Customer Reviews

The Snow Train

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I won't be coy and disguise myself here . . .I've been a colleague of Joe's for more than ten years, when he started writing The Snow Train. This book is his heart and soul, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that it moved me immeasurably. To hear about a book for a decade, and then to finally read it -- and know that the rest of the world can now, too -- is probably something I'll never experience again. I want to use words like "page-turning," "tear-inducing," "touching," "emotionally charged" and "awesome," as all readers will, but the phrase that encapsulates my true feelings about The Snow Train is: "as close to perfect as a first novel can get."
Way to go, Joe!

Anyone who approaches this novel without great skepticism hasn't considered the unforgiving challenges that confronted its author. For starters, Mr. Cummins had to write in the "voice" of an infant. This undertaking not only smacks of gimmickry, but conjures up embarrassing images of a rapt uncle goo-gooing to his baby niece. No less thorny was the author's decision to plague his pint-sized protagonist with a ghastly skin disorder, a condition which must rest somewhere between single and double amputee on the list of appealing fictive characteristics. Finally, Mr. Cummins set his novel in the 1950s, a period which few writers can revisit without revising. But The Snow Train handles both the tyke and Ike years of its hero and setting without leaving readers lost in a field of corniness: Robbie's playmates, like his parents' martinis, are a blessing waiting to bite; the solitude that frees him from bullying also drags him into deepest loneliness. But for all its freakish scabs and bitter frosts, this book possesses charm and warmth. Mr. Cummins tells his story with a flinty lyricism--a fixation on the mysteries of childhood and weather as imagined by a good Irishman and translated into the close and precise prose of a good American. Humorous and disturbing, sensuous and daring, realistic and fantastic, The Snow Train results from an almost spiritual and philosophical concentration on what it means to be a child. I realized this shortly after beginning the novel, when I began to see things freshly, strangely; it took me a while to grasp that I was hearing fellow adults and seeing autumn leaves from the vantage of Robbie. I'll most certainly measure future reads against this book.

I happen to buy this on Amazon a few weeks ago, and I don't normally write reviews of books, but this one was great.
The same way I marveled at how well Wally Lamb captured the voice of his heroine in "She's Come Undone," I was astonished at how authentically this author captured the voice of a child. We keep hearing from psychologists how significant early childhood is, but I don't know of any other novels that play in this arena, and are so successful at it. It's a beautiful character study, but also just good old fashioned story telling that kept me turning the pages as I watched this young boy face obstacles that felt both universal and yet very personal. Perhaps it was how vividly the author captured the mid-50s, perhaps it was because everything was seen from a child's point of view; I often felt like I was reliving my own childhood, the way the world looked and felt back then.
The last third of the book was especially compelling, as the young narrator enters the hospital to have his blood changed (which will hopefully cure the awful rash that's plagued him). He meets other children like himself in the hospital, as well as one of my favorite characters of all time, Mr. Topping, who's there being treated for his own skin problems.
Most of the time, we don't find out about books like this because they're not blockbusters by well-known authors. But Snow Train is a book that deserves a wide audience, and I hope it gets just that.

Loved it. Wonderful charecters, an awsome plot, and filled with feeling. I didn't want to put it down, and didn't until I had finished it...and then wanted to read it again. I'm buying another copy because my first one is showing wear! A must read.

I am an avid reader yet I don't think I have ever written a review but this book will not stop haunting me. I cried reading the last three chapters. It left me raw like Robbie's skin condition. I felt sometimes like I was next to Robbie and more often that I was Robbie. I do not think I can find the right words to express how well Joseph Cummins captures the voice and nuances of the child as he leads the reader by the hand through his world. There is a quality in this novel that is reminiscent of the way James Agee wrote A Death in the Family. Like Agee, Cummins drags you inside Robbie and his world.

This is one of those few books that I read more than once. One of my all time favorites. Its the story of a little lonely boy with a skin disease. The time is the mid-fifties.
Along the way through this wonderful story we meet some of the most interesting characters in the history of story-telling.
Grab up one of these books before they are all gone and get ready for a heart wrenching story that will never leave your mind.

This novel captured me for the plot was so unique. I loved the "coldness" the author created . The ending perplexed me, however.

Best novel I have ever read, hands down. I got it as a birthday gift along with The Little Friend by Donna Tart. That book put me to sleep, this one kept me up all night. Deeply moving, powerfully written, totally real. No literary b.s. here - this is the real thing. Call it art, call it life - it's a great novel you won't regret opening.