Light on Snow

Rating:
Summary: What was the point?
Review: Disappointed read, didn't get to what effect this had on her life today. Finished book today and stated what a waste of time. Very Disappointing.


Rating:
Summary: Au Contraire - Shreve's Writing is Masterful Once Again
Review: Disappointing? Boring? I think not. Lights on Snow is a perfectly crafted story that isolates a particular period in a young girl's life and develops all the associated feelings that surround it. Shreve is a master as creating vivid visual images and chillingly familiar emotional responses. This book is no exception.

I am surprised at the number of negative reviews on this site. Perhaps those people prefer a more formulaic writer - someone who writes similar stories over and over. Shreve certainly does not fall into that category. I am constantly amazed by the flexibility of her imagination and the variety of stories that she has told.

This book is beautifully written and extremely poignant. The fact that there is no real closure might lead one to believe that Nicky may appear again, as an adult in a future Shreve novel. That would certainly work for me!



Rating:
Summary: SLOW-MOVING BEYOND BELIEF
Review: I am a fan of Anita Shreve and have read most of her books. I particularly enjoyed Fortunes Rocks. I was therefore greatly disapointed in Light On Snow. Indeed, in looking through many of the other reviews, I noticed that the word "disappointed" kept coming up time and time again. I guess that word just sums it all up.

The book is painstakingly slow - indeed, there were times when I was reading it when I kept thinking, "Is this some kind of joke? Could a book possibly be this painful to read?"

Virtually nothing ever happens here, and you never learn enough about the characters to care very much about them. Indeed, until I read some of the other reviews I totally forgot that the book was written by an adult looking back on her 12th winter. The book just wasn't memorable at all.

I am glad that I took this one out of the library! Anita, let's move on from this nightmare and try try again.

Rating:
Summary: Touching story
Review: I had never read Anita Shreve's work before this book. It was very heartwarming, especially as it was told through young Nicky's perspective. I only wish it hadn't ended so abruptly.

Rating:
Summary: ZZZZZZZZZZZ! SAVE YOUR MONEY & TIME!
Review: I read The Pilots Wife and thought it was alright. I have tried to read other Shreve books, but found them to be tedious and boring. This book, I forced myself to finish ONLY to see what the point was. What did I find? There was no point. This author spends 50 pages at the beginning of the book going over and over and over how pathetic the father and daughter's lives are.I got it. During the course of the story, a character explains what happened in excruciating detail. We get to read it all over again when the daughter's father regurgitates it all for the police, word for word. I don't need a description of a maxi pad shopping trip. I don't care how long the pancakes take to cook. I don't care about any of the characters because there is no depth. Shreve has diarrhea of the mouth. I have never read an author who uses so many words to say the same thing as Shreve. SHe writes in the first person. It is annoying. I have read stories in history books that were more entertaining than this garbage.

Rating:
Summary: A book for those who appreciate FINE writing
Review: I think several of these reviews are too harsh and feel the word "disappointment" is overused and inappropriate. No matter how many novels an author has produced for our reading pleasure, when it comes to reviews, I believe work should be judged on its own merit.

That said, I believe this fine author tells a sad and simple story. Light on Snow is exactly that: A simple story about simple people in a complicated situation. It's told through the reflective and wise first-person voice of a woman looking back on something extraordinary that happened to her when she was twelve-years old, and from start to finish, I was engrossed with not only the story, but the character study.

This story could be about any of our neighbors. These characters are not uncommon or bizarre, but very real and quite compelling. I couldn't help but wonder how I might respond to finding an abandoned baby or how I would feel if my mother and baby sister were recently killed in an automobile accident and I was left behind, broken and lost. Shreve's storytelling evokes empathy and is truly artistic.

Overall, I feel the writing is concise, flows well and paints beautiful scenery of a cold and icy New Hampshire winter. It reads very quickly and is a worthy effort. Also recommend: "I Capture The Castle," by Dodie Smith.

From the author of I'm Living Your Dream Life and The Things I Wish I'd Said, McKenna Publishing Group.


