Customer Reviews

Snow in August

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

If you have a pulse, you will love this book. Whether you are from Brooklyn, Boston or Bangladesh, you will love this book. Whether you are Jewish, Catholic or Athiest, you will love this book! Pete Hamill does a fabulous job of harkoning us back to a simpler time (Brooklyn, circa 1947) without making us think that it was Utopia. The lead characters, Michael Devlin and Rabbi Hirsch, both are longing for acceptance and companionship. The Rabbi lost his wife in the Holocaust. Michael, the 11-year old protagonist of the story, lost his Father in the Battle of the Bulge. An unlikely meeting leads to a mutually beneficial relationship. The Rabbi fine tunes his English and learns the magical appeal of the game of baseball through the boy's teachings. Michael is equally enriched by falling under the spell of the Rabbi's stories and the Yiddish language. As outsiders, both revel in the exploits of Jackie Robinson, who breaks baseball's color line with his combination of skill and grace. Unfortunately, the duo learns that all is not wonderful and safe in postwar Brooklyn. A gang called the Falcons and their leader, Frankie McCarthy, intervenes with menacing intent. The gang inflicts serious beatings on the Rabbi and the boy and with threats of worse consequences lingering, Michael has to turn to his belief in one of the Rabbi's parables to save the day. It is a beautiful tale of friendship. Both lead characters are extremely likeable. The theme of overcoming all odds is exhilirating. Take the leap of faith and enjoy this wonderful novel.

In this delightful and magical novel by Pete Hamill, eleven-year-old Michael Devlin, a young altarboy, meets Rabbi Judah Hirsch, an Orthodox rabbi who has called out to Michael as he is passing the synagogue during a terrible snowstorm in 1947. The rabbi urgently needs someone to turn on the lights for him, but it is the Sabbath, a day of rest and contemplation, and turning on the lights is considered "work." The two strike up an unusual friendship, as each learns from the other, with Michael teaching the rabbi English, and the rabbi teaching Michael Yiddish. Michael is hoping to read the "magic" books the rabbi has in his library, books about Prague, the Kabbalah, the Golem, miracles, and the secret name of God.

Michael and his widowed mother live in a section of Brooklyn where the majority population is Irish, but it includes gangs of young toughs who prey on other immigrants, especially the Jews. During British rule in Ireland, the Irish developed a code of silence, and they have brought this code and their fear of the authorities with them to Brooklyn. When Michael observes the savage beating of a Jewish storekeeper, the gang threatens Michael if he talks. Though he knows this violence is wrong--and against everything he has learned in church--he obeys the code.

The novel is a morality tale, with a good deal of teaching done by the rabbi--about the past history of the Jews, about Judaism itself, and about the mysticism of the Kabbalah--illustrating the misunderstandings of Michael and his friends about a religion which is alien to them, but Hamill goes to considerable lengths to keep the novel from being preachy. Since Michael is only eleven, he carefully limits the point of view to what an eleven-year-old would think and feel. One of the major connections Michael makes with the rabbi is through baseball, which he explains to the rabbi, and as they commiserate about the hitting slump of Jackie Robinson, newly signed by the Dodgers, Michael identifies with Robinson--someone who has had to ignore hatred and survive taunts.

When the hatred and ignorance shown by the thugs in the neighborhood affect Michael, his mother, and the rabbi even more personally, the story reaches a crisis. Here Hamill abandons the vigorous realism he has shown so far and connects the plot with the mysticism of the Kabbalah and the legend of the Golem of Prague. Warm and affecting, without being maudlin, the novel is a personal story, filled with the color and life of the postwar Brooklyn in which Hamill grew up, at the same time that it is realistic about its prejudices and limitations. n Mary Whipple

There is magic in snow, especially in the memories of snow in one's childhood. So, the grand adventure of a fatherless Irish Catholic altar boy in 1940's New York begins in snow. The voice through the snow, that of a Jewish rabbi newly emigrated to the U. S., is Michael Devlin's call to adventure.

