O'Nan deftly weaves the stories of Arthur and Annie's families. There is a terrible beauty in the symmetry of the death of two marriages. After stormy screaming matches between his mother and father, Arthur's family dissolves in a whimper. Annie's ends in those gunshots that reverberate over the practice field.

Moving between the voices of Arthur, Annie, her bad boy lover, Brock, and husband Glenn, slowly spiralling into madness, Snow Angels sings with the power of a Greek chorus in building to an unavoidably tragic conclusion.

While O'Nan weaves all the strands of a spider's intricate web of emotion, interspersed are moments of dark humor as Arthur suffers the consequences of his parents' divorce. No longer able to sustain two homes equivalent to their former household, Arthur finds himself living in the most efficient of efficiency apartments, a former retreat for ministers, now converted into family apartments. The chapel has been demolished, but its foundation stands as a reminder of its former role. It is a place Arthur and his bus mates laughed at on their way to school. It is the home of twin sisters Lily and Lila, also the butt of Arthur and his friends crude humor. Now Arthur waits for the bus with Lily and Lila, slowly finding himself attracted to Lila. He wonders what she would look like without her glasses and what her body might be like underneath the home sewn clothes she wears.

We follow Arthur through obtaining his learner's permit, his father's sporadic and awkward weekend visits. Arthur's father teaches him to drive in a battered car belonging to his paternal aunt. His mother, also a waitress, as is Annie, has kept the family Country Squire, the quintessential automotive image of the perfect family's perfect automobile, a reminder of family vacations during happier days. These days cannot be recreated. They can only be remembered.

Astrid appears as a distant voice on telephone calls from Germany. She is removed from the cold war at home. Although she asks Arthur if he would like her to take leave and come home as he doesn't seem to be taking care of their mother, clearly she has no intention of doing so. Arthur takes satisfaction in knowing where her secret stash of weed is, the pipes, the bongs, the papers. That will show her.

We watch as Arthur sets out on his trek to adulthood, desperately trying to arrive there in the arms of Lila. She's very nice without her glasses on. And, oh God, the bra is off. Oh, God, what is beneath that awful binding garment is beyond Arthur's wildest dreams. And the wheels on the bus go round and round. What a reminiscence--the opening of the old television show, "Ben Casey." Perhaps you remember it. "Man. Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity." http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=... That's O'Nan's marvelous novel in a nutshell.

Snow angels. I've made them as a child. I've watched my children make them. Giddy moments of the exhilaration of being a child and alive. In this novel, snow angels are not symbols of happiness but the bleak harbingers of unhappiness and a tornado of death and violence that will forever haunt the reader.

Yes, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This novel almost makes you wonder if there is such a thing as reincarnation.

Born in 1961, Stewart O'Nan took his MFA from Cornell in 1992. His short story collection, In the Walled City, was awarded the Druse Heinz in 1993. His manuscript of Snow Angels captured the first Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize for the Novel, awarded by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans in 1993. The novel was published in January, 1994.

O'Nan's latest novel is The Odds, out January, 2012. I'll have Mr. O'Nan sign that at the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama on January 23, this week, when I'll also respectfully ask him to sign my copy of this novel and his award winning collection of short fiction, In the Walled City.

Rating: A solid 4.5 out of 5

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine amerikanische Kleinstadt in den 70er Jahren: Aus verschiedenen Perspektiven, vor allem aus der eines 15-Jährigen, wird zum einen die Geschichte der Trennung seiner Eltern erzählt, zum anderen die Geschichte seiner früheren Babysitterin. Auch diese hat sich von ihrem Mann getrennt und bleibt mit ihrem Kind zurück; aber diese Geschichte endet mit dem, was wir aus den Nachrichten als Familiendrama kennen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Bigotterie der Kleinstadt; Beziehungen, die in Trostlosigkeit enden; Trennungen und Affären, die auch keinen Ausweg bieten.

Der Mord, der auf der Rückseite meiner Ausgabe als Aufhänger dienen muss, ist dabei nur der Höhepunkt der geschilderten Tragödie. Es handelt sich nicht, wie suggeriert wird, um eine Kriminalgeschichte, auch wenn sich erst sukzessive die Puzzleteile zusammenfügen. Es ist vielmehr eine Geschichte menschlicher Sehnsüchte und Enttäuschungen – gut beobachtet und mit viel Empathie erzählt.

