The Snow That Never Fell

Paul Peterson is recently divorced, a single dad trying to put his life together. Raising his nine-year-old son, Mickey comes with a lot of challenges, especially since his ex-wife Marilyn never left him with a roadmap to parenting, and he is proving clueless about most things. Things like choosing masculine colors when building a Pinewood Derby racer, or the damage childish carpentry can bring to the look of that racer and, especially, the thinness of the threads that hold a child’s life together. The story starts in the midst of a crisis when Perterson brings his son to participate in the Cub Scouts’ annual Father-Son Pinewood Derby. Faced with multiple challenges. Peterson desperately strives to be the father his own negligent father never proved to be.

Paul Steven Stone has the extraordinary ability to communicate human emotion with unwonted clarity. In the first chapter of The Snow That Never Fell he describes his body's reaction to a situation that is stressful in a way that is resonant and compelling: “My stomach is upset. I am sweating profusely from glands strategically placed throughout my body. My vision has been slightly blurry for the last half hour, and every once in a while I notice my hands actually suffering tremors.” While there is little “showing” in this narrative, the author's use of streams of consciousness and the first-person narrative voice gives the story a reading experience that is intimate and enjoyable, forcing readers to feel and to imagine the ordeals of the narrator. Father-son relationship is deftly explored and in retrospect, the author examines his marriage and the effects of divorce in his life. The story is poignant; it is hugely engaging; it is driven by a humor and a realism that pull readers into the world of the narrator and inspire empathy as they follow him through each page. This is a fun read that will definitely draw strong emotions from readers and give them insights into what it feels like navigating the world of single parenthood while dealing with the aftermath of divorce.