Angels Crest [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Leslie Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2004

Being granted full custody of Nate, his young son and "North Star," has given Ethan Denton a near-perfect life. Then one crisp winter morning, Ethan makes a brief, impulsive decision any parent might make - and, as a result, Nate goes missing. As an unexpected blizzard blankets the woods, Ethan searches for Nate with the help of townspeople touched by the crisis. Beautifully wrought, Angels Crest is a seamless blend of dramatic suspense and emotional truth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A father pays the price for a brief moment of distraction in this histrionic lost child novel set in the mountains of California. Ethan Denton finally has everything he ever wanted. He's just won full custody of his three-year-old son, Nate, and they're living together in a tiny isolated town near a stunning peak called Angels Crest. That's where the two head one chilly morning at the crack of dawn, as part of Ethan's quest to "indoctrinate his son with the divinity of the forest." But Nate falls asleep in the truck, and Ethan makes the fateful decision to leave him for a moment while he follows the trail of two handsome bucks. By the time Ethan gets back, Nate has walked away in his footie pajamas and disappeared into the forest. Before long, nearly everyone in town is engaged in Ethan's parental nightmare, including Ethan's alcoholic ex-wife, Cindy ("with her wear-and-tear body"), lesbian couple Rocksan and Jane, ex-con woodsman Glick, diner waitress Angie and tormented Jewish judge Jack Rosenthal. Writing from seven separate points of view, Schwartz (Jumping the Green) lingeringly explores the different ways parents desert their children, and the aftereffects of their abandonment. She manages to keep the plot pounding forward, but hammers home her maudlin message relentlessly.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Ethan Denton is out for a drive with his three-year-old son, Nate, in the woods of Northern California, when he decides to stop to follow several bucks he spots just off the road. When he returns 15 minutes later, his son is gone, and his own personal hell, as well as that of the small town of Angels Crest, is just beginning. Ethan's alcoholic ex-wife, Cindy, who lost custody of Nate; his former best friend, Glick, who slept with Cindy; Rocksan and Jane, a settled lesbian couple; and Jack, a lonely judge from outside the town are among those who help Ethan search for his son. As the hours pass and the search intensifies, the group reflect on their own failings--Glick on the end of his friendship with Ethan and his mistaken affair with Cindy, as well as his blossoming love for Angie, who runs the local diner; Cindy on her failings as a mother; and Jane and Jack on their estrangements from their grown children. The novel unfolds slowly, alternating between the perspectives of the many characters that people it. This beautiful, moving novel works brilliantly as a study of a tragedy and the various characters' reactions to the tragedy itself, as well as how it causes them to reexamine their own lives. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 479 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing; 1 edition (September 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587247208
• ISBN-13: 978-1587247200
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,861,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Deep Experience, March 10, 2006

By 

M. C. Finan (La Mirada, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels Crest (Paperback)

Leslie Schwartz takes us on a journey of discovery. The people in her novel are all deeply touched by a tragedy which resonates for each of them in a different way. Swartz is not afraid to have us stay with her characters through the daily experience of grief, regret, sadness. The gestures, the thoughts, the movements of her chracters' lives make real for us what they are going through. In that daily living we recognize ourselves.

You will finish this book wiser than you were when you started.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strangely compelling, May 23, 2008

By 

Helen Simpson (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels Crest (Paperback)

I found this book really easy to get in to. It's not a mystery or a thriller it's more a sociological study. We learn about the people who live in Angel's Crest (population 355) what makes them tick, how they feel and what they never seem to tell each other.

There is almost an unwritten code of conduct amongst the people who live there;
"...She had learned from living up here, that you didn't pry into other people's business. You waited until they offered it up and then you didn't say much about it either way."

The characters were all very believable and on more than one occasion I was struck by how realistic their reactions and feelings were and what a perceptive study of people it was. I didn't find it depressing but can see why some people might. Because each person is 'laid bare' for the reader we discover the sorrows, mistakes and regrets they have, whereas normally when we 'meet' people we don't discover such intimacies, so this could be depressing if you choose to see it that way.
I don't believe that people are normally as doom and gloom as this community appears, but because their thoughts and reactions are all related to the tragic event within their community and because we are discovering their vulnerabilities, it's understandable. The chapters alternate between seven different characters and although they sometimes cover the same situations, via the characters we see events from different perspectives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend this book, September 3, 2004

By 

Tracy L. (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Angels Crest: A Novel (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book a great deal. I've always been fond of books that had characters that I could relate to and feel a connection with. All the characters in this book seemed very authentic to me. I felt the pain of each one of them, especially Ethan. I could honestly see this happening to anybody, and indeed, have heard about these same types of situations happening in real life. I hope to read more from this very talented author.