When Don Snyder was teaching the game of golf to his son, Jack, they made a pact: if Jack ever played on a pro golf tour, Don would walk beside him as his caddie. So when Jack developed into a standout college golfer years later, Don left the comfort of his Maine home and moved to St. Andrews, Scotland, to learn from the best caddies in the world on famed courses like the Old Course and Kingsbarns. He eventually fought his way onto the full-time caddie rotation and recorded the fascinating stories of golfers from every station in life. A world away, Jack endured his own arduous trials, rising through the ranks and battling within the college golf system. When Don and Jack finally reunite to face the challenges of high-level golf competition together, this moving, one-of-a-kind narrative reveals the special bond between father and son.
Five years ago, Don Snyder was teaching English at Colgate University. He was forty years old and had a wife, three children, a new baby on the way, and what seemed like a secure middle-class future. But then Snyder lost his chance at tenure -- and, all of a sudden, he was out of a job. The Cliff Walk is a moving, clear-eyed account of Snyder's agonizing loss and what it feels like to fall, rung by rung, down the socio-economic ladder. Snyder chronicles the denial and disbelief he went through as his hopes of finding another teaching job faded after being rejected for ninety positions. He explains how each painful change -- selling his house, buying groceries with food stamps -- reminded him how much he and his family had taken for granted in their previous life. And he describes how he finally found new hope in a job on a home construction crew in Maine. Working outside for ten hours a day through a vicious winter taught Snyder about his own cowardice and the lies he had come to believe about what a professional life of hard work entitled him to. Written with precision and elegance, The Cliff Walk captures the depth of one family's love and speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to be out of a job and out in the cold.
When I looked up again, Mr. Halworth's red cap was gone. I wondered if his daughter had watched him disappear, and I turned to look at her. It took a little time for me to see that she was staring at her shoes. They were shiny shoes, and she was holding them up off the floor. One had slipped off her heel and was balancing from her toes. We sat there long enough for me to begin to feel responsible for her. At last I moved close enough to reach down and slide the shoe back on her foot. One night can change a life. For eight-year-old Terry McQuinn, it was a snowy Christmas Eve on the coast of Maine, when Terry glimpsed a world he'd never seen before -- a "summer people's" world unknown to the son of a caretaker. Serenity Cottage was a place of beauty and privilege owned by the luminous Halworths -- but in the blink of an eye, a tragic accident left the family in ruins. Now thirty years later, Terry has spent his life putting distance between himself and his history. Determined not to follow in his father's footsteps, he became a high-flying Hollywood film agent -- but has somehow lost himself along the way. Terry is finally called back to Maine by the death of his father -- but in the workshop Terry comes across a note in his father's hand that stops him cold: Open Serenity for Christmas. No one has been in the house since that fateful night three decades earlier. Although Terry's first instinct is to leave it all behind, he soon discovers that Katherine Halworth, the girl from thirty years before, is the new owner. With her arrival imminent, Terry's past comes rushing back. In the hands of critically acclaimed author Don J. Snyder, Fallen Angel is a warm and unique Christmas tale, reminding us that it's never too late to forgive -- and never too late to love.
Don Snyder knew nothing about his mother aside from the terrible fact that she died at the age of nineteen, just sixteen days after giving birth to him and his twin brother. All his life Don had been too shy, too deeply pained to ask his father or grandparents to tell him the story of the lovely girl named Peggy Snyder--what delighted or troubled her, who her friends were, how she fell in love, what cut short her brief life. But then, nearing his fiftieth birthday and compelled by his father's failing health, Snyder embarked on a quest to find his mother. He traveled many times from his home in Maine down to his mother's small Pennsylvania town to trace her childhood and adolescence. He tracked down Peggy's high school friends, spent time with her teachers, probed the memories of the girls--now elderly women-- who had been her bridesmaids. Detail by detail, Don pieced together the harrowing story of Peggy's final year--her passionate love affair with her husband, the unexpected pregnancy, the sudden illness that consumed her, and the impossible choice she was forced to make. A heartbreaking, overwhelmingly beautiful book, Of Time and Memory is a story of remembering--and reclaiming--the fragile mystery of a beloved life. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Don J. Snyder's Walking with Jack. NOTE: This edition does not include photos.
