- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Emblem Editions (Mar 11 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771075812
- ISBN-13: 978-0771075810
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #834,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In this novel set in the BC interior town of Sawmill Creek, 17-year-old Harper is experiencing the pains and thrills of her first leap into the adult world. The coming-of-age story pans back and forth between Harper's eventful experiences and the difficult childhood of her new boyfriend, Gabe, who grew up in California and on a hippie "art farm" near Sawmill Creek, where he has returned. Harper is drawn to the farm, away from the house she shares with her little brother and her long-suffering mother, Vera, and she joins Gabe there, much to the chagrin, if not horror, of her mother's fellow churchgoers, especially the insidious Pastor John. Pressures from all sides add to Harper's well-drawn confusion.
Although the story is needlessly complicated by scenes from Vera's earlier life as a farm girl set adrift by the freedoms of the Sixties, the energetic writing flows like a B.C. river, fast and full. As the seasons try to change from winter to spring under fickle skies, Harper too is trying to be born into a new type of life. But there are many obstacles lurking: adolescent angst and the thick, sweet smoke of the Sixties permeate this novel, as well as the spirit of lost illusions, on both personal and social levels. --Mark Frutkin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“Rosnau’s sensitive portrayal of the liminal world of adolescence captivates.…Deft, passionate.…Rosnau is one writer whose book lives up to the jacket hype.…Fresh, original, funny and rife with insight.…A stunning debut. . . .”
–Toronto Star
“Delicate and powerful, all-encompassing.…The Sudden Weight of Snow is compassionately conceived and beautifully written. The characters and language insinuate themselves into the mind and become an unshakeable and welcome part of a reader’s landscape.”
–Edmonton Journal
“True in a way only excellent fiction can be.…Rosnau’s nearly perfect emotional pitch, precise descriptions and gift for nuance makes Harper’s own confusion compelling. Quite an achievement in a first novel.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Her depictions of small-town adolescence will resonate with any reader who spent their teenage years longing to be anywhere but home.”
–Quill & Quire
“The Sudden Weight of Snow declares the arrival of an exciting new voice on the CanLit scene.”
–Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“In this moving first novel, Laisha Rosnau demonstrates a clear, keen eye for the nuances of mannerism and the significance of gesture, and gives a vivid account of growing up in a blind alley of a town in the B.C. interior. She also reaches well beyond her setting by means of a structure of slowly converging, and finally colliding, stories.”
–Steven Heighton
“Rosnau’s tale is about time and place, and the search for roots, a personal grounding place. Her prose has power and weight.”
–Hamilton Spectator
“The emotional power of Laisha Rosnau’s debut novel descends unexpectedly, leaving the reader tenderly transfixed.”
–Susan Swan
“Rosnau makes good use of the inherent tensions and conflicts occurring in such a cultural crossroads.…Rosnau can write a sentence as clear as the sky over Kamloops.”
–Georgia Straight
“Engrossing.…You come away from the book with a renewed appreciation of just how mysterious other people can be – not just strangers, but the very people who are closest and
most important to you.”
–Vue Weekly
“A provocative study of alienation and belonging.”
–Vancouver Sun
“The writing is finely crafted throughout, earthy yet lyrical. Rosnau is a talent to watch.”
–Montreal Gazette
From the Hardcover edition.
–Toronto Star
“Delicate and powerful, all-encompassing.…The Sudden Weight of Snow is compassionately conceived and beautifully written. The characters and language insinuate themselves into the mind and become an unshakeable and welcome part of a reader’s landscape.”
–Edmonton Journal
“True in a way only excellent fiction can be.…Rosnau’s nearly perfect emotional pitch, precise descriptions and gift for nuance makes Harper’s own confusion compelling. Quite an achievement in a first novel.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Her depictions of small-town adolescence will resonate with any reader who spent their teenage years longing to be anywhere but home.”
–Quill & Quire
“The Sudden Weight of Snow declares the arrival of an exciting new voice on the CanLit scene.”
–Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“In this moving first novel, Laisha Rosnau demonstrates a clear, keen eye for the nuances of mannerism and the significance of gesture, and gives a vivid account of growing up in a blind alley of a town in the B.C. interior. She also reaches well beyond her setting by means of a structure of slowly converging, and finally colliding, stories.”