[Dara S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed O' Nan's non-fiction so I was excited to read this. If you are looking for a book that will make you feel warm and fuzzy, has a moral or is inspiring this is not it.
This book was dark and depressing. Nothing turned out well for any of the characters.
After I finished it, I was like what was the point of that? I felt it kind of left you up in the air and nothing was resolved. O'Nan writes well, just not a very uplifting story.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Last Night at the Lobster, I became a fan of Stewart O'Nan and knew that I would be reading more from him. Snow Angels is the first novel O'Nan wrote, and my second read from this author. The story is narrated by Arthur Parkinson, who was 14 years old during the winter of 1974 and living in the small town of Butler, Pennsylvania. This is the winter that his parents separate and his family falls apart. He and his mom move into a run-down little apartment, his dad is dating someone new, his mom is angry and depressed and coming undone, and Arthur's sister Astrid is calling from her station in Germany every so often to blame Arthur for not doing more to "fix" the situation. Simultaneously, we learn the story of Annie Marchand, Arthur's childhood babysitter, who is down on her luck with things continuously getting worse. The parallel storylines lead up to the event of her murder one cold snowy evening while Arthur is at band practice and everyone hears the gunshot.

The only reason I'm giving this one 4 stars instead of 5 is because I got confused with the timeline early on. I eventually figured it out, but it made everything feel a bit disjointed in the beginning. Basically, Arthur is now an adult and is looking back on what happened during the winter of 74, as he and Astrid are visiting their old hometown for Christmas. This is stated in Ch.1, and then Ch.2 begins in October of 74 and switches perspectives between Arthur, Annie, and a few people connected to Annie as things lead up to her murder. I didn't really feel this was quite clear enough in the beginning; but then again, I may have been half-asleep when I began the book.


ETA: I'm changing my rating to 5 stars, because the story has remained with me all day after finishing the book. The story really sucks you in and gives you a great understanding of why the characters are the way that they are. The setting is fantastically described, and the snowy weather is as gray as the characters' circumstances. It's not a feel-good book by any means, but it is complex and meaningful and realistic.

**I just realized this was made into a movie in 2007, starring Kate Beckinsale. Can't wait to watch it!**

[Natascha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engel im Schnee ist durch und durch ein typischer Roman von Stewart O'Nan. Die Geschichte beginnt mit einem Verbrechen, welches dann aber in den Hintergrund rückt und Platz macht für die Charaktere und deren zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen. Anstatt das Verbrechen aufzulösen wird sich hier darauf konzentriert wie es überhaupt dazu kommen konnte und was es im Nachhinein für Auswirkungen auf alle hat.

Engel im Schnee ist eine sehr traurige Geschichte die, das muss man ehrlich sagen, keine Lichtblicke enthält und sich mit den weniger guten Zeiten im Leben aller Beteiligten befasst. Gleichzeitig hat man aber nie das Gefühl, dass Stewart O'Nan es übertreibt, so dass sich die Handlung und auch die Entwicklung der einzelnen Personen immer realistisch anfühlt.

Ich mag es sehr wie Stewart O'Nan seine Geschichten aufbaut und erzählt, kann aber auch verstehen, dass einigen mit diesem gemächliche Tempo und der Konzentration auf die scheinbar unwichtigen Aspekte der Handlung nicht viel anfangen können. Wem starke Charaktere aber wichtiger sind als eine rasante Handlung wird mit diesem Autor sicher seine Freude haben.

[Barb H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Parkinson was 14 when his former, beloved babysitter, Annie, was murdered. This we discover at the outset of this book. The story is narrated throughout by the adult Arthur and some of the other prime characters. It focuses on the period surrounding this slaying and also the traumatic divorce of the young Artie.

O'Nan proficiently conveyed the emotional impact that each person was experiencing. His handling of the actions and behavior of this adolescent boy was particularly vivid and astute. For the most part, the characters in this novel, residents of a small Western Pennsyvania town, lived grueling, hand-to-mouth existences. Each seemed to lack the inner resources to deal with problematic interpersonal relationships,problem solving, or worse, with profound tragedy. The latter seemed to prevail in this township.

Snow Angels is skillfully conceived and, for the most part, interest is well fueled by O'Nan's writing, but I could not gain enough enthusiasm to rate it more than 3 stars.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1994, I am 27 years behind the times on this one. I have never truly appreciated O’Nan’s understated style - never felt like I had enough material to get a grip but this one seemed to get under my skin.