Rating:
Summary: Touching story
Review: It was a good book. I don't know why it was bashed so much. It was a quick read which is a plus. And I thought the relationship between the father and daughter was interesting. Yes, the author didn't wrap the ending up for any of the characters (which would have been nice), but you can make your own happily ever after ending. I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Christmas Bundle
Review: Just days before Christmas, 1983, 12-year-old Nicky Dillon and her father Robert hear a strange cry in the woods they are exploroing. Curious, they investigate the source of the sound and find a newborn girl wrapped in a sleeping bag and left in a bundle of snow.

Father and daughter bundle the foundling and rush her to the hospital to report an abandoned and endangered infant. After enduring a grueling interrogation, Robert Dillon packs Nicky for their long trek home.

The baby's mysterious arrival and placement under the tree haunt the fictional rural community of Shepherd, New Hampshire; local news coverage thrust the Dillons into an unwelcome spotlight. Fearful of most social contact since the loss of his wife and infant daughter Clara in an automobile accident two years earlier, Robert leaves New York State with Nicky in the hopes of starting afresh. Finding the baby in the snow throws all of his protective armor into a tailspin.

Nicky, also is starting to spread her wings. Resentful at being forced to move from her comfortable home in New York State and live in an insular community, she asserts her independence. She challenges her father's quasi-hermit lifestyle. Their home has no television; Robert does not have a subscription to the newspaper and only very reluctantly had a telephone installed in the home some six months prior to finding the baby in the snow. He shuns most outside contact and Nicky's main source of socialization comes from classmates and the few neighbors in her area. Never has her mettle been so tested as when she meets the foundling's mother.

There are no heroes or villians in this story. Meeting the baby's mother forces both father and daughter to confront some daunting truths about themselves as well as what forces drove the desperate young woman and the father of the baby. No promises are made and all emerge sadder, but wiser.

Rating:
Summary: Light on Snow Sheds Light on Newborn Law
Review: Ohio's Safe Haven for Newborns law, which went into effect in 2001, allows babies to be surrendered at any hospital emergency room or law enforcement agency within 72 hours of birth, as long as the baby is unharmed. As of January 2005, more than 30 newborns have been turned in to authorities across Ohio since the law passed. The law protects babies whose parents are unable to care for them, allowing for total confidentiality for parents.

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve brings the need of this law to the public. As I read the book I kept thinking that if this young couple had knowledge of this law they could have saved their baby and themselves a load of grief, sorrow and shame. As it worked out it was a life-changing experience for the mother, father, finders and keepers.

After losing his wife and baby to an automobile accident, Robert Dillon takes 12-year-old daughter, Nicky, to live in a remote wooded area in New Hampshire. The former professional takes up woodworking and holes up most of the days in his workshop making furniture to sell to tourists. On one of their regular daily walks in the woods, father and daughter think they hear sounds of a crying baby. The snowfall is heavy and they are wearing snowshoes to walk the paths and this makes their search slow going. They come upon a crying newborn wrapped in a sleeping bag, buried in the snow. They get the baby to the hospital and it survives and the story continues as a mystery of who, what, where, when. The young Nicky is mature for her age and makes some good judgment calls and her bereaving father goes along with them. This is a sad story, but one that comes true to life much too often. This was an eye opener and made me see the need and importance of the Ohio's Safe Haven for Newborns law. Maybe this review will aid in making more people aware of this law and the resource it offers. A good book in many ways and I highly recommend it to most.


















Rating:
Summary: A departure for Shreve, but not completely satisfying
Review: While I am a long time fan of Shreve & have loved most of her previous works- Light on Snow would not make my favorite list. I think she was trying something new, but it didn't quite work as well as her other stories have.

The story of a father & daughter begins when they find an abandoned baby in the snow. As they get her to the hospital, are questioned by the police and wait to see if she'll live- we get a glimpse into their past and the tragedy they've endured. I don't want to give anything else that happens away, but I will repeat what the book description says about a girl entering their lives afterwards and bringing change into it.

The story was poetical at times, and the suspense kept me flipping the pages. I did enjoy the characters and come to care what happened to them. I do agree with one other reviewer who mentioned the book ended on a flat note- to which I also mostly agree. However, the pages in between the first & the last were pretty satisfying- so I would recommend this book with the statement that it's not her best. I'd whole-heartedly recommend: Fortunes Rocks, Eden Close, Weight of Water & Sea Glass.