Snow, Ashes: A Novel [Paperback]

Alyson Hagy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Adams breathed through the thick weave of his pulse. Hobbs.
Again. His return likely meant trouble. Care and trouble.

The uneasy friendship between Fremont Adams and C. D. Hobbs worked best when both men had a job to do, when they could fall into the rhythm of hard labor. Neglected by his mother at an early age, Hobbs found his way into the Adams family. But everyone could tell he was always a bit off. Fremont resigned himself
to watching out for Hobbs, who had the innocence and optimism that can come only from ignorance. After a grueling tour of duty in Korea, however, Adams and Hobbs return to the ranch marked in dangerous ways.

In four parts--alternating between the Wyoming ranch and Korea--Alyson Hagy reveals the intricacies of a profound friendship between two very different men. Snow, Ashes is a suspenseful, engaging exploration of survival and failure and of how the most vulnerable among us can have a wisdom beyond measure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Childhood friends return from the Korean War differently damaged in Hagy's moving and stark fifth work of fiction (Keeneland; Graveyard of the Atlantic). John Fremont Adams, 64, lives on the 36,000-acre sheep ranch in Baggs, Wyo., where he grew up, though he retired his hook and sheep dogs four years ago and has since been living a marginally pointless bachelor existence. But Adams finds purpose when childhood friend C.D. Hobbs, who served with Adams in Korea and has wandered into and out of Adams's life ever since, shows up at the ranch one night in 1995. Both men barely survived combat at the Chosin Reservoir: Adams lost his toes to frostbite, and C.D., who had been weird before enlisting, emerged very weird and badly wounded. Adams, C.D.'s protector since childhood, makes a desperate and ill-advised attempt to restart the sheep business, sparking battles with Adams's retired lawyer brother, Buren, and impetuous younger sister, Charlotte. Hagy crafts first-rate prose—unsparingly raw and visceral with flashes of high lyricism—that carries the reader from the napalmed mountains of Korea to the vast pastures of the west. The inevitable but surprising conclusion will yank tears from hard hearts. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Hagy writes prose so beautiful it begs to be read aloud. Her latest offering (after Keeneland, 2002) explores the potent lifetime friendship between Wyoming ranch hands John Fremont Adams and C. D. Hobbs. Adams finds meaning in the daily rhythms of his family's sheep ranch; Hobbs, always a bit of a misfit, prefers the company of Adams and his clan to his emotionally distant mother. Time spent in the muddy, bloody trenches of the Korean War leaves both with physical injuries, but it is their psychic wounds that prove beyond repair. For the next four decades, a traumatized Hobbs weaves his way in and out of his equally unsettled friend's world. Drama ensues when Adams's estranged (and self-centered) sister reenters the two mens' lives. There's more tumult years later when 64-year-old Adams tries to resurrect the sheep business with the help of his heartless, hard-drinking brother. Hagy deftly alternates wrenching renderings of war with lyrical passages depicting life on a Wyoming ranch. Facing imminent death on the battlefield, Fremont "felt a sifted desire to say something final to C. D., something clear and practical formed from the boyhood lives that were all that would ever give their disposable bodies a name." Block, Allison

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555974686
• ISBN-13: 978-1555974688
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and currently live at the foot of the Laramie Mountains in Wyoming. I come from a storytelling culture, and I am drawn to how Americans, especially people who live in hard-to-live places, weave stories around their failures and successes. The Outer Banks of North Carolina, the hills of Virginia, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the crags and plains of Wyoming--these are all filled with stories for me, filled with striving and loss and survival.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The prevailing intelligence of Alyson Hagy, May 12, 2007

By 

B. Sulit (Devon, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Snow, Ashes: A Novel (Paperback)

There are those writers who use language and those who seem to invent it; Alyson Hagy falls into the second category. SNOW, ASHES, a story about male friendship and consequences, about Wyoming farm hands transformed by a tragic stint in the Korean War, is impeccably researched, brilliantly written, and emotionally resonant. It stays with you long after you turn the last page. Hagy is one of the most interesting female writers working today--tough minded about plot and characters, deep souled. She is deserving of the sort of attention she gives to every word.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping story!, October 22, 2007

By 

R. Fullerton (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Snow, Ashes: A Novel (Paperback)

I have worked with Alyson Hagy and knew she was a writer -- so I was eager to read one of her books. I thought it was terrific! The story centers on two Wyoming sheep ranchers who served together in the Korean war. But it's more than just ranching tales and war stories. These veterans are as tough as the land they ranch, but their lives have been forever changed and intertwined by the physical and emotional scars of battle they suffered decades ago. It is compelling reading.

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Wyoming, bleak but deep., December 9, 2009

By 

Jon R. Horton (Colorado Springs CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Snow, Ashes: A Novel (Paperback)

The plot follows two friends from boyhood to the tragic end of their relationship. It proceeds with an unsteady tread that grips the reader from its very beginning. The mostly bleak background of Wyoming and a decrepit ranch is the perfect backdrop for the story. My only quibble is with the combat scenes but that is something that can be forgiven because very few are written by veterans.Gib: A Contemporary WesternGib: A Contemporary Western