After the horrifying book I had just finished, I wanted a comforting book to read next. Anita Shreve’s writing usually fits the bill. Unfortunately, Light on Snow was a miss for me.
A very general, one-line plot summary (no spoilers): A 12-year-old girl and her father find an abandoned baby in the snow. The book was okay, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I normally enjoy Shreve’s work (which is to say, I normally love her novels). I felt there was something missing (both in the narrative itself as well as the quality of the writing) that, in her other books, is immediately identifiable as Shreve’s voice.
That being said, it was a fairly easy read and the majority of the characters are likable and relatable, if not terribly memorable. I call it a “fairly” easy read because I got through the first half of the book quickly, but didn’t touch it again for a couple of weeks. Also, it was a nice change to see Shreve writing first person point of view. However, the narrator (Nicky) recounts the story both as a 30-year-old woman as well as a 12-year-old girl, and the shifts in perspective don’t always feel consistent.
Lastly–and I’m not sure if this is just nitpicking–but what was up with all the brand names? Mr. Coffee, Cuisinart, Kotex, Motrin…and I’m sure there were several more. I chalked it up as being some kind of storytelling technique for the 12-year-old girl, but how many 12-year-olds talk about Cuisinarts? I don’t know. Anyway, weird as it is to mention this, it’s something that really distracted me as I was reading. Product placement is so annoying, whatever the context.
Something about the book that I did like (possibly the only thing that I really liked?) is that Nicky is a knitter. Knitting is discussed several times in the book, so those mentions always made me smile.
I would recommend Light on Snow only to diehard Shreve fans (like myself) who are making their way through her whole catalog. I think everyone else can skip this one.