–Steven Heighton
“Rosnau’s tale is about time and place, and the search for roots, a personal grounding place. Her prose has power and weight.”
–Hamilton Spectator
“The emotional power of Laisha Rosnau’s debut novel descends unexpectedly, leaving the reader tenderly transfixed.”
–Susan Swan
“Rosnau makes good use of the inherent tensions and conflicts occurring in such a cultural crossroads.…Rosnau can write a sentence as clear as the sky over Kamloops.”
–Georgia Straight
“Engrossing.…You come away from the book with a renewed appreciation of just how mysterious other people can be – not just strangers, but the very people who are closest and
most important to you.”
–Vue Weekly
“A provocative study of alienation and belonging.”
–Vancouver Sun
“The writing is finely crafted throughout, earthy yet lyrical. Rosnau is a talent to watch.”
–Montreal Gazette
From the Hardcover edition.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm sure I know these people...,
By "linda_fletcher" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sudden Weight Of Snow (Hardcover)
Laisha Rosnau does a wonderful job of evoking real small-town life in this first novel. I grew up in a town much like that where the book is set, and reading this novel was like reliving my adolescence (wait, maybe that's not so good). The story centres on the lives of conflicted small town teenagers, but we also get to know the bizarre but all-too-real adults that influence their lives. A very satifying read that made me laugh, and made me remember why I moved away.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent debut,
By "idioteqnician" (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sudden Weight Of Snow (Hardcover)
“The Sudden Weight of Snow” is a very satisfying read. I read it a chapter at a time because I found I would want to put it down and let the words sink in before I absorbed more. I often went back and re-read sentences or even paragraphs a second time because I enjoyed them so much. This is Laisha Rosnau’s first book and I think it is better than the writing of many other more experienced writers. She writes for all five senses. Reading this book was enjoyable because it was so easy to imagine everything she describes. The images are dense and, as the title suggests, everything seems to have weight. Every little action, everything Rosnau describes, it all seems to resonate long after the narrative has moved on.This is a book about longing and desire and about the intangibility of emotions and human interactions. Each time that Harper, the 17 year old girl at the centre of the story, is close to understanding her history and how it is tied to her present, everything seems to shift and she is once again left in the dark. Memories seem to overlap and curl in on themselves for each character, so that no one is sure of exactly where they came from or how they got to where they are. The book explores everyday life growing up in the 1980s in a small British Columbia saw mill town. I laughed out loud quite a few times because Rosnau’s descriptions can be so dead on. She nails the pathetic urgency of being young and feeling trapped and not knowing how to get out. She also depicts a genuine bond between Harper and her best friend, Krista. I also liked Rosnau’s thoughts on hippie culture. She depicts it existing in the 1960s as both earnest and hypocritical, but she also explores where youth from the 1960s went in the twenty years after. Another strong theme in the book is how family shapes who we are. Rosnau explores how mothers and fathers project their own fears and regrets onto daughters and sons, but also how sons and daughters can fail to recognize the human-ness of their parents. More than anything, however, this book is about how Harper becomes an adult and central to that is a strange kind of love story. I was surprised how involved I got and how badly I wanted the characters to do the right thing. My only complaint about this book was that the last major event in the book was sort of predictable. That disappointed me because I spent the majority of the book having no idea what would happen next. I won’t say too much here (I wish I could discuss the book with someone while it is still fresh in my mind!), but in a book where the characters’ lives are determined by their own emotions and actions rather than coincidence, fate, or karma, I thought Rosnau abandoned some of the momentum of the book and chose an easy way out. That’s not really a criticism, though, because I really did enjoy every moment of this book and Rosnau still won me over in the end simply by being a good writer. I didn’t want the book to end because I enjoyed the characters so much. I’m looking forward to Rosnau’s next book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rosnau dishes up a story that will leave you hungry for more,
By Chester Arsenault (Spokane WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sudden Weight of Snow (Paperback)
This book will keep you snuggled up under the covers for hours while you soak in the details of this charming story. Definitely worth calling in sick for.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
