Book Review: Snow in August Essay

Book Review: Snow in August (Historical Fiction)

In the magical novel, Snow in August, by Pete Hamill, a young 11 year old Irish, Catholic boy named Michael Devlin is pulled aside by a Jewish rabbi in a terrible snowstorm in 1947.   The rabbi, in sloppy English and with a Yiddish accent, asks Michael to please turn on his lights.   Since he is observing the Sabbath, the rabbi can not do this himself.   This is the beginning of the peculiar friendship between Rabbi Hirsch and Michael Devlin.
Michael teaches the rabbi English, and in exchange, the rabbi teaches Michael to speak Yiddish and shares enthralling stories about his native country, Prague.   As the two friends face everyday life in Brooklyn, New York, they also discover a mutual love for baseball, music, and stories.
This enlightening story of friendship helped me to really relate to what life was really like back in the 1940’s.   Since I just recently learned about the Holocaust, I can now connect with how Jewish people were discriminated against and how terrible life was for them.   Pete Hamill, the author, had a great use of adjectives and description so that I could really begin to feel like I was part of the story.   However, it was a bit hard for me to understand, due to the fact that this book was probably meant to be read by somebody much older than I.   I would recommend that you read this is you are over seventeen and have a keen interest in history or religion.   This book provided a mystical aura that made me never want to put it down.