The lives of two small-town Pennsylvania families connected by tragedy are related in this assured and affecting first novel by the author of the short-story collection, In the Walled City. Narrator Arthur Parkinson has been haunted by the murder of his former baby sitter, Annie Marchand, which occured when he was in high school. As he relates the circumstances leading to Annie's death-the culmination of a string of rash and heedless acts that included leaving her husband, engaging in an affair with her best friend's boyfriend and proving negligent in the care of her young daughter-Artie also chronicles his own parents' acrimonious separation, which occurred during those same dreary months of 1974. Annie's decision not to reconcile with her wimpish husband, Glenn, who loves her devotedly and doggedly, is paralleled by Artie's mother's decision to divorce his father, the beginning of the family's downward economic slide. Both sets of adults behave like adolescents, and the effects on their children are grave and irrevocable. O'Nan is a skilled writer who views the lives of his working-class characters with unsentimental compassion; he understands how they are entrapped by social background and stark economics as well as their own personal inadequacies-in Annie's case, her impetuous reactions and fierce temper. The novel's elegiac tone is perfectly controlled, and angst and the lingo of male adolescence are rendered with wry fidelity. But O'Nan's triumph is Annie; in spite of her faults, readers will empathize as she makes the mistakes that will bring her heartbreaking life to an end. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Arty Parkinson, the protagonist of this fine first novel, returns one Christmas to his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, to confront his haunting past-specifically, the winter of 1974, when he turned 15 and two terrible things happened: his family fell apart, and Annie Marchand, the young neighbor who had once been his baby-sitter, was murdered. O'Nan (In the Walled City, Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1993) weaves together these seemingly disparate small-town tragedies-one narrated in the first person, the other in the third-with consummate skill, seamlessly shifting the focus among characters he wishes to make the reader care about. This winner of the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize for the Novel is recommended for fiction collections.
David Sowd, formerly with Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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3.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Influential Book, Jun 23 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Snow Angels (Paperback)

I first bought this book four years ago and have read it 5 times since. Haunting images, desperate characters. Although this book is about murder and divorce, there are no villans and no heros. This book made Stewart O'Nan my favorite author. Also check out THE SPEED QUEEN

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4.0 out of 5 stars Worth it's weight and its weight was heavy...., Dec 31 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Snow Angels: A Novel (Paperback)

Snow Angels was an unexpected and welcomed diversion, dense and thoughtful, heavy and sad, but always worth the read. Dismissing this book becauuse it packs a despairing wallop is wasteful; give yourself a little time to experience the saddness and you'll feel all the more human. Doesn't fall in my top ten, but maybe the top 25 of recent reads. A very worthwhile investment of time.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Quick read, unsatisfying, April 15 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Snow Angels (Paperback)

While the characterization is often vibrant and exacting, this debut novel falls short of its promise. A main shortcoming is that the story of Arthur and his family, one of the two interwoven tales, fails to be more than filler, a structural place-holder. And Arthur's telling of the other story, that of a woman several years older than him, rings false--his need to relate these events is nowhere evident. Most disappointing is that many of O'Nan's sentences are ragged and difficult to read. One gets the sense he'll get a lot better.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Mired in Sadness
Not only would I not recommend this book to anyone, I actually threw away my copy (hardcover!) rather than pass it on to someone else. I found the book totally depressing. Read more

Published on Oct 25 2003 by Jane Roche

5.0 out of 5 stars Stephen King for adults
Dense! Needs to be read slowly: sentences are often put together in a way that brings the story to a halt and forces you to read them two or three times. Read more

Published on Aug 15 2000 by Phelps Gates

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of writing
This was my first Stewart O'Nan book, which launched me on a mission to buy every book he has ever wrote (of which none will disappoint. Read more

Published on Jun 5 2000 by Janice M. Hansen

2.0 out of 5 stars recipe for disaster
take one wet firecracker ending wrapped in a raymond carver impersonation with a dose of rick moody's "ice storm" thrown in. puree, flambee, mince, serve. Read more

Published on April 20 1999