THE SNOW CHILD by EOWYN IVEY

While reading THE SNOW CHILD by EOWYN IVEY, I had many thoughts about acceptance, disappointments, miracles and letting go. Jack and Mabel live in Alaska. They are an older couple who lost their only baby to death. Jack and Mabel live with that pain daily because having a child would have been one of their happiest moments fulfilled. Still, life must go on without what they would have desired most in life. They have a friendly relationship with the couple and their son, Garrett, who live nearby. One day while playing outdoors Jack and Mabel make a snowman and make Snow angels in the snow. Then,  a miracle happens. A snow child is born who can breathe, talk and love. She likes to share anything from the forest like berries and baskets, etc. It's not long before the couple give the snow child a name. They name her Faina. Faina becomes just like a daughter to them. She becomes the child and grown-up they have always wanted for many years.

While I read the novel, I became lost in the miraculous appearances of Faina. Was she real? Esther, the neighbor, didn't think so. She had never seen hide or hair of her. However, I became lost in the world of Jack and Mabel. I began to think Faina had to be real. Who could hunt and kill animals like her? Who could survive such hard winters? Didn't she have to be real? She had a father. Jack had seen him. There is a thin line, I think, between fantasy and truth.

As I continued to read THE SNOW CHILD A NOVEL by EOWYN IVEY, I began to feel reality step back in place. I suppose when a heart's desire comes so easily it can disappear just as easily leaving the lesson that with happiness must come a time of letting go. However, in the letting go there is always a gift left behind to help scale the obstacles. EOWYN IVEY wrote about this in this way.

"He took hold of Mabel's hand, and when she turned to him, he saw in her eyes the joy and sorrow of a lifetime."

eowynivey