Arty Parkinson, the protagonist of this fine first novel, returns one Christmas to his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, to confront his haunting past-specifically, the winter of 1974, when he turned 15 and two terrible things happened: his family fell apart, and Annie Marchand, the young neighbor who had once been his baby-sitter, was murdered.
Stewart O'Nan writes about people scratching out a living in the America that most of us live in--not the America that we see on TV sitcoms. I'm glad he doesn't write fantasy.
Stewart O'Nan's prizewinning novel Snow Angels is set in Butler. 
Arty Parkinson, the protagonist of this fine first novel, returns one Christmas to his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, to confront his haunting past-specifically, the winter of 1974, when he turned 15 and two terrible things happened: his family fell apart, and Annie Marchand, the young neighbor who had once been his baby-sitter, was murdered.
ReplyDeleteThere was a movie released based on the novel but its location was changed, and filmed in Canada, I think.
ReplyDeleteCorrect! Halifax, Canada.
ReplyDeleteA read I would describe as befitting the setting chosen by O'Nan...gloomy and never quite delivering anything of substance or character.
ReplyDeletesounds like Butler alright
ReplyDeleteStewart O'Nan writes about people scratching out a living in the America that most of us live in--not the America that we see on TV sitcoms. I'm glad he doesn't write fantasy.
ReplyDelete