House Under Snow is a single narrative story that revisits Anna Crane's childhood which allude to a gradual disintegration of family, relationships and self-worth. Despite a lack of multiple perspectives, Anna's words are compelling and hold enough weight to give each character individuality and presence. A series of flashbacks weaves through the past and earlier still gives voice to a younger Anna. There is Anna in the throes of innocence and naivete, and through adolescence and confusion and later through realization and responsibility. At the center of her young world is her mother Lilly, older sister Ruthie, younger sister Louise, and for a brief but monumental time, Austin Cooper, the boy she falls for. For Austin, there is no denying the passion she share for him, but love is another matter that she is uncertain about.The most dominant and constant figure in Anna's life is her mother whose presence shapes and influence how Anna's views her relationship with other people and life itself. Anna's childhood is a coming of age in which Lilly is very much a part of. Though Lilly's sanity is never touched, responded to or identified in a tangible way, Anna's young voice allude to a mother whose sanity is questionable and challenged by the weight of her own grief and loss. Lilly's lost include a mother, father, husband, eventually her children and gradually her own sense of purpose and palce in life. Lilly's helplessness, and perhaps unknowing ruthlessness is as much a threat to her daughters as it is to herself. Anna revisit a time in her life where everything changes and yet nothing changes. In the present her mother is still the same. It revisit a time when the bonds of an already strained mother and daughter's relationship is broken by betrayal. Her story tells of the power and destructive capabilities of love and the bonds that can hold or trap a family together.
1/9/13: By "read," I mean I only got twenty-some pages in (which is why there is no date on when I finished the book). I'm only tentatively starting to give myself permission to do this: not finish a book. Let it go in lieu of something that might hook me better. 2013 is the year where I'll look back on my read shelf and not have as many regrets about impulse reading.I didn't see this as an impulse attempt though; I've enjoyed Bialosky's poetry and admire her career.But the book had so many different shifts in time--each one seeming to be a false true start to the book, without really sinking into any real interest. None of the storylines seemed to spark, and with the conflict set up, I could almost predict the ending. And I didn't care for any of the characters--I don't need to love them (I hated Frank Bascombe, Richard Ford's failed sportswriter turned real estate agent, but he had a personality, that's for certain, which roused some level of curiosity to propel me through the book).The writing, too, was disappointing. If the writing shines, then I can forgive just about any plot dullness or character issues. Again, Ford's writing was solid and I trusted it, which is how I could read a book I would otherwise despise in someone else's hands. I don't know why, but I think to Elizabeth Strout's Amy and Isabelle and how good that was, or the title story in Inventing the Abbots or even, to stretch it somehow, to Revolutionary Road, and the writing in those just melted me. I woke up this morning thinking I ought to give it another chance. Maybe I will, but right now, it's in a box to be donated, and once that box is full, the chance is lost.
What do You think about House Under Snow (2003)?
I didn't like this book much at all. It started out with so much promise and the basic story was interesting BUT it lacked organization and clarity. The shifts in time were confusing--I could never tell where we were in the story because the author switched back and forth into so many different times without coming back to the present or making the past time period clear. Also, at the end, I needed to know what happened to her two sisters, who were a major part of the story but just disappeared at the end! I also needed to know the specifics of how the narrator ended up "ok" relationship-wise despite living with her mother for 16 years. It was incredibly ambiguous, which made it unbelievable. I'm sad---I really wanted it to be better.
—Kim Miller-Davis
