Customer Reviews

The Snowman's Children

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This novel kept me looking for those spare minutes to read. It is moving, scary overwhelming and too close to home if you have children. Though the events occured in the 70's, we are always concerned for the whereabouts of our children. And do we remember being children ourselves? Many times we do not understand their actions and don't give our loved ones the benefit of the doubt because we are scared, and being a good parent is hard work and luck. This book made me blue,laugh, cry and think. A good book to discuss at a book club.

Having just finished this book, I am still processing it. I will say that at times I was clutched in the throes of the mystery and at times I was wholly frustrated with the length of time it took to unravel. The climax was unsatisfying but perhaps only because I was so eager to have it figured out.

Plots were lost - that of his wife, waiting not so patiently for him to return or at least let the past stay in the past. Did she leave him forever? Not that I wished this book to be an exploration of his life, but the early build up of that subplot seemed to require a bit more effort to offer some closure by the end.

Yet, maybe that's the point. That this journey Mattie takes is a journey to tie up loose ends, to place his history into some sort of box, labelled, understood and neatly packed away. The truth of anyone's history, no matter how melodramatic or mundane, is that one's life is a mess of loose ends, nothing finishes, only propells us forward. There is no closure available to anyone that rights the wrongs of the past or promises a pleasant tomorrow. All we can do is come to peace with what was and appreciate what is instead of looking only to what will be.

The writing is sometimes lyrical and sometimes seems to try too hard. It is obviously a first novel though not one to ignore. As the moments since I put it down have passed I feel more of a kinship towards the material and perhaps that will grow.

Would I recommend it? If you purchased it for a bargain price as I did, yet. I doubt it's one I'll read again and again, but it was interesting enough the first time around.

If you're expecting a serial-killer thriller, you're better off looking elsewhere. THE SNOWMAN'S CHILDREN is more concerned with the impact of the murders on children growing up in Detroit during the time the Oakland County Child Killer prowled the streets in search of his pre-teen victims than with lowbrow titillation. Glen Hirshberg, who grew up in Detroit during the time of the murders, loosely based this novel on Tommy McIntyre's WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: THE SEARCH FOR A CHILD KILLER.
In this fictional account, the main character Mattie Rhodes returns to Detroit, seventeen years after the murders, in search of his boyhood friend, Theresa Daughrety. During the year the Snowman was on the prowl, Mattie, his friend Spencer Franklin and Theresa went through various traumas, some related some unrelated to the murders. The three are gifted students who compete in Mind Wars, a kind of up tempo Trivial Pursuit, to see who is the sharpest. Theresa usually puts the other two to shame. The game is run by Theresa's father, Dr. Daughrety, who is unduly taken with his daughter's intelligence. On their own, the three play "Murder in the Dark", where one player stalks the other two in a pitch-black basement. The Snowman's depravities are a backdrop to the everyday travails of eleven-year-olds until Theresa, who is showing increasing signs of mental distress, becomes directly involved.
Theresa is the most interesting character of the three; apparently, while the other children have been shaking in their boots, she's been on the trail of the Snowman, despite her emotional shakiness. Mattie worships her, probably because of her seeming indifference to the popularity game most kids worry about.
For comic relief, Glen Hirshberg adds some quirky elements, such as Sergeant Ross's addiction to licorice sticks; Mattie's little brother's apparent hatred for Mattie; Mark "the Bird" Fidrych's pitching exploits, and Mattie's Blue Grass singing wife.
I found it a bit hard to get into the book at first because Hirschberg doesn't tell us a whole lot until well past midpoint and because Hirschberg jumps back and forth from 1994 to 1976. Mattie's reactions to just about everything are also overly emotive. His heart jumps into his throat when his cereal is cold. Hirschberg also loves similes, unfortunately only two out of three hit their mark.
Despite these minor foibles, I highly recommend the book. Hirshberg has talent to burn as is evidenced by the following description of Mattie's teacher who'd been in a traffic accident: "She looked frail, like a china plate someone had broken and glued back together, minus one or two tiny but unnoticeable chips."

Glen Hirshberg shows great promise with this release of his first novel The Snowman's Children. The story focuses on a suburb of Detroit and three intellectually gifted sixth grade students - Mattie, Spencer and Theresa. Told from Matties perspective, the novel moves between the past winter of 1977 when a serial child killer roamed the streets of his town to 1994 where as an adult Mattie is trying to rid his life of old ghosts. An eerily wonderful coming of age story almost everyone can relate to - your past as you want to remember it and your past as a harsh reality. This book was hard to put down and will not be easily forgotten.

