Snow Man [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Carolyn Chute (Author), Julia Delfino (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1999

Book on tape. 4 cassettes.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Books on Tape, Inc. (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736646531
• ISBN-13: 978-0736646536
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,474,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Radical Chic Blanch, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Snow Man (Hardcover)

This is the best thing Chute has ever written. So why did it turn her into an unperson among the literary elite? Ostensibly because her hero is a right-wing militiaman who assassinates a US Senator. But the assassination is shown to be a rather horrid affair: no glorification there. And this right-winger's heroes are all Latin American left wing guerillas. And aside from a bitterness toward the rich and powerful, the hero does not express his views with any degree of coherence, so this is not right wing propaganda.

To find out why this book has caused Ms. Chute to be dropped from the A list, you have to go back to Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic. Underlying the limousine liberal's love affair with the Black Panthers was a certain sense of superiority and contempt for the blacks they pretended to listen to. It was the same reason why Ms. Chute was lionized for her earlier books about the Maine equivalent of Tobacco Road: she was the tour guide who would give them a nice, safe viewing of an inferior culture, rather like the way the aristocracy visited lunatic asylums in the 18th century.

Now Ms. Chute has slipped her traces. The tour guide has joined the toothless outsiders and set fire to the bus. Her hero may be a killer who deserves his fate, but he has manners, grace, authenticity and character. The liberal matron and her consciousness-raised daughter fall into his bed because he has qualities they haven't seen before, certainly not in the worthless men of what passes for an elite in this country these days. And that is what causes the revolt of the book reviewers. Yes many of her characters are empty vessels, plastic men with plastic women. But that is entirely Ms. Chute's point.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another masterpiece., February 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Snow Man (Hardcover)

Carolyn Chute is a true literary master. Her previous novels have consistantly upheld her in the forefront of American writers today. The Kirkus review you just read was probably written by a frustrated novelist who wishes he could write with half of the depth that Chute does. His review is rife with spelling and grammatical errors, and he probably needs to get laid.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book is a brilliant take on America's class struggle., April 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snow Man (Hardcover)

If you have any interest in knowing about the currents that roil just below the glassy calm of American life, read this book. Carolyn Chute is a great storyteller and this is a great story, no matter what the barely literate, unconcealably jealous Kirkus reviewer says. The Amazon reviewer has him nailed cold. For that matter, the Kirkus review is exactly what is wrong with the book biz -- anything that gets too powerful, put it down, try to squelch its sales, ignore it. Maybe Amazon.com will change some of that. Hope so.