An unlikely and captivating friendship results with Michael teaching the Rabbi English, and the Rabbi teaching Michael about the mystical truths of kabbalah, Yiddish, and the Jewish ghetto of centuries past Poland. Just as Jackie Robinson emerges as the great black hope of baseball, Michael and Judah Hirsch emerge to fight off the racist, bullying Falcons.

The fantasy of the Golem, a Jewish enforcer of justice, is restored to legendary status here. There is plenty of suspense and torture to overcome as Michael stands up for his Jewish friend and for his mother and himself. Michael comes of age through his exhibition of courage.

Did it really happen? Who cares? This is a great story with a happy ending. Get transported to another time when all things are possible. Read Snow in August. Or hope for a great movie version.

Pete Hamill's novel is a gripping and moving story of how people from different backgrounds of religion and ethnicity can learn from one another and grow deeper in their understanding of what faith truly means. Michael Devlin, the 11 year old Irish Catholic altar boy, is an unforgettable young man. At the age when childhood answers, ideas and solutions do not quite work anymore, he is opened to a world of "magic," that is really a world of profound faith. Rabbi Hirsch, recent immigrant from Prague and a Holocaust survivor, recaptures his faith and his trust in humanity through his friendship with Michael. The rabbi's efforts to learn and master the English language and its complexities while make readers smile. Michael's efforts to learn Yiddish from the rabbi while likewise entertain. But there are, too, profound moments of horror and sadness as these two characters--so different and yet so alike--confront the prejudices and bigotries of close-minded neighbors in 1947 Brooklyn. The novel is set against the backdrop of Jackie Robinson's call up to major league baseball. This event, too, solidifies the bond between Rabbi Hirsch and Michael Devlin. The morals and themes presnt in this novel are beautiful and transcend any one religion; they are ideals that all of humanity can and should grasp and live by. The Golem, part of Jewish legend, survives on two things: faith and truth. Faith and truth are the real winners in this beautiful story.

"Snow in August" is a beautiful book that I believe has powerful themes. One theme is that of "when good people do not act, bad people flourish." The strength of the Falcons was secured by the silence of people like Michael and his mother. This theme is reminiscent of the Holocaust when the world was silent as Hitler "cleansed" Germany and then more and more countries of Jews.

Another powerful theme in this book is that ignorance is the cause of prejudice and knowledge is the force that destroys it. This was shown by Michael who in befriending and learning from the Rabbi, dissipated his own incorrect ideas about the Jews. The problem that he and many others face is how to deal with people who aren't enlightened.

This was a beautiful work of literature and I congratulate Pete Hamill on effectively conveying such powerful and vivid themes.

I read this book as a school assignment which required me to read analytically, and I found many surprising things.

Overall I found the book to be written in such a way that it was easy to read and find an interesting story on the surface. However, to find the most beautiful of things it took some attention to previous things written, and the pictures that the words formed. For example, when Michael goes to Mrs. Griffen about his dreams which may just seem like odd dreams at first, but when remembered later on I found it to be foreshadowing, with the red snow.

After reading many reviews about the last 40 pages being bad, and not a good ending to the book, I went back and reread the ending two more times only to find that the more I read the ending the more beautiful it became to me. The first time I read the end, I got chills, and by the third time I was crying. While some events could have been changed, I think most of the ending ties everything in the book together so well, that it really cannot be changed.

I was really enjoying this book. Michael Devlin, a young irish boy in 1947 Brooklyn forms a bond with a local rabbi who lost his wife in the Holocaust. The rabbi teaches Michael Yiddish while Michael teaches the rabbi how to improve his English, via teaching him about the rules of baseball. When Michael witnesses a horrendous racially provoked crime against a local jewish shop owner, the local gang of tough kids in the neighborhood threaten him. After losing his friends because they are scared that by associating with him, they too will be a target of the gang, Michael is on his own with the rabbi as his best friend. When the gang starts up with Michael, his mother, as well as the rabbi, Michael finds himself wanting revenge. The revenge he gets is where I was disappointed in the story. I will not give away what happens as I wouldn't want to take away the surprise from a new reader.....but lets just say the way he gets his revenge is a bit implausible and doesn't fit with the rest of the story. The ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Still worth reading but the ending knocked my review from a 4 star to a 2 star.

