Snowed In : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Witty and funny, but deeper than a typical
Review: Christina Bartolomeo's SNOWED IN is the tale of Sophie Quinn and her search for true happiness. Her husband, Paul Stoddard, gets transferred to Maine for a temporary one-year assignment, and so Sophie and Paul uproot themselves from their comfortable life in Washington, D.C. to the colder unknown world of Portland.

The book opens in October, and Sophie is dealing for the umpteenth time with their landlord, Donald, who is pretty much good for nothing except to collect the rent. "Courage is not my leading virtue," the first chapter opens. "I always avoided change of any sort...I married a `safe' man." With these words, the reader is immediately made aware that Sophie, who has always been one to take the easy way out, is forced to go through a major change by moving to Maine with her husband. Dealing with the landlord is not in her repertoire. She is not a confrontational person, but with Paul too busy and Sophie home all day, she has no choice but to put aside her fears and work things out with Donald. The reader will also suspect that something is not completely right with her marriage.

Sophie does her best to adjust to their new home, because she loves her husband (she thinks) and believes in doing her part to keep things moving along. In the meantime, Donald is frustrating her already upside-down life by being unable (or unwilling) to fix the simplest things in their apartment, such as the heater on this cold October morning, and Paul is beginning to spend less time with her and more time at work. Life is not looking good at this point.

The first chapter sets the tone of SNOWED IN right away. It is lighthearted and reads almost like today's popular "Chick Lit" books. However, once the reader becomes further involved in the story, they will realize that there is a lot more depth to SNOWED IN than a typical "Chick Lit" book. As Sophie proceeds day by day, trying to get into the spirit of living in what she sees as a God-forsaken place, the reader watches her slowly transform from an insecure woman to someone who finds her place in the world.

The characters who populate SNOWED IN are the main reason to read this work. They could easily be found in an Annie Proulx or Richard Russo novel. The various characters, such as Donald the landlord and the members of Sophie's walking club, add to the novel by allowing the reader to become involved in Sophie's everyday life. They are normal, not-so-perfect people --- funny, offbeat, lovable, or just plain interesting. They enrich the novel as much as the plot.

Sophie isn't sitting at home twiddling her thumbs when she's not out walking. She does artwork for a college friend, who takes these paintings and creates greeting cards. Sophie doesn't have much faith in her art, but this is one thing that keeps her going during the cold Maine winter.

What also has her occupied is her ex-boyfriend Rory, who was at one point the love of her life until he decided not to leave his fiancée for Sophie and instead married his betrothed, leaving Sophie with a broken heart. It is now five years, and he is back in her life; with her own marriage failing, she feels this is one area of her life that needs closure.

On the other hand, there is Sophie's new friend Ned and his gay brother, Stephen. She doesn't find Ned attractive, at least not at first, but he becomes a comfort to her while she wonders if her marriage can be saved.

Through her narration, one will see how Sophie grows from a rather introverted, fatalistic, unsociable person to one who begins looking forward to seeing her new friends and getting to know her new hometown. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. By the time one finishes reading SNOWED IN, they will be cheering for Sophie and hope she gets that happy ending she deserves.

Written with wit and style, SNOWED IN will become one of this reviewer's favorite books of 2004.

[...]

Rating:
Summary: the writing makes you feel 'snowed in' with the characters!
Review: I don't know if a snowy weekend to read this book heightened my love of it but it was a very good story.

Sophie and Paul leave the Washington, DC area for Maine because of Paul's job. Sophie does freelance artwork while Paul is the main breadwinner.

Nathalie, Paul's coworker, develops a crush (as Sophie sees it) on Paul and their relationship threatens the marriage. Sophie joins a walking group to mingle with Mainers. There she meets Stephen and Ned who become constant friends.

Just as snowflakes float slowly does this novel move through seasons of Sophie's year. She is faced with a horrible mother in law, Pepper, who comes for the holiday and treats Sophie in the ways only an insincere mother in law can behave.

The reader roots for Sophie and witnesses her strength toward the end of the novel, as she needs to stand up for herself and lead the life she is meant to have.

Rating:
Summary: A real winner in all facets -- highly recommended
Review: I must admit -- being from the South, I don't know much about the Northeast, let alone Maine. I've always just pictured beautiful fishing villages and/or really cold, depressing winters. So what I really loved about this book was the vivid and complex portrait that the author paints of Maine, particularly Portland, the state's largest city. It's easy to discern that Bartolomeo knows the city intimately, and that helps ground the story in reality. In Bartolomeo's novel, Maine is not reduced to simply being a beautiful vacation destination or the home of freakish Stephen King-style murder mysteries, but it is portrayed as a real place, with real people facing real-life struggles (job, marriage, family, in-laws, etc.). Hats off to the author on this. In addition, "Snowed In" is simply a riveting page-turner. Driving the action is Sophie, the novel's eminently likeable and engaging lead character. She carries the book through her deep humanity, witty (often hilarious) observations, and unrelenting desire to change her ho-hum life against difficult odds. This is an inspiring, poignant, and heartfelt book -- and one that will also make you laugh uproariously. I highly, highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Once you start, you can't put it down . . .
Review: I spent all day Saturday reading this book--it's that good. It's an enjoyable story, and by reading it, I learned some more about myself and my family.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: SNOWED IN by Christina Bartolomeo
November 25, 2004

Here is a book that will be on my top 20 list for 2004. SNOWED IN by Christina Bartolomeo is one of those novels that will sneak up on you. You will fall in love with the main character, Sophie Quinn, while the book itself (at least for me) will be hard to forget. There aren't too many books that come around that I feel "special" about, and SNOWED IN is one of those few.

