My Review

The Weight of Snow and Regret by Elizabeth Gauffreau is a beautifully-written story that throws light on an important and largely unmet societal problem. One that has eluded us forever: how to house the houseless, including families with no place they can afford to live, people with mental health issues unable to care for themselves, and old people with health problems and no income or family to care for them. This problem is compounded a society that looks mostly with disdain and apathy upon such people, while a few caring people do their best with limited sources and paltry support to help them.

This is as true today as it was during the time period this novel took place, the 1950s -70s. It opens the door into the lives of those in desperate need of a home and someone to care for them, and into the lives of the caretakers and what shaped them to become these angels of mercy.

The novel opens with Claire’s story, a woman found freezing in a barn when her husband disowns her. When she is taken to a Poor House run by Hazel and her husband, Paul, Claire is almost catatonic, refusing to eat or speak and yet hearing mysterious music that stirs her.

In other words, the novel opens with a mystery: who is Claire, how did she become this way, what is this music she’s so drawn to?

But there’s another mystery taking place as well, centered on Hazel, this angel of mercy who is so unconditionally patient and attentive to needs of this silent and mysterious stranger, but also to the other residents whose needs are just as dire, but much more disruptive as they snipe and bicker with each other, becoming violent at times, raging, or dilutional.

In reading about the environment in which Hazel has to work, I was amazed at how she could maintain her own sanity let alone her temper and spirit. At all times she was patient and practical, quietly manuevering and managing the people she cared for in ways to soothe and calm their wildly erratic personalities. I was in awe of her. And thus the second mystery in my mind was how she came to be this way, to care so deeply for these broken people, and to undertake that responsibility with such dilligence.

As the story progresses, we learn the backstory of both Claire and Hazel, and to a lessor degree the backstory of some of the people living in the Poor House.

First the novel is centered on Claire’s story, which in some ways I found the most compelling. It tells of how an average, normal housewife and mother becomes mesmerized by the blues music she hears coming from a Juke Joint in the back-country.

We come to meet the real-life producer of the music, Bo Hopkins, who was much celebrated in the 50s and 60s. Bo Hopkins may have been my favorite character and I would have liked more of him. Claire’s story unfolds in the first third of the book and then it centers on Hazel, going back to her childhood and the tragic circumstances that sent her family to a Poor House very different from the one Hazel ran decades later.

During Claire’s backstory, we also learn where the title The Weight of Snow and Regret comes from: two very real and tragic events that take place in Hazel and Paul’s life together. But it also serves as a metaphor for the whole of the novel, which unfolds like gentle layers of snow, one tragic event after the other over time, until the accumulated weight crushes those it falls upon.

Some are crushed irreparably; others like Claire slowly dig their way out; and some, like Hazel, are shaped by their circumstances to become angels of mercy. They develop the kind of endurance and compassion that allows them to not only rise above the tragedies that have befallen then, but to help others still stuck below.

I highly recommend The Weight of Snow and Regret to literary and historical fiction readers, and to anyone who wants a beautifully-written and thought-provoking read that throws light on a serious societal problem.

Available in paperback, hardback, ebook, and audiobook.

Purchase from your preferred book seller.

‘Lightning’ Bo Hopkins

Bo Hopkins, also known as Lightning Hopkins, is considered one of the top 50 blues musicians of all time. I love the blues but had never heard of him until I read Liz’s book. I can certainly see why she wanted to write about him, such an interesting character. Here’s a bit more about him and some vintage music videos. Enjoy.

Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912 – 1982)

Hopkins was the most recorded blues artist of all time. During his long and prolific career Sam Hopkins comfortably bridged the gap between acoustic country blues and the urban blues of his home turf of Houston, Texas. With his deep, evocative voice and deft guitar playing, Hopkins always did things his way and was one of the most respected artists of the blues.

Here’s a rare old video of Hopkins playing the blues at a juke joint. His music was a huge influence on blues musicians coming after him. I can see why poor Claire was so entranced!

One more playing Boom, Boom, Boom. Love this!

Last one. Bo was known for his “talking blues” and here you get a sample of that.