Here is a haunting tale masterfully woven together through the alternate use of flashback and present time. Stark imagery pervades this novel, creating a surreal atmosphere, serving to enhance the novel's eerie plot. The main focus here is not on The Snowman, a mysterious serial killer of children. Although The Snowman lurks insidiously in the background and the reader is introduced to several of his victims, the story revolves mainly around three childhood friends (Mattie, Spencer, and Theresa). It is Theresa's decline into ever worsening mental illness that frames the premise of the story. The boys' disastrous attempt to save their friend has horrible consequences for the people around them. Mattie's despair and frustration over his failure seventeen years in the past leads him back to Detroit to reconcile himself. The story is told from his perspective. I believe this is a novel you will not soon forget.

The Snowman's Children is a serial killer story that isn't about the killer. Nor his victims. As a matter of fact, the killer in the story is just like the remnants of a bad dream that just won't go away. A ghost that is never made whole. Instead, the book is about tragedy, and how it can change a life forever.

Mattie still can't forget the events of his childhood. As the new school year unravels, the entire city will soon be terrorized by the Snowman killer, who abducts young children and then leave them for dead in the snow.

Mattie is trying to trudge along, but when sad turns of events prevents him from seeing his best friend Theresa, he concots a plan with his best friend Spencer to try and get her back. These three friends have a very special bond that is always threaten by Theresa's strange actions and changing personality. These are fully realized characters that are both odd and intriguing in their realism.

The books isn't about those murdered children or the murderer. Instead, it's about childhood, friendship, loyalty and the loss of everything we hold dear. This is a coming of age tale that is often sad, poignant and touching.

Hirshberg writes like someone who has been doing this for all of his life. His prose is beautiful. He often describes things in a way that is visually striking. He writes emotionally, though not in a cheap I-want-your-tears way. Instead, his words are drenched in nostalgia. The plot moves back and forth through time, leaving it to the reader to piece everything back together. Just like the mystery at the heart of this book, the reader has to put it all back together in the end.

Many questions are left unanswered in this literary thriller, and that's fine. Because what Hirshberg has achieved isn't your average thriller. Beautifully written and always profoundly affecting, The Snowman's Children is a very rewarding read that you won't soon forget.

Good debut novel by Hirshberg, concerning a murderer named the "Snowman" who preyed on children in suburban Detroit in the 1970's. I believe the novel is based on the Oakland County Child Killer, who was running amok during this time period.

The serial murders are not the focus of the book; rather, it is the impact of the murders on the three children in this book that drive the plot. Many years later, one of those children, now grown up, goes back to the area to find one of the other children, and hopefully bring some closure to things.

It's a dark and chilling novel--sometimes too dark and chilling for its own good. It's also confusing at times when the plot jumps from the 1970's to the 1990's, and back again. This is not a book to be read lightly--it demands your full attention--but I still recommend it. I'll be interested to see what Hirshberg comes up with next.

I found a book in a thrift store {Glen Hirshberg's} THE SNOWMAN'S CHILDREN,
and I knew that I MUST find anything and everything else this author has written!
I just want to say {simply}....that he spins a tale like the most elaborate web,
making you stick to the book/story till you reach the end. At end of each story and book
I have read by Glen Hirshberg, I put it in my "MUST KEEP" collection, and look forward
to becoming senile so that I will forget I read them and re-read them all again! :)
Sincerely....his style of writing draws you in...giving you a vivid mental image of each
character, and a strong sense of being inside the book, feeling with all your senses, the
mood, the weather, and many times....touches down on places and events that will make you
think of experiences you have had that are similar, which leaves you edgy and yet wanting more.
I have read as many stories as I have been able to find by Glen, and though I have a special fondness for
THE SNOWMAN'S CHILDREN {since it was "my first" Hirshberg novel}, I have enjoyed EVERYTHING he has written
and cannot wait until he gets busy with his next masterpiece. He has a special talent of writing from
a sense of a child grown to adult's {childhood angst}.....that makes you feel all the emotions in every character.
MadMaven/T.S.Heisele

With a chilling sense of nostalgia, Snowman's Children fills you with a sort of cold dread, not just about what happens on the next page, but about what happens to the future of this town and these characters, and when we look back. Hirshberg does an excellent job letting the serial murders create the setting for the strange events in the lives of the three main characters and the relationships between them. Very pleased with this excellent first novel! Highly recommended!

