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A review by ncrabb
The Snow Angel by Nicole Baart, Glenn Beck
3.0
Rachel Clark grew up with a dad who loved his wife despite some serious flaws and behaviors. Rachel’s mom treated her like trash. The little girl was anything but pretty according to Mom. Naturally, Mom was lying, but young Rachel heard only what she heard. “You’re ugly; you’re worthless; you’re stupid.” Mitch Clark was intent on just keeping his economic head above water. His work consumed his life and energy so much that he had neither the strength nor the will to combat the abuse his wife nonchalantly doled out on young Rachel. There was one magical exception to Mitch Clark’s apathy and exhaustion. There was one winter night when little Rachel Clark got to make snow angels with her dad. So perfect were the snow angels that Dad would carefully lift her up off the snow when one was completed so there would be no footprints near it. That one crystalline night, Rachel and Mitch crafted a veritable heavenly host of snow angels. Years later, when Rachel’s alcoholic mom wrapped her car around a tree as a result of one of her drunken stupors, Rachel is horrified to realize that she feels a certain amount of relief in the knowledge that her mother is dead. But all those years of Dad’s inaction have taken their toll on that relationship, too.
A few days after the funeral, she is walking near her home when an elderly man calls out to her. Max Wever operates a local tailor shop with his wife, Elena. Max offers teenaged Rachel a job, and she becomes a skilled seamstress in her own right.
Rachel met football star Cyrus Price at a school dance. He flattered her—told her she was beautiful and talented. No boy had ever done that. Max, Elena, and even Rachel’s dad, Mitch, saw Cyrus Price for what he was—a manipulative controlling young man who would lure Rachel into a relationship that almost certainly wouldn’t end well.
The two marry, and Lily is a mirror image of her mother when her mom was little. Cyrus Clark is clever enough to keep the abuse away from his daughter, and Rachel is willing to do whatever is necessary to stand between his physical and verbal abuse and the little girl.
This is a horrifying story of bruised faces, a broken wrist, and an insidious grinding down of a once-effervescent woman into an almost-drudge automaton who would be the glamorous wife in public and the punching bag back at the house.
When Cyrus leaves town for a week, Rachel gets an opportunity to be reunited with Max who had employed her years earlier. Max and Lily are introduced, and while the three work together on a project, the truth of Rachel’s abuse is revealed to young Lily.
But what of Mitch Clark? He, too, yearns for truth to be revealed. A stroke morphed into full-blown Alzheimer’s, and unbeknownst to Rachel, Mitch is in a care facility not far from her home.
The final scenes of this book are memorable indeed. The Alzheimer’s plays an integral part in the story, interestingly enough. There’s much more to this book than abuse and isolation. But nor is there an unrealistic happy ending. There is much here that speaks to second chances and the ability to discover new horizons and reach for new and clearer vistas. It is, in short, a Christmas story in so many ways.
Glenn Beck comes by whatever expertise is reflected in this story honestly. His alcoholic mother took her life when Glenn was young, and for a significant part of his life, he, too, was an alcoholic. Today, he worries out loud frequently about finding the balance between his work life and raising his adopted adolescent son.
A few days after the funeral, she is walking near her home when an elderly man calls out to her. Max Wever operates a local tailor shop with his wife, Elena. Max offers teenaged Rachel a job, and she becomes a skilled seamstress in her own right.
Rachel met football star Cyrus Price at a school dance. He flattered her—told her she was beautiful and talented. No boy had ever done that. Max, Elena, and even Rachel’s dad, Mitch, saw Cyrus Price for what he was—a manipulative controlling young man who would lure Rachel into a relationship that almost certainly wouldn’t end well.
The two marry, and Lily is a mirror image of her mother when her mom was little. Cyrus Clark is clever enough to keep the abuse away from his daughter, and Rachel is willing to do whatever is necessary to stand between his physical and verbal abuse and the little girl.
This is a horrifying story of bruised faces, a broken wrist, and an insidious grinding down of a once-effervescent woman into an almost-drudge automaton who would be the glamorous wife in public and the punching bag back at the house.
When Cyrus leaves town for a week, Rachel gets an opportunity to be reunited with Max who had employed her years earlier. Max and Lily are introduced, and while the three work together on a project, the truth of Rachel’s abuse is revealed to young Lily.
But what of Mitch Clark? He, too, yearns for truth to be revealed. A stroke morphed into full-blown Alzheimer’s, and unbeknownst to Rachel, Mitch is in a care facility not far from her home.
The final scenes of this book are memorable indeed. The Alzheimer’s plays an integral part in the story, interestingly enough. There’s much more to this book than abuse and isolation. But nor is there an unrealistic happy ending. There is much here that speaks to second chances and the ability to discover new horizons and reach for new and clearer vistas. It is, in short, a Christmas story in so many ways.
Glenn Beck comes by whatever expertise is reflected in this story honestly. His alcoholic mother took her life when Glenn was young, and for a significant part of his life, he, too, was an alcoholic. Today, he worries out loud frequently about finding the balance between his work life and raising his adopted adolescent son.