Whiter Than Snow

Whiter Than Snow

Product Type: Book

Product Price: $24.99

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press

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Description

From The New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for Sale comes the moving and powerful story of a small town after a devastating avalanche, and the life changing effects it has on the people who live there

Whiter Than Snow opens in 1920, on a spring afternoon in Swandyke, a small town near Colorado’s Tenmile Range. Just moments after four o’clock, a large split of snow separates from Jubilee Mountain high above the tiny hamlet and hurtles down the rocky slope, enveloping everything in its path including nine young children who are walking home from school. But only four children survive. Whiter Than Snow takes you into the lives of each of these families: There’s Lucy and Dolly Patch—two sisters, long estranged by a shocking betrayal. Joe Cobb, Swandyke’s only black resident, whose love for his daughter Jane forces him to flee Alabama. There’s Grace Foote, who hides secrets and scandal that belies her genteel façade. And Minder Evans, a civil war veteran who considers his cowardice his greatest sin. Finally, there’s Essie Snowball, born Esther Schnable to conservative Jewish parents, but who now works as a prostitute and hides her child’s parentage from all the world.

Ultimately, each story serves as an allegory to the greater theme of the novel by echoing that fate, chance, and perhaps even divine providence, are all woven into the fabric of everyday life. And it’s through each character’s defining moment in his or her past that the reader understands how each child has become its parent’s purpose for living. In the end, it’s a novel of forgiveness, redemption, survival, faith and family.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-09-10
Summary: "Reminiscent of The Children's Blizzard"

I believe I have read and enjoyed all of Sandra Dallas' books. Being a quilter I like the quilting references she inserts in almost every novel. Ms. Dallas has a talent for personalizing historic events. In her book Tall Grass Dallas provided personal insight into the Japanese interment camps. In Whiter than Snow I loved the handling of the background of each family. As you read about each parent you think oh no not their child. The inspiration for Whiter than Snow may have been the blizzard of 1888 when many school children were lost. For readers who would like a factual perspective of this event I highly recommend The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. Man's interference with the environment also plays a part in Whiter than Snow, which we can observe in many weather related disasters today. Whiter than Snow is a good read that also provides food for thought.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-27
Summary: "Easy, enjoyable read"

Just as good as Prayers For Sale. If you liked PFS you'll love this one too!

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-07
Summary: "A Story of Redemption and Forgiveness"

Reason for Reading: I've always wanted to read a Sandra Dallas book and the plot of this one was particularly intriguing.

This is a beautiful story. It's what I call a light read. I picked the book up one evening and when it was time to turn out the light saw I had read three-quarters of the book. The story is simple and quite straight-forward but Dallas has written it in such a manner that the reader becomes emotionally involved in the characters by the time the already mentioned tragedy unfolds. She brings to her characters redemption, love, forgiveness and perhaps a look into God's mysterious way.

The story opens with an avalanche on top of a mountain in a tiny mining village and nine children coming home from school are caught in the slide. We are told four survived. Then each of the following chapters focuses on a child's or siblings' parents or in some cases parent. These historical vignettes can go as far back as the grandparents but most concentrate on the parent(s) and the one great or many small sins they have hidden in their lives. Each ends with the birth of the children or sometime in their early life. So we never really get to know the children, only through how they are thought of by others. Then comes a point when the story picks up with the avalanche and we watch the town come together to deal with the rescue and tragedy that is their fate.

The reader is in a position now to know how each family will react if it is their child(ren) that die and the reader is also vested in who could best handle the situation and perhaps who most needs redemption through the experience of death. Each person with a buried child has a reason to think they are being punished for their past sins and each also has reason to be forgiven. How it works out for the families in the end is very satisfying both for those who lost their children and those whose children lived. A beautiful story and a page-turner. I will certainly be adding Sandra Dallas to my list of authors to read.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-21
Summary: "Glad I bought it..."

I bought this book on a whim, and I'm so glad I did. I was really touched by the story and thought it was beautifully written.

I think that author Dallas did a remarkable job of bringing these characters to life. I felt that they were incredibly well-defined and real to me. Some of the back stories left me with a "punched-in-the gut" feeling, and knowing that I was soon to find out which of the children survived made it all the more emotional for me.

I would be interested in knowing how Dallas decided upon which children would die. Even though this is fiction, I'm sure that there had to have been some difficult emotions behind that decision. A heartbreaking book, but still highly recommended.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-08
Summary: "a well-crafted story"

Imagine that you live in a tiny hamlet named Swandyke at the base of a huge mountain, Jubilee Mountain, in Colorado. It is a spring day in 1920 and soon your young child will be dismissed from school and walk home with the other children.

The community of Swandyke is much like any other community in that many residents have lived there all their lives, married other community members, and started their own families. Other residents have moved there from faraway places and have secret reasons for starting over in a new town. Each family has a fascinating story and each has, as well, a significant human problem, such as the two sisters who have not spoken to each other for years following a heart-wrenching event in their younger lives.

On this particular day, as Whiter than Snow opens, tragedy is about to strike seven of these families. Now, once again, connect with your imagination and see yourself preparing for your child's return home from school this day. Suddenly your phone rings and, as you say hello to your neighbor, your heart freezes as she gasps that an avalanche has broken away from the peak of Jubilee Mountain and barreled down the mountain, smothering everything in its path. The small schoolhouse that your child attends sits at the base of the mountain and school had just dismissed as the avalanche broke away. The children were directly in the path and have been covered by tons of snow. Your child is beneath that snow.

You and all the other families rush to the avalanche site and begin frantically digging through the snow. What follows in the ensuing hours and days is beautifully detailed in this carefully crafted story, showing what can happen when fate, chance, and divine order collide in an instant of tragedy and bring a community together.

by Mary Jo Doig
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women