Each year brings a new crop of first novels, many of which are, quite predictably, substandard in terms of quality. Every so often, however, a first novel appears that sets itself apart from the pack; as readers, we experience that special thrill of recognition that announces, "Here is something special." 2002 was unique in that it saw the publication of several novels that provoked such a reaction, among them Alexander Irvine's A Scattering of Jades, Dale Bailey's Fallen Angels, and Glenn Hirshberg's The Snowman's Children.

The best of the three is Irvine's gripping secret history of the United States, which opens with the great New York fire of 1835 and ends in Mammoth Cave circa 1843. In between, it relates the story of newspaperman Archie Prescott who seemingly stumbles on the story of the century, one that centers on the mad ambitions of con man Riley Steen. Believing that great power and influence will accrue to him as a result of his schemes, Steen implements a plan to resurrect the Aztec god Tlaloc. This plan's first step is to animate Tlaloc's avatar, a Mesoamerican mummy known as the chacmool. Once revived, however, the chacmool proves to have a mind of his own, embarking on a journey of death and destruction. Having witnessed the chacmool's bizarre rebirth, Prescott follows the deadly creature across America, eventually coming to realize that their destinies are intertwined.

Masterfully weaving period detail, historical fact, and compelling characters both fictional and real (Edgar Allen Poe, Aaron Burr and P. T. Barnum all make cameos), Irvine creates an absorbing tale whose historical elements are as intriguing as its more fantastic elements. Irvine's imaginative energy brings the period to life in all its gaudy, dirty splendor, detailing a 19th century America whose glorious promise is diminished by the petty schemes and ambitions of the mere mortals who inhabit it. His greatest accomplishment, however, is to have made this tale of the fantastic a very human one, focusing on the passions, ambitions, strengths and failings of his expansive and variegated cast.

Dale Bailey's Fallen is another winner. Set in the isolated mining town of Saul's Run, Pennsylvania, it tells the story of Henry Sleep, a young man who returns to his hometown to bury his father, whom the local police believe took his own life. Not willing to accept this conclusion, Henry begins poking around in his father's affairs. Suspense builds as Bailey artfully raises the stakes, plunging Henry into an investigation that uncovers unwelcome childhood memories and the fantastic secret of a town whose inhabitants almost uniformly live long, untroubled lives.

Although Bailey trods familiar ground in his debut (there are smatterings of works as diverse as IT, Ghost Story, and The Killer Inside Me), he does so with such confidence and bravado that similarities to other books are easily overlooked. At heart a mystery, the book's satisfying payoff is decidedly supernatural, calling to mind William Hjortesberg's Fallen Angel, although not for the reasons you might assume. The build up is slow, slow, slow, but it pays off grandly in the end. Bailey creates a palpable sense of menace and dread, made all the more unbearable due to the readers' increasing involvement with the book's winning cast.

Like Henry Sleep, Mattie Rhodes, the point of view character of Glen Hirshberg's The Snowman's Children, returns to suburban Detroit seeking answers to questions that have plagued him since childhood. Mattie is hoping to reconnect with old friend, Spencer Franklin, who, he hopes, will lead him to yet another friend, Theresa Daughrety. The trio share common backgrounds and, sadly, common traumas. In the late 1970's, they lived through a reign of terror created by the deplorable acts of "The Snowman," a serial killer who, over the course of several winters, abducted and killed several children. The killer's presence had a profound impact on their childhood, and influenced some unfortunate decisions on their part which they still struggle to deal with as adults.

For a first time novelist, Hirshberg displays an extremely deft touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships, especially those between youthful friends and between parent and child. It's depressing serial killer subplot aside, The Snowman's Children is at its core a novel about growing up, about either conquering or assimilating the events of childhood so that you can get on with your life. No matter how significant, letting your life be defined by a single event is the ultimate tragedy.

These are the kind of books that keep you reading well into the night; you're actually disappointed to discover you're reaching the end. Yet you can accept this disappointment, cherishing the promise that each author has shown and what that promise augers for the future. The novel is alive and well because writers like Irvine, Bailey and Hirshberg care enough to craft books like these, books with the power to renew our faith in written word.