Snow in August
2 journalers for this copy...
Novel set in a working class Brooklyn neighborhood in 1947.
I'm keeping a record of daily quotations as I read the book. I scan the page where I stop reading each evening, looking for anything that catches my eye: imagery, insight, humor, or just a well-worded phrase. Thanks tania-in-nc for inspiring this idea.
August 3, 2004
"But Jewish music...what did it sound like? He read the words again - full of pathos and melancholy melody, yet beautiful and tender - and thought it must sound like the blues."
page 43
August 8, 2004
"Mumbling his borrowed Yiddish, longing for the dazzling clarity of summer, he fell into sleep, dreamy with images of Jack Roosevelt Robinson playing second base under the sun of Havana."
page 144
August 9, 2004
"Michael was soon exhausted but pushed himself harder, thinking of the grainy black and white images from the newsreels, the skeletal men, the hollow-eyed women, the mounds of corpses. Thinking of soldiers dead in the snow."
page 189
August 3, 2004
"But Jewish music...what did it sound like? He read the words again - full of pathos and melancholy melody, yet beautiful and tender - and thought it must sound like the blues."
page 43
August 8, 2004
"Mumbling his borrowed Yiddish, longing for the dazzling clarity of summer, he fell into sleep, dreamy with images of Jack Roosevelt Robinson playing second base under the sun of Havana."
page 144
August 9, 2004
"Michael was soon exhausted but pushed himself harder, thinking of the grainy black and white images from the newsreels, the skeletal men, the hollow-eyed women, the mounds of corpses. Thinking of soldiers dead in the snow."
page 189
Michael, an Irish-American kid living in Brooklyn in 1947, experiences an unforgettable year when he befriends a local rabbi and follows the story of Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers.
Despite some dragging exposition, Hamill does a good job evoking post-war Brooklyn: games of stickball, local gangs, racial and religious tension, music on the radio, and the wonder of going to a major league baseball game. In my favorite scene of the book, the Rabbi and Michael travel to Ebbets Field to see Jackie Robinson play.
Where the book falls down for me is in the last thirty pages, which take an odd mystical turn. I had grown too fond of the characters to see the story morph into a comic book. I wanted to see Michael, his mother, and Rabbi Hirsch solve their problems without the help of a superhero.
Despite some dragging exposition, Hamill does a good job evoking post-war Brooklyn: games of stickball, local gangs, racial and religious tension, music on the radio, and the wonder of going to a major league baseball game. In my favorite scene of the book, the Rabbi and Michael travel to Ebbets Field to see Jackie Robinson play.
Where the book falls down for me is in the last thirty pages, which take an odd mystical turn. I had grown too fond of the characters to see the story morph into a comic book. I wanted to see Michael, his mother, and Rabbi Hirsch solve their problems without the help of a superhero.
Offered on BookRelay.