[Tripp]

A good book to read if you want to see how elastic point-of-view can become in the hands of a skillful writer. O'Nan easily moves from the rotating third-person--often distant to the point of omniscience--present tense viewpoint of one storyline, that of the multiple tragedies that befall Glenn and Annie Marchand, to the first-person, past tense account of 14-year-old Arthur Parkinson, narrating at a remove of some decades the more ordinary tragedy of his parents' unraveling marriage after 23 years. All of this takes place in a marvelously evoked late 1970s setting of small town Pennsylvania.

At the book's midpoint, O'Nan delivers the first of two almost unbearable scenes, proving the maxim that extreme emotion is best portrayed by paradoxically using neutral language. He also shifts briefly into the future tense, moving to the story-present of middle-aged Arthur as he looks back on this searing moment:

The hunt has spread across the interstate to the middle school grounds. Trucks file by the flares, the troopers' orange-coned flashlights. The Army Reserve has promised two squads if this should go until tomorrow.

Yet it will not be any of these searchers who finds Tara, but a fourteen-year-old from the high school marching band, small for his size, generally ignored, in fact, myself, Arthur Parkinson, who, because she is dead, will not be a hero--will not, years from now, even be remembered around town as the one who found her--but who with Annie and Glenn and Brock and May and Frank and Olive and Clare and Barb, will find Tara again and again throughout his life and never ever lose her.

I love this passage. It's as if O'Nan has distilled a pure essence of sadness and decanted it onto the page.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first impression of this book was that it was meant for 6th graders. The font size used was huge and made it appear as if it had 10 words per page.

Once I started reading it, I realized I wasn't too far off. While the subject matter is too much of a downer for a nine year old, the way the story was written would have made them feel right at home. The sentences were choppy and had no weight to them.

There were so many missed opportunities that could have made this book a knockout, but were simply washed away. The deaths of several characters were described in at most 2 simply written paragraphs. I was left with a feeling of wanting more (or really SOMETHING) and getting handed simply a statement.

You don't get a sense of love or hatred for any of the characters. While a lot of situations were sad, they were just that. Sad. Then you moved on. You didn't relate to the characters just the situation, which when it comes to reading a 300 page book, would help.

I was disappointed by this book as it was recommended by someone who reads a massive amount of books. This book will definitely be sold at the next yard sale. No reason to keep it.

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

PAINFULLY BORING.

“Give a hoot. Don’t pollute.”—Woodsy Owl

‘Snow Angels,’ by Stewart O’Nan is an extremely dull, marginally disgusting. ‘slice-of-life’ tale about an excruciatingly uninteresting group of people—none of whom I could ever care to know for more than five minutes.

Recommendation: Don’t waste your time.

“…I caught a spicy whiff of her herbal deodorant.”

Overdrive MP3 Audiobook, on loan from http://overdrive.colapublib.org

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts with murder. 14yo Arthur's long ago babysitter, Annie, has been killed(not a spoiler) and his parents are getting divorced. We are taken back to the events that lead up to the murder in alternating chapters. It's about loss, love, and ultimately a sliver of hope. This appears bleak, but in Stewart O'Nan's hands, it's a great read with beautiful imagery. I really enjoyed this one.

[Watchdogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snow Angels by Stewart O'Nan
Published in 1994 by Doubleday

Briefest of thumbnails -
A haunting first novel is actually two stories--Arty's account of his family's breakup and the life and death of Annie Marchand, a young woman he adored as a child.

My thoughts -
Having read "Ocean State" and "Last Night at the Lobster" within the past two years, I knew that this author could spin a good tale and I was not disappointed with this latest read.

Not a happy or amusing story at all. O'Nan consistently presented a glimpse into small town life in Western PA with a focus on two families that are seamlessly connected throughout. The story takes place in late fall and early winter with both Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays, but none of the main characters can be described as thankful, joyful, or spiritually centered.

In fact, the overriding condition for most of the characters can be described as unfulfilled, dismal, bleak, even tragic.

I have to hand it to the author for his unwavering ability to portray his characters in a consistent manner. All too often an author will include uncharacteristic qualities in their characters to round them out or to expand their personalities, but O'Nan does not fall for that trap and instead delivers uniformity throughout.

After three reading successes, I'm not hesitant to seek out another by this author.

[Jeanie ~ MyFairytaleLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven’t read anything by Stewart O’Nan, I highly recommend his books. This novel is full of emotion and the what if’s of choices being made by the characters. We know from the beginning Annie has been murdered. What we don’t know is the who and why. The author writes relationships and dialogue with perfection. He manages to make it so realistic that it feels like I’m right there. Everything made sense in the end, whether I was happy with that or not. I’ve saved this book for a long time as I knew it was one I’d love and I wanted to take my time with it. It lived up to all my expectations.

