cover image Snowy

Snowy

Ruth Doan MacDougall. St. Martin's Press, $21.95 (370pp) ISBN 978-0-312-09913-8

Continuing the story she began in The Cheerleader , MacDougall traces the life of Henrietta Snow from 1957, when she leaves her New Hampshire hometown and middle-class parents to attend Bennington College, through a crisis in late middle-age. At Bennington, Snowy concentrates on becoming a poet and expanding her realms of knowledge, specifically about dating and sex. Her subsequent life seems satisfying--she has a loving marriage, bears a daughter and publishes several collections of poetry--but Snowy believes her potential remains unfulfilled. She develops agoraphobia and finds herself immersed in her past, analyzing two mercurial childhood friendships and recalling her high school sweetheart. When her depressive husband commits suicide, she finally confronts the toll her illness has taken on her relationships and her poetry. Although often sensitive, this portrait of a woman adrift lacks focus and jars the reader with an awkwardly paced and structured narrative. (Sept.)