Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

From Goodreads: Walking in the snow near their New Hampshire home, a father and daughter come upon an abandoned infant, wrapped in a bloody towel. For the father, this chance discovery reopens a wound: Two years before, he had lost his wife and toddler daughter in a car crash. Now the chance finding of the baby places him on a winding path toward healing.

Anita Shreve is usually a sure bet for me, there have been a few duds but I find most of her books compelling, I want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens. This would fall more in the compelling category than in the dud category but it wasn't a flat out hit. I appreciated the trauma that affected all the characters but there was so much pain amongst them all that it just weighed me down. It felt like there wasn't anything but their pain, that one dimensional characterization just didn't make them very interesting. The plot - the loss, finding the baby and all that follows are really interesting story lines, but the people just weren't very likable and that makes the story less engaging for me.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Shreve is usually a winner for me too. Sorry the characters weren't more compelling for you.

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

We read this as a book group a few years ago and i was underwhelmed. so much so I haven't read anything by here since.