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eBook A Boy in Winter download

by Maxine Chernoff

ISBN: 0732266297
Author: Maxine Chernoff
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd (March 29, 2000)
Pages: 256
ePub: 1787 kb
Fb2: 1332 kb
Rating: 4.5
Other formats: rtf txt lit azw
Category: Literature
Subcategory: Contemporary

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A Boy in Winter book. With stunning imagination and an almost sculptural elegance of storytelling, Maxine Cher-noff balances the radical shock of tragedy with the hard-won optimism of survival

A Boy in Winter book. With stunning imagination and an almost sculptural elegance of storytelling, Maxine Cher-noff balances the radical shock of tragedy with the hard-won optimism of survival. She brilliantly enacts how a child stunned by grief and the adults who love him reclaim their trust in the future. Ultimately, A Boy in Winter testifies to the power of parental love and steadfast friendship to provide hope and faith in the face of tragedy.

Maxine Chernoff’s most popular book is Selected Poems. A Boy in Winter by. Maxine Chernoff (Goodreads Author).

Discover new books on Goodreads. See if your friends have read any of Maxine Chernoff's books. Maxine Chernoff’s Followers (32).

Reminiscent of Russell Banks' The Sweet Hereafter, this dark, haunting, yet ultimately optimistic traces three people who come to accept the burden of living after a tragic accident.

Chernoff (American Heaven, 1996, et. describes an intractable tragedy-a young boy unintentionally murders another-with much accuracy and feeling but offers only a narrative shrug when parting with the reader. The boy is 12-year-old Danny, and his victim is Eddie Nova. Chernoff (American Heaven, 1996, et. While goofing off alone in Danny’s house one afternoon, Eddie produces his crossbow and begins pointing it around the living room.

A boy in winter : a novel. by. Chernoff, Maxine, 1952-. Books for People with Print Disabilities. Internet Archive Books. Uploaded by sf-loadersive. org on June 24, 2011. SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata).

She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. Chernoff is a professor and Chair of the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University.

Maxine Chernoff is the author of six books of fiction and fourteen books of poems, most recently HERE (Counterpath, 2014), WITHOUT (Shearsman Books, 2012) and TO BE READ IN THE DARK (Omnidawn Publishing, 2011). She is the recipient of a 2013 NEA Fellowship in Poetry and, with Paul Hoover, for their translation of Friedrich Holderlin, the 2009 PEN USA Translation Award.

Maxine Chernoff (born 1952) is an American novelist, writer, poet . A Boy in Winter (Crown Publishing, 1999; Harper Flamingo Australia, 2000)

She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. A Boy in Winter (Crown Publishing, 1999; Harper Flamingo Australia, 2000). American Heaven (Coffee House Press, 1996), a finalist for the Bay Area Book.

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When 11-year-old Danny accidently kills his best friend and next door neighbour, his mother, Nancy, is left wondering how her bright, well-behaved son could have killed Eddie.

Comments: (7)

Dorintrius

Maxine Chernoff's "A Boy in Winter" features exceptional characterizations, beautifully-etched descriptive passages, and evocative perspectives. These three virtues coalesce in a novel which examines the horrific consequences of an unintended homicide, done by ten-year old Danny Horvath on his hyperkinetic next-door-neighbor, Eddie Nova. Told in three separate voices -- Danny, his mother Nancy and Eddie's father Frank all reveal themselves -- "A Boy in Winter" capably joins other contemporary novels which explore the impact of trauma on the lives of otherwise honorable, but ordinary, people. As Chernoff wisely comments, this wrenching event eliminates the possibility of an anonymous life from its three central characters, all interwoven by love and affliction.
The author is at her best when she delves into the psychological consequences of unintended disaster and furtive love. The disaster, of course, is the unintentional homicide. However, the ruins of conscience and possibility pervade the lives of Danny, Nancy and Frank. Wracked by guilt and responsibility, the three wrestle with both imagined and unwarranted responsibility. Danny's written narrative of his life, in my judgment, is the strongest aspect of the novel. Equally significant is the illicit relationship constructed between Nancy and Frank. What began as a solid friendship between next-door neighbors blossoms into what appears to be a genuine love affair. Permeating the relationship is its supposed secret nature; Chernoff delights in asking us who else knows about the affair and what significance that knowledge has on the participants and observers.
The writing is taut and direct; the plot is subservient to the central thrust of the novel -- the need to understand the consequences of unexpected loss on the human heart. As we watch the characters struggle with their sense of isolation (both physical and emotional) and their burdens of responsibility, we gain new insights into the significance of love and the possibility of a newly-minted future.

Tansino

A friend got me interested in this book. Otherwise, I would never have noticed it. After reading the first page in the bookstore, I bought it, took it home, and kept reading. Like the other reviewers, I enjoyed the relationship between mother and son before, during, and after the accident. I was especially moved by Nancy Harvath and Frank Nova's situation as former lovers, split up by a stupid accident which never should have happened.I empathized with Danny, even though I thought there was some part of him that wanted to kill Edie. The fishing trip was very telling, at least to me. The guilt and remorse over what happened told me that he was a human being and I found myself empathisizing with him the most. Every viewpoint was strong. But I found myself somewhat disappointed by the events leading up to the ending. There should've been more anger on Frank's part against Danny. Some part of him should've wanted to hurt Danny. If that was mentioned, then I missed it. But the gist I got was, Frank went nuts and kidnapped the kid, holed him up inside his brother's house without doing anything to him, only to give the boy up without a fight. Maybe he was too afraid of himself and the situation he was in or perhaps the author recoils from the idea of adults hurting children. I can't blame her.Anyway, I really liked the story and would recommend it to anyone.

Nuadazius

I read this book around the time the 6 year old Michigan boy shot his classmate. I have an 11 year old boy named Danny and the beginning of the book really is great at describing the passions and fears a parent would probably have if they were ever faced with this situation. The middle of the book slowed down a bit but still gave a good sense of how the characters in such a horrible situation might react. The end was just crazy and I was dissapointed. Here is a great line: "Nothing we fear gets realized, but while we're distracted, worse things happen." It's a fast read with short chapters. I don't know how a story like this could have ended and in the end I guess no ending to such a sad story would suffice. It is worth the effort but don't expect too much in the ending.

Anen

In an incredible narrative feat, Chernoff creates with A BOY IN WINTER an emotional thriller about loss that hits the gut and engages the mind. Instead of leading up to a harrowing event, Chernoff places her story after the tragedy and examines all aspects of the fall-out. The first third gives us Nancy Horvath, whose son has accidently killed another boy, as she tries to make sense of the horrific mishap. In brief, spare chapters as if Nancy is too shell-shocked to give us more, we glimpse the torture of grief, regret, pain this single mother suffers separated from her son in the weeks that follow. The second section gives us Danny's story in his own words, a thrilling act of ventroliquism which, when paired with Nancy's voice, reveals a fascinating and thorough examination of the strange, ethereal connection between a mother and son. But the novel's third section, a collection of third-person points of view, is Chernoff's master stroke. Here, the novel spins into unexpected places; there's danger on every page. There's a kidnapping, a hostage stand-off and, brilliantly, an eloquent exploration of how to live a life gone mad. As Nancy asks, "What trains people for life these days?" What makes the book so unique is Chernoff's crafty method of hooking a reader by sneaking up the events of her story, zeroing in on them, then skidding away into strange, new territory. Her deft handling of narrative time makes the book a must-read all by itself. You'll never read anything like it.

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