Sophie Quinn has been married to Paul Stoddard for a number of years, and now she finds herself living in the cold world of Portland, Maine, because of Paul's job relocation. He's very busy with work and she rarely sees him, and when he's home, he's not the same. She's noticed that the man she fell in love with does not exist anymore. She's lonely and feels trapped.

Sophie's days consist of dealing with the landlord, Donald, who she has a hard time confronting. Paul asks her to talk to Donald about their heater, and other things that are not working in their apartment, but she is not the confrontational type. But, October in Maine dictates the use of a heater, and with theirs not working at all and Sophie being homebound most of the day, she has to do something or she'll freeze to death.

One day Sophie meets Stephen, a gay man who happened to bang his leg (which was in a cast) against her stool at her favorite coffee house, Java Net. They strike up a conversation, something that Sophie does not do with strangers, and soon she has made a new friend. He invites her to join a walking group he belongs to, and so she courageously joins. Paul is ecstatic that she's found an interest outside her own work, which is doing pamphlets for various non-profit groups and helping a college friend create artwork for greeting cards.

Soon, Sophie is making new friends, and finds herself attracted in a platonic way to Ned, Stephen's brother. She's married and does not feel a need for a romantic interest outside the marriage, but as I continued reading, I felt that underneath everything, Sophie does not feel married at all. And therefore, because she did not feel married, she also felt subconsciously that she was not doing anything wrong by feeling somewhat attracted to Ned, confiding with him about almost everything, and becoming as close to him as she wished she were with her own husband.

Along with Ned, there is also an ex-boyfriend who was the love of her life, Rory. He also becomes a distraction, as she becomes further confused about her marriage and what she really wants out of a relationship.

Despite the heavy themes, the tone of the book is light. I found myself chuckling quite often while reading about Sophie's exploits. The book is witty and funny and I was quite amazed that I discovered such a gem of a book. The characters are all rather quirky, which adds to the charm of this book, and the author has a definite gift of story telling.

I am definitely recommending SNOWED IN, and am going to be hunting down her previous novels, CUPID AND DIANA and THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS.

Rating:
Summary: An author to watch...
Review: Snowed In tells the story of Sophia and Paul, a newly married couple who left the big bustling city of Washington D.C. and moved to the quiet and very cold Portland, Maine for Pauls new job. Sophie was hoping that the change would be good for the marriage but the longer they were in Portland, the more it seemed that Paul was pulling away from her. Sophie believed that if she made herself more interesting to Paul, the sparks would return in the marriage so she started making a list of how to improve herself. Her first task was to join a walking group, then she moved on to a new hair cut with color and then a car. With each day, she was becoming a more independent woman but Paul was even more distant with her. We finally find out that Paul was having an affair with an associate from work but by the time Sophie found out, she was well on her way to becoming a new woman who could stand on her own two feet.

Although I was not immediately blown away when I started Snowed In, little by little the story engaged my interest and I found myself routing for Sophie to rise above the life that she was living and find the strength within herself to want and do more with her future. If you have looking to read a story that has action and a moment that changes everything, you will not find it in Snowed In. This is more of a book that slowly unfolds before your eyes. It is a book for the simple pleasure of reading.

Christina Bartolomeo is a very talented author and is definitely one to watch in the coming years.


Rating:
Summary: A nice little story
Review: This is definitely one of today's chick-lit books. The characters, and especially the places, if not the plot, seem to be drawn from the author's own experiences. The heroine is disatisfied with her lot and her marriage and joins a walking group for new experiences and new people. The rest is certainly predictable, and everything comes to a happy ending - we hope.
If I have one criticism of the book it is that the author saw fit to include comments on the 2000 presidential election and someBush/Gore/Nader opinions. I'm not sure why this belongs in a work of fiction, but i guess she felt it was important.

Rating:
Summary: engaging character study
Review: Three months ago freelance artist Sophie accompanied her husband Paul when his job caused him to relocate from Washington DC to Portland, Maine. After the hustle and bustle of the big city with the Metro to get around, the unlicensed Sophie finds the solitude disturbing. With so much time on her hands to brood and no place to go, Sophie worries that her spouse's new assistant bubbly yet effective Natalie seems to get more of Paul's attention and admiration than his wife receives from him.

Depressed, Sophie several times calls her sister and her best friend, but neither lifts her from her doldrums while her mother-in-law Pepper adds spice to Sophie's already churning stomach. Desperate to get her mind off of her concerns Sophie joins a local walking club where she meets Ned who struggles with his own going nowhere relationship with a geographically distant girlfriend.

This engaging character study looks at how a geographical change can impact relationships. Sophie goes from having no time to complete anything to having too much time causing her to brood and fret. The story line fully focuses on Sophie who holds the tale together while the rest of the cast predominantly relate to her. Her relationship with Pepper is a classic; while that with her spouse has deteriorated rather quickly as she feels he has moved on to being a rugged New Englander with a captivating snowbird assistant while she is turning into a boring SNOWED IN transplant failure. Fans of deep family dramas will appreciate the wry humorous asides inside the serious subject of the impact of relocating on marriage.

Harriet Klausner