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florapants84's review
4.0
I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump. It seems like I’ve caught a nasty strain of the flu virus every other year since I can remember, and I can always associate each episode with the book that I nursed in bed. A Great Deliverance was one of them, so was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Both books hold a special place in my reader’s heart.
This year was quite different though. I was seriously put out of commission! I spent a week and a half staring at the wall and sleeping with the TCM network tuned at all hours of the night. Reading was next to impossible! What was even more surprising was how long it took to even formulate the desire to read once I got better–this is the book that pulled me out of the illness induced slump. I was hooked from the first line:
“THE YOUNG WOMAN ahead of him in line at the Hannaford Superstore was unusually fragrant, smelled like wood smoke and dirty clothes and cough drops or maybe Ben- Gay, eucalyptus anyway. She was all but mummified in an enormous coat leaking feathers, some kind of army- issue garment from another era, huge hood pulled over her head.”
Set on the eve of the “snowstorm of the century” in Maine, Eric Neil, a small town lawyer, is in the midst of preparing for a monthly visit from his estranged wife by a trip to the grocery store. While in line, he comes across Danielle, a “ghost” living on the outskirts of town in an abandoned cabin. Through a series of events, the two end up stranded together at the height of the storm. Complete strangers, and not necessarily taken with each other, the two come to learn about themselves and each other through a forced intimacy based on circumstance.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At first I wasn’t sure how the “suspense” part would come into play, but this really is a survival story, and I’m always a sucker for those. It was also deeply personal and psychological; it's the perfect read for a snowy day by the fire with a cup of coffee. I also couldn’t help thinking how this would make a great play or movie. Up until this book, I’d never even heard of Roorbach, but he seems to be a well-known Maine author. I’d be interested to read some of his fiction and non-fiction works.
This year was quite different though. I was seriously put out of commission! I spent a week and a half staring at the wall and sleeping with the TCM network tuned at all hours of the night. Reading was next to impossible! What was even more surprising was how long it took to even formulate the desire to read once I got better–this is the book that pulled me out of the illness induced slump. I was hooked from the first line:
“THE YOUNG WOMAN ahead of him in line at the Hannaford Superstore was unusually fragrant, smelled like wood smoke and dirty clothes and cough drops or maybe Ben- Gay, eucalyptus anyway. She was all but mummified in an enormous coat leaking feathers, some kind of army- issue garment from another era, huge hood pulled over her head.”
Set on the eve of the “snowstorm of the century” in Maine, Eric Neil, a small town lawyer, is in the midst of preparing for a monthly visit from his estranged wife by a trip to the grocery store. While in line, he comes across Danielle, a “ghost” living on the outskirts of town in an abandoned cabin. Through a series of events, the two end up stranded together at the height of the storm. Complete strangers, and not necessarily taken with each other, the two come to learn about themselves and each other through a forced intimacy based on circumstance.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At first I wasn’t sure how the “suspense” part would come into play, but this really is a survival story, and I’m always a sucker for those. It was also deeply personal and psychological; it's the perfect read for a snowy day by the fire with a cup of coffee. I also couldn’t help thinking how this would make a great play or movie. Up until this book, I’d never even heard of Roorbach, but he seems to be a well-known Maine author. I’d be interested to read some of his fiction and non-fiction works.
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