I loved the nods to Minnesota since that’s where I live. Malcolm Hillgartner narrates the audiobook beautifully. The book was made into a movie in 2007 staring Kate Beckinsale.

My favorites by this author include The Night Country, Speed Queen, The Good Wife, Songs for the Missing, Last Night at the Lobster and most recently Ocean State. Honestly, pick any of his books as you simply can’t go wrong.

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

ocr:
p94: Parkinson, who, because she is dead, will not be a hero--will not, years from now, even be remembered around town as the one who found her--but who, with Annie and Glenn and Brock and May and Frank and Olive and Clare and Barb, will find Tar a again and again throughout his life and never ever lose her.

p112: "Was it the, same room?" Annie asks.

A bit tame for my taste. Wasn't so bad for a debut, though.

[Daniel Polansky]

Growing up in the 90s you kind of got the sense that the pinnacle of high literature were books by whiny middle-aged white dudes about their parents getting divorced in suburbia. I think this was a lot of the reason I was such a resolute fan of genre stuff at that point in my life, I just got so fucking sick of reading lists of artifacts in childhood bedrooms, and uncomfortable sexual revelations from unhappy men. Anyhow, Snow Angel admittedly resembles the above but more working class and less self-indulgent, a tautly sketched, sincerely felt depiction of love’s power to wound. Good stuff.

[Max Emanuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein sehr emotionales Buch aus der Sicht des Teenagers Arthur, der gerade die bekannte Kein Bock und Kein Interesse-Phase durchlebt. Kiffend und im Rebellmodus gegen die sich streitenden und Halbgeschiedenen Eltern erzählt er von seinem Leben in der Junior High Scool des kleinen Kaffs. Es wird aber auch von anderen Perspektiven berichtet, meistens Kapitelweise. Eine sehr emotionale und mitfühlende Geschichte.

[☕Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings:

Writing 4
Story line 4
Characters 4
Impact 3

Overall rating: 3.75

[JennyB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally like Stewart O'Nan, but I found this book disappointing. Maybe it's one of his earlier efforts -- I wouldn't call it amateurish, but while he covers some of the same themes as in later novels, here they seem more vague and unfinished. It is basically two intersecting stories: one about teenager Arthur Parkinson handling his parents' divorce, and a related one about tragic events that happen to Arthur's former babysitter, Annie Marchand.

Annie's story has more action and interest than Arthur's, in my opinion, but it's difficult to write much about it without spoilers giving everything away. So, let me stick to the margins that won't ruin the story for readers.

Even if this is an early effort, no one does cold like O'Nan. Many of his stories are set in wintry, cold and snowy locales, and his description of them admirably permeates the atmosphere of the whole story. You feel the dim white winter sun lacking the power to warm, see the stark lines of barren trees covered in snow, and sense everywhere the death and biting cold that winter brings. Reading about these elements in O'Nan's fiction, you feel them as qualities that seep into the characters, as much as they describe the landscape. O'Nan also chooses marginal, dying, former industrial towns, and makes you know the pinch of poverty and hopelessness in those places. In this case, his location is Butler PA, a nowhere town in the shadow of Pittsburgh, known for being Ice Box of the State, since it's consistently the coldest location in Western PA.

In the beginning of Arthur's narrative, there are elements of foreshadowing that O'Nan never quite fulfills, which makes me believe that he had greater ambitions for tying this story together than he was ultimately able to live up to. And, although it is supposed to be the point of the story, Arthur never really does confront and come to terms with the life events that happen to him. Basically, his way of dealing with them is to get high and NOT deal with them, which is admirably realistic, but not the most compelling literary resolution.

Overall, this is a quick, easy read, and enjoyable to a certain extent -- sadly just not the same extent that O'Nan's fiction usually achieves. For a better introduction to what O'Nan does so well, pick up The Night Country instead.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Staggerford could not do for me, Snow Angels could. Instead of the make-believe Staggerford, Minnesota, O'Nan's first novel takes place north of Pittsburgh in the very real Butler, Pennsylvania, complete with Steelers fans and arguments about the correct way to pronounce "milk". Taking place in the seventies, it's another story of small-town secrets, about how lives are connected in sometimes very subtle ways, and about how everyone feels it when something happens extraordinary.

