Snow in August

Not as good as 'Forever' but still great

This is an amazing book. Pete Hamill has just the magic touch to bring words to life. This isn't as good as his book 'Forever' but it's still an amazing book. It really takes you to back to the 1940s in NYC.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great, revealing, fictional book packed with excitement, drama, sadness and history....a real good read

Sad, happy, historical, cynical, religious, ethnic,fast paced....all packed into this one book....loved it.....could not put it down....

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Incredibly Marvelous!

Though it had been lying on my desk for nearly two years when I finally decided to read it; it was a great novel and Pete Hamill is a brilliant author.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

One of the best ever

This is simply ome of the finest novels I've ever read. Highly recommended!

Highly Recommended

Beautifully written, takes you to the NY of the 40's, Brooklyn Dodgers, immigrant experiences lovingly described, yet realistic. A good bit of Jewish folklore, linked to Irish folklore. Couldn't put it down (or, couldn't shut off my NOOK!)

HIGHLY NOT RECOMENDED!

This book is awful if you have a tendency to become angry at predjudices. I feel this book showed the horrors of prejudice. it showed me that predjudice isn't just black and white. It showed me that it can range from a young to old, black to white, Jewish to Catholic. Please don't read this book.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Simply Nice

Simply put, I liked this story--told from an innocent young boy's point of view but with an injection of the sometimes harsh realities that too many children have to face in this world. I was surprised by another reviewer's comment that Catholics were shown in a predominantly negative light, because--as a Catholic--I was pleasantly surprised that most were shown positively. I kept waiting for the pedophile priest or the "jew-hating" rhetoric, but, while there was no attempt to deny that such behaviors exist, most people in general in the story were shown to be tolerant and decent to one another. Sure, fear of retribution from bullies and gangs kept people quiet, but that is something most every person can identify with. I picked this book up at the library when I took out another Pete Hamill book--Forever--and in both cases, enjoyed the element of faith/hope/magic/sense of wonder that played a major role. Yeah, he spent a lot of time on baseball, which didn't interest me, but not so much that I lost interest in the bigger story. I'll look for more from this author.

Simply amazing

I read this book about a year ago, and looking back on it now I can still remember every detail. It was amazing, worth every penny. If you enjoyed this book, I highly recommend Pete Hamill's Forever.

Great Story ~ Great Characters ~ Highly Recommend

This is the first Pete Hamill book I have read and I will be reading more of his collection. Great story with excellent character development that keeps your interest to the very last page. The descriptions of New York during the depression are intriguing for this baby boomer. This would be a great choice for a book club ~ highly recommend this book and it would make a nice gift/stocking stuffer for anyone.

A testimony to the strength of friendship

Snow in August is about 11-year-old Michael Devlin, an Irish Catholic who becomes friends with an Orthodox Jew, Rabbi Hirsch, a recent immigrant to America. Set in a borough of Brooklyn in 1947, following WWII in which Michael's father gave his life at the Battle of the Bulge and Rabbi Hirsch's beloved wife lost hers in her fight against the fanatical Hitler by trying to organize the Jews to leave for Palestine. Michael teaches Rabbi Hirsch English and American ways and the rabbi teaches the boy Yiddish and tells him stories of Jewish life back in Prague, as well as the mysteries of the Kabbalah. 1947 is the year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, anti-Semitism and the distrust of others not of one's culture or nationality was alive and well in America. A gang of young Irish teens set out to rule the neighborhood by intimidation, feeding on violence and hatred until, through Michael, a powerful force is brought to bear against them. The story of the friendship between the boy and the rabbi is a touching one and I especially enjoyed the interaction between the two. The ending was not as I had imagined and didn't give me the satisfaction the ending I envisioned would have, but, of course, it wasn't my story. Eunice Boeve, author of Ride a Shadowed Trail

Great Read

Courage, determination, understanding, tolerance and inttolerance.
what a better world we would have without bullies, who truly are lonely, and lost and have only their cruelty to others, to give them power and a place in society.

A simple act of kindness brings a lifetime of learning and friendship.

Loved it!

Any book by Pete Hamill is worth reading, but this one was especially humanistic. Pete Hamill has such an elegant writing style that I was immediately hooked. The characters are as real as the city itself and the plot was unique with a lemon twist. Read it!

A great New York story

This book transported me into the magical world of New York neighborhoods with all of the charm and stumbling blocks thrown in with a mixture of childhood and fear.

Excellent and powerful read

This book was wonderful, powerful, moving and illustrates how people of different religious backrounds can build warm and loving relationships, find common ground to build on and in spite of different traditions are really more alike than different. I must strongly disagree with the writer who urges how unbelievable the friendship here was. I was raised Catholic but of late I have been attending services at a Jewish synagogue. I must say four rabbis and many Jewish members there have embraced me & my family and welcomed us so warmly to services, events, & classes. They do in fact teach me Hebrew and welcomed my daughter into Hebrew classes. This book really hit home for me.

Too Good of a book!!!

Snow in August was an awesome book!! I definitely enjoyed this one! (I finished it in a day)This was excellent! I wish more books were like this one! Schools usually pick bad summer reading books, but this one was brilliant! There is no bad part of this book! Rock on Pete Hamill!

Non-believable throughout

Granted, of necessity, fiction requires giving its authors some poetic license, but Snow in August is not only unbelievable, it's non-believable on almost every level. Not only would an orthodox rabbi not teach a non-Jewish child Kabbalah--orthodoxy only permits males to study the Kabbalah, and then only if those males are deemed religious enough (in lock-step with their rebbe) and are over 40-years-old--the rabbi most certainly would not have a child teach him English...unless, like too many priests and not a few rabbis of late, this rabbi were actually seeking something else. Please don't infer that the above are the only non-believable parts to this tale. Instead, they are a mere few snowflakes among a snowball's worth thrown to test their chances in hell. Lastly, why must bad Catholics predominate? why must ones of other religions be so manufactured as to be non-human in their two-dimension-like perfection? The answer seems to be in the author's laziness (of which Mr. Hamill surely can't be rightly accused) or his lack of genuine insight into characters portrayed. I hope that Mr. Hamill hasn't written this book as some perverted act of contrition, some show that he bemoans his own heritage, because it doesn't work. There are better outlets for that. Moreover, Mr. Hamill's ready means to publication shouldn't give him power to throw the rest of those of similar heritage to the dogs while elevating another--simply because he's of a different religion--to status of demi-god.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic!

I fell in love with Pete Hamill when I read his book 'Forever'....which was also a fantastic book! I think I'd have to say that Snow in August was the best book I've read in a long time! I felt like I was there...it made me laugh and cry...I'd love to see a movie made out of this book!

Enchanting

What a great story! I was entertained, I learned something and would recommend this book to my 11 year old grandson. Although, many subjects were covered, they were woven together in such a way that they were easy to follow.

GREAT BOOK!!!!!

Amazing Book

Excellent Story

This is a very good book to read. When i first opened it i looked at the great reviews;and was skeptical to whether they were as good as they said. After finishing the book in a week i was very pleased. I recommend this book to teen readers as well as adults. It's combines faith, hope, despair and change in less than a year in the eyes of a child.