Ross Lansdale never knew his mother and father. Raised in the 1950s at Saint Luke's Orphanage for Boys, the one person who took an interest in him was Father Martin, a Benedictine monk who instilled in Ross an enduring love of two solitary pursuits: golf and books. Over the years and through the loss of his beloved mentor, Ross comes to rely on these trustworthy tools, sure that they will never abandon him.As an adult and a college professor of literature, Ross encounters the two people who will challenge and change his life forever: Julia, the student who opens his heart only to break it, and Johnny Durocher, a spit-fire new professor-and terrifically talented golfer-who becomes a friend unlike any Ross has ever had. When tragedy keeps Johnny from achieving his one serious dream, to play the Old Course at Saint Andrews, Ross must make the boldest decision of his life as he travels to Scotland to confront his failures and fears, and play a golf tournament in honor of his lost friend-and the boy he used to be.With the characteristic poignancy and style that have earned Don J. Snyder critical acclaim, WINTER DREAMS is a remarkable new novel filled with compassion, heartache, and the grace that comes from the triumph of personal courage.
When I looked up again, Mr. Halworth's red cap was gone. I wondered if his daughter had watched him disappear, and I turned to look at her. It took a little time for me to see that she was staring at her shoes. They were shiny shoes, and she was holding them up off the floor. One had slipped off her heel and was balancing from her toes. We sat there long enough for me to begin to feel responsible for her. At last I moved close enough to reach down and slide the shoe back on her foot. One night can change a life. For eight-year-old Terry McQuinn, it was a snowy Christmas Eve on the coast of Maine, when Terry glimpsed a world he'd never seen before -- a "summer people's" world unknown to the son of a caretaker. Serenity Cottage was a place of beauty and privilege owned by the luminous Halworths -- but in the blink of an eye, a tragic accident left the family in ruins. Now thirty years later, Terry has spent his life putting distance between himself and his history. Determined not to follow in his father's footsteps, he became a high-flying Hollywood film agent -- but has somehow lost himself along the way. Terry is finally called back to Maine by the death of his father -- but in the workshop Terry comes across a note in his father's hand that stops him cold: Open Serenity for Christmas. No one has been in the house since that fateful night three decades earlier. Although Terry's first instinct is to leave it all behind, he soon discovers that Katherine Halworth, the girl from thirty years before, is the new owner. With her arrival imminent, Terry's past comes rushing back. In the hands of critically acclaimed author Don J. Snyder, Fallen Angel is a warm and unique Christmas tale, reminding us that it's never too late to forgive -- and never too late to love.
When Don Snyder was teaching the game of golf to his son, Jack, they made a pact: if Jack ever played on a pro golf tour, Don would walk beside him as his caddie. So when Jack developed into a standout college golfer years later, Don left the comfort of his Maine home and moved to St. Andrews, Scotland, to learn from the best caddies in the world on famed courses like the Old Course and Kingsbarns. He eventually fought his way onto the full-time caddie rotation and recorded the fascinating stories of golfers from every station in life. A world away, Jack endured his own arduous trials, rising through the ranks and battling within the college golf system. When Don and Jack finally reunite to face the challenges of high-level golf competition together, this moving, one-of-a-kind narrative reveals the special bond between father and son.
A moving novel about love, loss, and an extraordinary lifelong passion for golf, by the acclaimed author of The Cliff Walk and Fallen Angel. Ross Lansdale never knew his mother and father and grew up at St. Luke's Orphanage for Boys in the 1950s. The one person who took an interest in him was Father Martin, a Benedictine monk who understood the loneliness of an orphan’s life. He instilled in Ross an enduring love of two solitary, reliable pursuits: golf and books. Over the years, and through the loss of his beloved mentor, Ross comes to rely on these trustworthy tools, sure that they will never abandon him. As an adult and a college professor of literature, Ross encounters two people who will challenge and forever change his life: Julia, the student who opens his heart only to make him feel more vulnerable than ever, and Johnny Durocher, a spit-fire new professor–and terrifically talented golfer–who becomes Ross’s first true friend. Durocher’s one serious dream is to play the amateur tournament on the Old Course at Saint Andrews, but when an unforeseen tragedy keeps Johnny from playing, Ross must make the boldest decision of his life. As he travels to Scotland to confront his failures and fears, Ross embraces his wonder of the ancient game and plays a round of golf in honor of his friend, and the boy he used to be. With characteristic poignancy and style that have earned Don J. Snyder critical acclaim for his novels and screenplays, WINTER DREAMS is a remarkable new work filled with compassion, heartache, and the grace that comes from the triumph of personal courage.
Don Snyder knew nothing about his mother aside from the terrible fact that she died at the age of nineteen, just sixteen days after giving birth to him and his twin brother. All his life Don had been too shy, too deeply pained to ask his father or grandparents to tell him the story of the lovely girl named Peggy Snyder--what delighted or troubled her, who her friends were, how she fell in love, what cut short her brief life. But then, nearing his fiftieth birthday and compelled by his father's failing health, Snyder embarked on a quest to find his mother. He traveled many times from his home in Maine down to his mother's small Pennsylvania town to trace her childhood and adolescence. He tracked down Peggy's high school friends, spent time with her teachers, probed the memories of the girls--now elderly women-- who had been her bridesmaids. Detail by detail, Don pieced together the harrowing story of Peggy's final year--her passionate love affair with her husband, the unexpected pregnancy, the sudden illness that consumed her, and the impossible choice she was forced to make. A heartbreaking, overwhelmingly beautiful book, Of Time and Memory is a story of remembering--and reclaiming--the fragile mystery of a beloved life. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Don J. Snyder's Walking with Jack. NOTE: This edition does not include photos.