It's 1947 in Brooklyn and altar boy Michael Devlin is 11 years old. He lives for the Brooklyn Dodgers, comic books, Saturday matinees and his Mother who was widowed during the War. But now his whole insular world is about to change. The Dodgers have a new player and he's black. Michael has a new friend and he's a Jewish rabbi--Judah Hirsch, a refugee from the Holocaust. And Michael and the rabbi have offended the local gang of Irish toughs, The Falcons and their brutal leader, Frankie McCarthy. Just when it seemed that the War had vanquished evil, it turns out that the malevolent forces of racism and hatred have a foothold in Michael's own neighborhood. In order to survive, Michael, his mother and the rabbi have to call upon resources that they don't even realize that they possess, including even the dreadful Golem of Jewish mystic tradition.

I'm not a huge Pete Hamill fan and the political agendas that are at work here are a little bit heavy handed (particularly in one fight scene at Ebbett's Field). But I'm as big a sucker as anybody for those magical fantasies of boyhood (see Boy's Life by Robert McCammon, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, etc.) and what really makes this book a terrific read is the relationship between Michael and Rabbi Hirsch. Michael's friends originally put him up to finding the secret buried treasure of the Jews that they think lies buried within the synagogue. But as Michael helps the rabbi with his English and teaches him about America and the rabbi in turn teaches him Yiddish and unfolds the beauties of preWar Europe, Michael discovers that the real secret treasure is love of learning.

Despite some scenes that may be excessively violent for younger readers, the emphasis on education and shared experience and love of words and literature is so compelling, that you hope that teens will read and love the book. And if the whole schtick with the Golem is a little bit over the top, I was willing to cut Hamill some slack because I'd bought into his characters and wanted to see justice served.

This one has something for everybody--a bittersweet coming of age tale, a humanist message, an evocative glance back at Brooklyn in the 40's and Europe in the 30's, a hefty chunk of Judaica and a little bit of dark fantasy--it's a real crowd pleaser.

GRADE: A

I've thought a lot about the ending of "Snow in August," and I've come away with mixed feelings. Many reviewers have commented on the last forty pages, and I have to admit it is not the way I would have liked the book to end. But it is Hamill's story to write the way he wants, and I have to concede that he set this ending up during the course of the book. The ending didn't come out of nowhere, and I guess you'll have to read the book to decide for yourself. But it will be worth it, because before we get to the conclusion you'll discover some of the most moving story-telling I have ever experienced. Hamill, probably relying on experiences of his own youth, does an excellent job of setting up his cast of Brooklyn characters: the Devlin family, mother and son and deceased father, the Rabbi, the Catholic parish members, Frankie McCarthy and his gang of thugs, the Falcons. The terror he builds is almost unbearable at times - the scenes of beating and torture are gut-wrenching. I found reading this book an emotional experience like no other. Even the final tableau of this book was very moving. The growth in friendship between the young teen Michael Devlin and Rabbi Hirsch is exceptionally well developed through their mutual love of history, languages, and the Brooklyn Dodgers during the rookie season of Jackie Robinson. As I read about this unlikely duo, I kept thinking of the relationship between Huck Finn and the runaway slave Jim. There are haunting sections of this book that will remain with me for a long time. In fact, I think this would make an excellent movie.

Snow in August is a good historical novel with an unexpected dose of fantasy at its end. A twelve-year-old Catholic Brooklyn boy befriends a poor rabbi from Prague. Their mutual desire for knowledge strengthens their relationship, and they teach each other their cultures and languages. Both face many hardships, mostly because of their religious beliefs and uncommon friendship. When things get really bad, the boy and the rabbi build a fantastic creature from mud to solve all their problems. We, personally, did not care for the ending very much, but gave Snow in August three stars because we enjoyed the rest of the novel. Please consider reading this book and forming your own opinion.