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Product Description
From Booklist
When eight women in rural Wisconsin take off in the middle of the night for a journey of the heart, it touches women everywhere. The walking women are different ages and of diverse backgrounds, yet their friendship and unwavering mutual support have forged an immutable bond. They start their walk as support for Susan, who is facing an unwanted pregnancy, but all are walking for their own lost loves and lost dreams. As they walk, they talk about their lives, and the pain of the past is shed. The media picks up the news of their perambulation, and soon they become a national sensation that starts other women thinking about their lives, resulting in positive changes all over the country. The women are unaware of their influence, and their small community protects their privacy, so they can proceed without the intrusion of the outside world. A rallying cry for the empowerment of women, Radish's novel is also a celebration of the strong bond that exists between female friends. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Eight Women on a Journey That Will Change Their Lives as Lovers, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Friends
Just after midnight in a small town in Wisconsin, eight women begin walking together down a rural highway. Career women, housewives, mothers, divorcées, and one ex–prom queen, they are close friends who have been meeting every Thursday night for years, sharing food, wine, and their deepest secrets. But on this particular Thursday, Susan, Alice, Chris, Sandy, Gail, Mary, Joanne, and Janice decide to disappear from their own lives.
Their spontaneous pilgrimage attracts national attention and inspires other women from all across the country. As the miles fall away and the women forge ahead on their backroads odyssey—leaving small miracles in their wake—each of their histories unfolds, tales of shattered dreams and unexpected renewal, of thwarted love affairs and precious second chances.In luminous, heartwarming prose, Kris Radish deftly interweaves the women’s intimate confessions into the story of their brave, history-making walk.
A breathtaking achievement, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows tells an incomparable tale of friendship and love, loss and liberation.
Just after midnight in a small town in Wisconsin, eight women begin walking together down a rural highway. Career women, housewives, mothers, divorcées, and one ex–prom queen, they are close friends who have been meeting every Thursday night for years, sharing food, wine, and their deepest secrets. But on this particular Thursday, Susan, Alice, Chris, Sandy, Gail, Mary, Joanne, and Janice decide to disappear from their own lives.
Their spontaneous pilgrimage attracts national attention and inspires other women from all across the country. As the miles fall away and the women forge ahead on their backroads odyssey—leaving small miracles in their wake—each of their histories unfolds, tales of shattered dreams and unexpected renewal, of thwarted love affairs and precious second chances.In luminous, heartwarming prose, Kris Radish deftly interweaves the women’s intimate confessions into the story of their brave, history-making walk.
A breathtaking achievement, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows tells an incomparable tale of friendship and love, loss and liberation.
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring, Intimate and Beautifully Written,
By
This review is from: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows (Paperback)
I am absolutely amazed by all the negative reviews about this book on the website. I would love to know the ages of those writing the bad reviews. I wonder if women with more life experience and years under their belts would be the ones who would be able to understand and appreciate this incredible book? In my opinion, this book speaks to the issues, struggles, heart, and lives of every woman. It does not have a traditional "plot" as such - if that is important to you - but is instead a telling of the inner lives, experiences, and challenges of a group of women as they explore these issues both individually and as a group of friends. It explores how each woman's life choices impact on her life and those around her, how early wounds affect us in so many ways throughout our lives, and how every woman has strengths and wisdom that can be called up, shared and nurtured.It is the most beautiful description of the gift we all give each other with the friendships of women in our lives, and how essential these friendships are to our own growth, strength and living. The writing in this book is absolutely beautiful. The author manages to describe the most difficult intimate emotional experiences, as well as the most joyous connections, with words that ring deeply true and are at the same time almost poetic. This book is not a quick bit of fluff. It is profound, meant to be savoured and experienced, like fine wine or old friendships.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Not so elegant gathering of stereotypes,
By Catherine T. Gourley (Woodbridge, VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows (Paperback)
Am I the only reader who thought these women were the most annoying, whining self-centered cariactures (not characters)? I kept waiting for an inciting incident, a conflict that would build plot step by plot step to a climax or turning point. Not so. These are like pages from a writer's sketchbook of ideas rather than a novel with rising and falling action. Radish may be a very good journalist and travel writer--no doubt she can use language well--but in this attempt at fiction, I believe she has failed. Instead of focusing on the eight women, she veers off to incorporate phony news articles and side stories of women who hear about the walkers through the media and suddenly change their lives radically. A novelist's challenge is to create a world where the reader can suspend disbelief or at least care about what happens to the characters. I never got to that place.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
An okay novel about the bonds of friendship among women,
By gac1003 "gac1003" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows (Paperback)
One night during a meeting of friends in Wisconsin, 8 women decide to take a long walk, not telling anyone where they arer going or why, not even knowing themselves. Over the course of their walk, they learn about themselves, about being women, and about having an impact on each other's lives.Not a bad book. The separate stories behind each of the women walkers and the stories of the lives effected by their walk are very enjoyable and interesting. But, when you gather the women together, they tend to lose their personalities and become indistinguishable from each other. Their language as a group also seems overly simplistic, as if it were dialogue from a high school play. It's during these scenes that I started to lose interest in the characters and considered putting the book down and moving on to something else. I also felt that the public's reaction to the women was unrealistic. No one -- not even their husbands or partners -- tried to stop them or to find out what was going on. No one bothered them at all!! They also treated the group with a bit too much reverence, seeming to place them on pedastal. I also found it difficult to make the connections between what the walkers were doing and the actions of the public. One woman reads a newspaper article about the walkers and decides to leave her husband and move to California, all thanks to the walkers. (Huh? What?) On the plus side, this novel does a great job at touting the necessity for the bonds of friendship and of womanhood. Everyone needs support of some form or another to make it through hard times. These 8 women are there for one another through thick and thin, and will stay that way for as long as possible. Overall, not a bad book about friendship. A very quick and easy read.
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