A novel of political intrigue (the time is 1998) with overtones of a classic Hitchcock thriller; a story of a romantic encounter--of two strangers suddenly invading each other's lives. Night Crossing carries us from a quiet Boston suburb to a wild pursuit across the northern counties of Ireland. The man and woman who find themselves bound together are from two different worlds. Nora is an American, married, pregnant, leading the most ordinary middle-class life until, one day, she finds her husband in the arms of another woman--and explodes out of her house, out of Boston, headed for an Irish countryside she long ago fell in love with, intending to walk across the open green fields where she will decide how her life is to proceed. But on the way, waiting in a clinic in Northern Ireland, contemplating an abortion, she hears a woman screaming in the street. A mammoth bomb has exploded. Immediately, instinctively, Nora comes to the aid of a wounded man, a British soldier. And from that moment everything spirals out of control. Suddenly Nora is on the run, in the middle of someone else's nightmare--her pursuers are revealed as British Intelligence, and the anonymous wounded Brit as a man with a past, a personality, a direction, an importance, a name--and an adversary--of his own. What follows through eight terrifying days is a chase in the grand manner--his life in her hands, her life upended--culminating in a daring night crossing of the Irish Sea to Scotland and to the moment of truth. "From the Hardcover edition.
Five years ago, Don Snyder was teaching English at Colgate University. He was forty years old and had a wife, three children, a new baby on the way, and what seemed like a secure middle-class future. But then Snyder lost his chance at tenure -- and, all of a sudden, he was out of a job. The Cliff Walk is a moving, clear-eyed account of Snyder's agonizing loss and what it feels like to fall, rung by rung, down the socio-economic ladder. Snyder chronicles the denial and disbelief he went through as his hopes of finding another teaching job faded after being rejected for ninety positions. He explains how each painful change -- selling his house, buying groceries with food stamps -- reminded him how much he and his family had taken for granted in their previous life. And he describes how he finally found new hope in a job on a home construction crew in Maine. Working outside for ten hours a day through a vicious winter taught Snyder about his own cowardice and the lies he had come to believe about what a professional life of hard work entitled him to. Written with precision and elegance, The Cliff Walk captures the depth of one family's love and speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to be out of a job and out in the cold.
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB RECOMMENDED READ INSPIRED BY ONE OF THE LAST GREAT UNTOLD STORIES OF WW1 1916. Young artist Sam Burke is spared death by firing squad on the battlefields of France and brought to a remote castle by the Irish Sea. At the 'Tin Nose Shop' he is tasked with creating intricate masks to hide the mutilated faces of his fellow soldiers from the Front. While he tries to come to terms with the death of his best friend and the promise he failed to keep, Sam and the disfigured soldiers struggle to return to their former lives and their loved ones. A stirring and emotional tale based on the real-life story of the Tin Nose Shop. 'Beautifully written and sensitively observed' Hazel Gaynor 'Beautifully written and thought-provoking' Ruth Hogan 'Will both break your heart and give it wings as it explores the healing powers of friendship, love, hope and purpose' Robin Wells 'One of the best historical novels I have read in a long time... I have never read anything quite like it' Mark Sullivan 'Here is a beautifully written novel, sensitive, exploring not so much the brutality of war but the humanity which stems from it' The Yorkshire Times 'There are many novels based on the events of World War I; this one has to be among the most compassionate and moving' Historical Novel Society Don J. Snyder (born 1950, Pennsylvania) is an American author and screenwriter.
It has been a hard year in New York City for princes and for beggars; and twenty-eight year old Charlie Andrews, a Wall Street profiteer, believes he has lost everything that matters in the world when he steps out onto the window ledge of the twenty-second floor of The Waldorf Hotel on a cold evening five days before Christmas. He has no idea that the last call he made on his cell phone has placed his fate in the hands of a young homeless woman who runs through the falling snow and turns his life with a brief exchange of dialogue: Most of us miss the real story, Charlie. What real story? The story we were put in this world to live. Why do we miss it? Because it's someone else's story. We just play a part in it. Thus begins their unforgettable journey into a dreamscape of time and memory on a train traveling through a blizzard to deliver them to the meaning and purpose of their lives.
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