The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
I love stories that are reconstructed from ancient fairy and folk tales and this one is beautiful.
Eowyn Ivey explains in her acknowledgements of how her novel's central mystical character is inspired by a number of books including: The Snow Child as retold by Freya Littledale, the Russian story of "Snegurochka" and "Little Daughter of the Snow" from Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales.
The setting encompasses the reader and the ice-cold, snowy Alaskan wilderness of the 1920s is absorbing and sets us alongside the central childless couple of Mabel and Jack as they experience the landscape's magic and mystery.
This novel was first published in 2012 and reviews so far have been apt in describing the narrative as: "bewitching", "precise", "delicate", "absorbing" beautifully executed" and so many more wonderful review quotations can be found in the Reagan Arthur edition.
The novel includes elements of magical realism which add a mystical dream-like quality to each of the scenes involving the young girl or snow child the couple come to meet after the season's first snowfall.
I loved hearing that what captivated Eowyn Ivey about the stories that inspired her was, 'the landscape and the role that it played in the telling of the story. Black spruce and dark winters spoke of lonely isolation, and the fresh, sparkling snow brought hope and magic.' Ivey does well to incorporate these feelings into her novel too.
The novel does have a haunting ending, as well as some rough descriptions of trapping for survival and the harshness of the Alaskan wilderness. The theme of parenthood and responsibility is also prevalent, urging the readers to empathise the loss and heartache many face connected with all layers of family planning, pregnancy, family care and responsibility for others.
Review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
Snow by John Banville (Benjamin Black)
Goodreads review
I'm not really sure how to write this review.
I both loved it and hated it.
I enjoyed the first half of the novel, with its intricate descriptions of the impact of snow on the landscape, the insights and apt presentation of life and people in 1950s Ireland alongside a real murder-mystery style of narrative. There are satirical motifs including the candlestick and the body being found in the library and Banville's prose offers a lyrical scene-by-scene plot structure in which the central detective character of St John Strafford sets about to uncover what has happened in the Osborne house. I enjoyed the literary references to Joyce, T.S.Eliot, Chaucer, Shakespeare and others.
The murder is described in detail and it is horrific. There is a pedophile character and narrative far too closely described for my liking with information and incidents connected with the traumatic indecencies of the Irish Catholic Church of the 1950s. I found the reading of this harrowing. Sad and horrifying.
The second half of the novel made me dislike Banville as an author and vow never to read his work again, until I read more articles about his intentions to understand and present the motivations of evil in humans. His aim seems to have always been to explore the concept of evil and how it is manifested in different people for different reasons. This, he does do in this novel.
I learned of the writer's Benjamin Black/John Banville co-identity. Interesting also how the novel has been likened by Bethanne Patrick in the Los Angeles Times, to Banville building a house of cards in order to immediately knock it down. She labels this novel 'a salubrious hybrid' of his two pen-names.
As Peter Swanson says, the novel is 'sinister and unnerving...'
I'm not sure I want to be the one to recommend this novel to anyone for its content, yet its style and beautiful descriptive prose is admirable. I may have a go at extracting a few of the descriptions of the landscape and adept writing about the snow, to be able to re-read separately from the central murder-mystery tragedies of the text!
Review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson
Goodreads Review
What a detailed, suspenseful and gripping adventure story for all young readers who love dogs, the great outdoors, ice and snow excitement plus an ickle bit of romance.
The central fourteen year old character of Victoria Secord is a dogsledder. She has an aversion to her mother following the death of her father, who she felt was one with her and her love of the snowy outdoors of Alaska. Her mother is from Seattle. The tale is told in first-person narrative and I enjoyed reading Victoria's voice on her struggles as she ends up stuck in the frozen wilderness with her dog team and an injured 'city boy' who she saves. They are lost and the survival instincts and choices she has to make are described beautifully, giving a real insight to what life is like in the Alaskan bush.
This novel is full of discussion points surrounding themes and topics like hope, grief, endurance, home, survival and adventures in the wild.
Highly recommended for middle-school readers who enjoy reading adventure stories and are keen to know about Alaska and survival instincts.
Review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
