Emotive and thought provoking (Light on Snow - Anita Shreve)

Member Name: lonestarsky

Product:	Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Date:	13/05/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, page turner, haunting, thought provoking

Disadvantages: Could be upsetting for anyone grieving

I came across this book when rooting through a bag of books my aunt had set out for going to the charity shop. She told me to pick out any and this was one that caught my eye! I hadn't heard of Anita Shreve before but the blurb on the back of the book appealed to me. After reading this, however, I would be tempted to look out for others by her.

The story is told in first person, and also in present tense, which is sometimes tricky to pull off but I found it believeable and easy to read. The main character is Nicky, who is now 30 but at the time of the story was 12. I think this is why the present tense works so well; she is recounting each event as it comes to her.

Nicky and her father moved to rural New Hampshire after the death of Nicky's mother and younger sister in a car accident. Her father has given up his high-flying career in Manhattan and wants to live a life as a virtual hermit with as little contact with the outside world as possible. He makes a living selling furniture made from trees grown on their ground, while trying to allow Nicky as normal a life as possible, all the while trying to remain a recluse himself. However Nicky appears unsure by his decision to uproot themselves from their old lives and is desperate for life to be the way it was before. The story opens with them taking a regular walk through the woods after a heavy snowfall close to Christmas time. They hear a noise that they initially suspect to be a cat, however on closer inspection they come across a newborn baby abandoned in the snow.

They manage to rush the baby to hospital but the incident plays on Nicky's mind. Who is the baby? Why was it left there? What happened to its parents? And why can't she and her dad adopt it? When the baby's mother unexpectedly turns up, she opens old emotional wounds that Nicky and her father struggle to deal with, as it brings forth their own grief at losing half of their family.

As much as I hate the term, this is essentially a "coming of age" story. Nicky's desperate notion for the baby's mother and the baby to live with her and her father shows her desperation to re-create the family she has lost, although through the course of the story she comes to understand her father better and she learns that grief is a potent emotion that affects everyone differently. The entire situation surrounding the baby teaches Nicky a lot more harsh facts about life which in turn seems to help her accept her mother and sister's deaths as something she cannot change, and finally accept why her father chose to change their lives as dramatically as he did.

The novel is set over the course of a few days just before Christmas, and it is mentioned that Nicky's mother and sister also died at this time of year. The snow-filled setting is vital to the plot however I think there is a metaphorical element in there, in that life has its "winters" but they don't last forever; spring is always around the corner.

Nicky is an endearing character with the expected selfishness of a twelve-year old and the young adolescent intrigue of adult bodily functions such as periods and childbirth. By the end of the novel there are subtle changes in her character that show she is now on the breach of adulthood. Her relationship with her troubled father comes across as realistic, as does her fascination with the young mother of the abandoned baby.

With the exception of the baby discovery there are not a lot of major events in this book, but they all add up to the change in Nicky's character, which to me was the main plot line rather than the mystery surrounding the baby. The book has excellent, haunting prose with just enough detail and the ending is fitting although it did come as a surprise (the back of the edition I have has a chapter of another novel in it , so due to the thickness of the book I expected the story to go on longer than it did!)

This was a quick and easy to read book that manages to deal with sensitive issues without becoming overly depressing or heavy at any point. It is thought provoking, and details how life can deal us hard blows, but at the same time equips us with the strength to move on, if we choose to use it. I would highly recommend this book.

Summary: A great book, worth a read