Snow in August

An absolutely enchanting, magical, sociological, psychological, and cultural novel about a 1947 Brooklyn neighborhood in which its citizens are mostly Irish Catholic, Italian, and Jewish. The agony of World War II and its suffering and lost are still a very big part of their everyday life. They live in tenements where most apartments still rely on coal to heat their apartments, turn on the hot water, and cook on their stoves.

The main character, Michael Devlin, an eleven year alter boy who attends Catholic school, lives with his mother who escaped from the civil war going on in her native Ireland to live in America. Her husband, a member of US forces fighting in Europe is killed in the Battle of the Bulge during the end of the war.

On a cold, winter morning when a huge snow storm has shut down most of Brooklyn, Michael still gets up early to attend a scheduled eight o’clock mass where he is scheduled to be one of two altar boys. He struggles through the snow and the nasty wind blowing in off the harbor when he suddenly hears a plead for help. After a certain amount of hesitation, he decides to see if he can help, and he arrives at the steps of a synagogue where Rabbi Judah Hirsh, a refuge from Prague, ask Michael if he can a turn on the light switch because during the Shabbos he is not permitted.

From this first encounter, a growing and educational friendship develops with the Rabbi helping teach Michael Yiddish and Jewish culture, and Michael teaches him better English and about baseball and the excitement of the first black ballplayer, Jackie Robinson, joining the Dodgers.

It is against this fruitful and loving friendship, that the prejudices of the day against blacks, and Jews, want to be teenage gangsters, and corrupt police takes place. This takes place, like I said in 1947, and sadly throughout all I could think about is how little has changed since then.

This is an exceptionally moving story, with a magical ending, beautifully written with unbelievable characters. I highly recommend.

This was one of the books on my grandson’s summer reading list. I read it first so we could discuss it. It has a very interesting moral situation that the primary character has to deal with – one that lends itself to very interesting discussions with a young person. The story takes place in post WWII ’40s – a time very, very different from today. It will be difficult for a child of today’s world to relate to that very different time period. The language is often a bit rough but rough language is part of being a teen. The story moves rather slowly and it takes a bit to plow through the beginning but becomes more interesting as it continues. Although I don’t think it is the most riveting book it is worth young people reading and discussing it.

Though this book deals head on with the reality of violence in our lives, Pete Hamill does a good job with this serious subject. The book might be a great one to read aloud with a twelve or thirteen year old; perhaps an adult who knows the child should read the book first in order to assess whether or not this book would be good for the particular young person. The novel, Snow in August, is also full of love.

Excellent novel set in Brooklyn in the aftermath of World War II. Prejudice and bullying is examined in different contexts–Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, anti-Semitism, bullying by teen-aged gangs, etc. The central story revolves around an unexpected friendship between a young Catholic altar boy and a rabbi from Czechoslovakia who has settled in Brooklyn after the war. Mystical themes from Jewish legend and the Kabbalah also play a central role and add a supernatural element to the otherwise straightforward narrative. The rich moral themes of the novel led me to choose this book for a book discussion at my Episopal church and we also viewed the CD of the television play based on the book. The participants in the book discussion found the book as captivating as I did.

This is an outstanding book, and a terrible book – so I gave it a “three”.

Others have summarized the plot, so I won’t.

I am Irish/Catholic and grew-up (in the early 50s) in a very Irish/Catholic section of Boston, and served as an altar boy. We had a baseball team in Boston (actually, we had two back then) and our lives revolved around it (but it was long before Pumpsie Green). I experienced many of the things that Michael Devlin experienced, and feel that I can relate to him – and especially to his mother (I, quite literally, cried when she proudly plugged-in her new Philco radio!).

All I can say is that, like Kate Devlin, we were poor – but we certainly didn’t live in “poverty”. Money was scarce but structure, family, love, and Holy Mother Church (for better or worse) were there for us. I can also relate to people of the Jewish faith and their tragic history (note my moniker); and have no time for anti-Semitism.

Having said all that, I want to repeat that (like several other reviewers) I am of two minds regarding this book. Hamill’s treatment of the Devlins was spot-on; as was his treatments of Sacred Heart, serving Mass, McCarthy’s gang, and the movie theater and pool room. And Ebbets Field/Fenway Pahk. I also believe (without knowing) that his treatment of Rabbi Hirsch and Shabbos goyim was spot-on. The characters are very well depicted (albeit a bit one-dimensional) and evocative. I very much enjoyed them and their journey. I was genuinely moved by these men and women, but like so many others here, I was muchly put-off by the ending. In my view, a novel can be either fanciful (like “Lord of the Rings”) or factual (like “Exodus”) but should not be both – especially when the conflict is factual … but the resolution of that conflict is fanciful.

My own conclusion is that when Michael wanted to “vanish into a dreamless sleep” (on page 331)… he did exactly that. And when he woke up, his family’s wounds were un-avenged, and he and Kate moved to Bay Ridge and lived happily ever after.

If only, instead, while collecting dirt in Prospect Park, he’d met six young twenty-something fellows who were holocaust survivors, and refugees from the DP camps, and were on their way to Palestine to fight the good fight … but first decided to have a wee chat with Frankie McCarthy and his teenage boyos.

Slinte, Frankie …

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