The story is told from the perspective of one of the members of the town, Arthur Parkinson, grown up now and reflecting on what happened when he was fourteen and his life and family was falling apart. In the meantime his former babysitter's life is also falling apart, though in a strikingly different way. What happens to Annie and her family is the extraordinary that affects the entire town and makes everyone question if things will ever be normal again.

Now becoming familiar with O'Nan's writing I recognized at least one entire chapter that was previously published as the short story Finding Amy in the short story collection I previously read, In the Walled City. It made me realize how a simple short story can be expanded upon to create a full-length novel.

I've read some mention about Snow Angels coming out as a movie soon, though all I know about it is it stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore - while I can imagine Rockwell as a character in the book, I'm having trouble deciding how Beckinsale and Barrymore would fit in a movie version as I have yet to see either of them successfully pull off a sincerely dark character (and no, Barrymore's Poison Ivy does not exactly count!).

The bottom line is for a first novel O'Nan has accomplished much and I continue to look forward to getting around to reading the rest of his books.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fourth O'Nan book. Immediate impression: this guy can do bleak.

I lived in central PA for many years, and his description of Butler in winter brought to mind the monochromatic landscapes, shabby houses exposed by leafless trees, chain restaurants and strip malls, and beater cars that I remember from that time.

The interior lives of the characters in Snow Angels reflect these exteriors. Employment is limited to service work, manual labor, no one appears to enjoy their occupations. No one is better than they ought to be: careless of friendships, loyalties, mates, children. Lives are marked by alcohol, infidelity, and despair.

The narrator speaks from his fourteenth year, playing trombone with his middle school band as they consistently fail to meet the expectations of the school bandleader. He gets high, works at Burger Hut, watches his parents marriage dissolve in acrimony, moves to an apartment where lack of heat causes the windows to frost inside at an address that embarrasses him, falls in love with a neighbor.

At the same time, bad things happen to the feckless with redemption for none.

I like O'Nan's spare, evocative writing style.

"It was dusk, the dark was falling a little earlier each day; below, in town, the streetlights came on in strings, as if in a humming room somewhere a man was flicking switches."

In this book, like The Good Wife, the narrative seems like reportage, without judgment, and without much hope, either.

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

One word that I would use to describe this book would be depressing. I should have just read the first two chapters and then the last one. The information and plot in between was really a waste of time. It seems like everyone was having relationship issues and a way to help them cope was to separate and have an affair with someone. The only two things that I could think of that were nice was the relationship between Arthur and his best friend, Warren, as well as his relationship with one of the twins (I have already forgot which one he went out with Lily or Lila, I think it was Lila). Both relationships were rarely highlighted when you compare it to the other topics of: Arthur's parent’s rocky relationship/divorce, Annie and Glen's relationship, Annie cheating with Brock (her best friend's husband), Annie's relationship with her daughter and then her tragic death, followed by Annie getting killed and Glen committing suicide. Again it was very depressing.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick 10 minute review: O'Nan is always able to write with a certain endearing realistic aesthetic that allows the reader to relate to some aspect or character in every one of his novels. In his debut, Snow Angels, he basically examines the 3 different stages of a failed relationship. The story is told through the eyes of Arthur Parkinson and juxtaposes between his life: falling in love for the first time, getting high with his best friend, and dealing with his parents' recent separation, to the characters Annie and Glenn who recently divorced.

Each character in the novel is flawed in some way. While some are more flawed than others, you find a way to relate to them. O'Nan writes with such emotional intensity that we always find ourselves caring about the characters he creates, despite the bad things they've done. No one is perfect and O'Nan expresses that.

Quick Summation: It is a very captivating novel that is easy to immerse yourself in the flawed yet beautiful world of.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read this as "filler" while I was waiting for a couple of books to come in. It was on a display at the library labeled "Books Recently Made Into Movies," so I thought I'd give it a try.

It starts out like it's going to be pretty interesting, with the murder of Annie, who is Arthur's former babysitter. (Arthur being the primary narrator.) Then it gets mostly boring for a long time, then the last 50 or 60 pages are fairly good.
On the positive side, the writer has a very spare writing style, nothing superfluous, making it easy to read.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sad story of an abused wife and mother, told in part, from the interesting perspective of an adult male who was only loosely connected to the main character. (she was his babysitter when he was younger and he had a crush on her.) Once you start the book you can't put it down and you will probably finish it as I did in one sitting (good airplane book). I liked the author's style. I wish i could be more enthusiastic, as i did like the author a lot, but the story is too sad.

[Martha Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stays with you for a long time. Simple language,complex thoughts about the human condition.