Customer Reviews

Snow, Ashes: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

This powerful, short novel begins with a quote from another writer of spare and poetic fiction, James Galvin. Any reader appreciating the deep pleasure of his novel "The Meadow" will be thoroughly absorbed in this character study of two men shaped as much by a lifetime on the near-desolate reaches of Wyoming ranchland as they are by a soul-fracturing ordeal on the killing fields of Korea.

Told out of sequence, with its beginning and ending in 1995, this wonderful novel follows the fortunes of a pair of men much like George and Lenny of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." One has been his brother's keeper, though not always successfully, and the other has retained a child-like innocence that has survived a lifetime of neglect and abuse. Both are set on a collision course with the harsh and unforgiving realities of old age.

Set on a sheep ranch somewhere outside Baggs, Wyoming, on the Colorado border, Hagy's novel captures the vast sweep of open spaces and seasons of raw weather. Her handful of characters include the two life-long friends, Adams and Hobbs, a derisive older brother who lawyers in Cheyenne, and a recklessly independent younger sister, who returns for a time from California to overturn the steady order of the family ranch. Brilliantly written, scenes often crackle with sharp dialogue, which itself is haunted by ghosts of the past as people long dead live on in the memories of the living. Highly recommended.