Terry McQuinn is a big deal. In fact, he is such a big deal in Hollywood that he can afford to always fly first class and share in all of life's finest. Terry McQuinn has also not heard his father's voice in ten years. Split up because of what Terry describes as "money and pride", Terry last saw his dad at his mother's funeral, ten years ago, and even then they stayed apart. Terry's dad had always been the caretaker for the summer cottages in Maine, beautiful cottages where wealthy residents could afford gardeners, housemaids, butlers and caretakers. Terry grew to look at his father as not much more than a servant, and Terry also felt his father deprived his mother of a life of her own in many ways. But the breach is broken by the raspy sound of his father's voice on the telephone one day. His father says only "I've got my doctor here... he wants to talk to you." The doctor informs Terry his father is dying. Terry flies home, but then tears up the last leg of his ticket to drive the rest of the way, coming to the realization that he doesn't really want to get there that quickly. By the time Terry reaches Maine, his father has passed on. But there are cottages to maintain, and his father's only workshop, and one very special cottage that holds Christmas memories tucked away in a little boy's mind that cannot be ignored. Terry decides he must open this one cottage for Christmas since it was a job his father had promised to do. The rest is magic, pure and simple, and if you believe in true love, and you believe that ice can melt, you will love this story.

"Fallen Angel" a novel by Don J Snyder shows us how often life completes a full circle. Snyder has penned a tale of LOVE, both for family and for that one special person we all dream of meeting. "Fallen Angel" is in a class with the love stories of Nicholas Sparks, surpassing many best sellers with his supurb talent. Set aside an afternoon and get acquainted with the wonderful characters in FALLEN ANGEL. A truly great read.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge

"Fallen Angel" is a lovely story of one man's discovery of the Truth about Life... leading to redemption, peace and joy for himself and those he touches. It is beautifully crafted, subtle; building to that completion of the Promise of Life which is ever-available to those who are not too skeptical, narrow-minded or pedantic to Know that Love Is All That Matters.

I approached this book without much expectation and to my surprise found it moving and amazing. I would recommend it to anyone very highly only be aware that it is very sad. The book is organized into the writer's search of information about and people who knew his mother, who died just after his birth, and a recreation of the last year of her life. It is this latter part that makes the book unique. The book is almost a hybrid of fiction and memoir in this sense and yet his mother is more real than most fictional characters. The delicacy with which he creates her world is amazing. This is one of those books that I found myself "living" in as I read it. The only thing that might put people off is a certain (for lack of a better word) mysticism. I'm not big on the memoir genre but I think this is one that will stay in my mind a long time. Thanks for writing it!

Wow, wow wow. A delicate, intricate and absolutely absorbing book about the origins of memory and family. Snyder carefully and credibily brings this story to life. A must read for anyone who has ever thought deeply about family and the ties that bind us to them.

Don Snyder's mother died giving birth to him and his twin brother David. In Of Time & Memory, Snyder undertakes a literary search for the mother he never know, in the process reconstructing his Mother and Father's love story and bringing his mother back to life, if only in the pages of a book. This is a deeply human work of art, Snyder's finest bokk to date. In a book world fill with contrived and trite stories, Of Time & Memory is refreshing search for truth. In The Cliff Walk, Snyder spared no one, including himself, in his endeavor to come to terms with with the powerful connection between identity and work. Now he tells an even more compelling story. Buy it and read it.

Former English Professor Don J. Snyder's account of his dismissal from Colgate University and the somewhat indolent year he spent looking for similar employment take up the first 200 pages of this memoir. The remaining 60 pages or so deal with his finally dealing with reality--the reality of actually getting on with life, supporting yourself, and supporting your family (Dr. Snyder was married with four children during the time these events took place).
The story is well-told and moves at a fairly rapid pace in spite of the fact that not a lot is going on. The reader is provided many personal glimpses into Snyder's thought process, how he handled his dismissal (he was not picked up for tenure after three years and was allowed a final year of employment--during which he could have been more aggressively looking for a job; he was either overconfident, lazy, or in denial), how he finally gained some insights into what's important in life, and how he finally started working again. This memoir is at times moving, comical, and aggravating. Snyder is unflinchingly honest in telling his failings and how he dealt with unemployment. He's very insightful and not afraid to share his feelings on a multitude of issues important to him (his idea of success, what it takes to be a good father and husband, what life is all about). There's a layer of humor throughout the book (in the same sense that Richard Ford's Bascombe novels are humorous) and many of Snyder's observations about people and life (the section with his son at the golf course is an excellent example) are both on the money and amusing. Of course, the author spends most of his time talking about how quickly his family is running out of money and how many rejection letters are arriving in the mail. And this was a little aggravating--Snyder never seems to have a sense of urgency about finding employment (any employment!). He casts all his hopes on finding another teaching job (I still don't know why he didn't try and find a job teaching high school English) and never considers (at least not as told in this memoir) temporary employment while looking for a teaching job. His family, especially wife Colleen does a remarkable job standing by him and there are few indications of major confrontations. This is surprising considering the social ladder the Snyders fell from and Don Snyder's inability (refusal) to find employment. Nevertheless, he finally snaps out of it and is hired on with a crew building a mansion along the Maine coastline--hard work no doubt. Snyder's story ends as he describes this labor, his future work as a housepainter, and concludes with a few more personal insights as to what is important in life. Too bad it took him a year of sitting around to find out.
Overall, a very well-told memoir and a quick, worthwhile read.
Recommended.

This moving, at times poetic tale of coping with job loss should be required reading for everybody that works with dislocated workers.

As a self-made professional who defined his place in the world by his success in academe, Snyder experiences all the classic steps of grief when he loses his job. This guy was not just knee-deep, he was up to his ears in denial--and his family, particularly his wife, paid the price. I was particularly moved by his wife's ability to swallow her pride to return merchandise following his bouts of profligate overspending--even as she was reduced to applying for food stamps to feed their 4 kids. How could he be so foolish? Snyder lets us see exactly how . . . and also shows us how his eventual acceptance changed not only his job, but his life.

I work in a retraining program for dislocated workers, and this book provided me more insight into the devastation of job loss than any how-to book I've come across. I wept, and so will you.

Snyder articulates what many of us know inside but are afraidto face. Joe Sixpack knows and lives this truth everyday. Many of thefakes, frauds, and phoney baloneys in suits and ties assume their easy living is granted and expected. My wife and I are both in education and my humble and limited experience confirms much of what Snyder says. Peter Brimelow in Forbes magazine noted that 9% of all Ph.D.s in subjects like English and political science are unemployed. With those kinds of numbers no wonder Snyder was cut. If he worked as hard as he says, and the students loved his teaching methods then he embarrased his peers. It is usually the good guys who get cut and the pressed and polished know nothings who get promoted. Snyder has learned a hard lesson. In reading the book there is much left unsaid. Maybe he will fill in the missing spots and treat us with a follow-up on his progress as he adjusts with his new found life. What happened to him is going to happen to me one day, when it does I will be better prepared and will see life in a whole new way. END

This is the first work I have read by Don J. Snyder. "Night Crossing", has an inviting cover, with an interior that does not match. I understand that the notes inside the jacket are meant to interest a reader enough to proceed with the book, these notes tell the reader more than half the story, and the minority of the tale that remains is of little interest.

The novel begins with a promising look into plans of terrorists that are unusual as well as murderous. The plans are an example of any ends justifying the means. Some may find the plan ultimately acceptable; many readers will find this the most, and only enjoyable part of the book. The story begins with all the elements of a thriller, and then changes directions and locale, in a manner that can only be called jarring.

This may be a case of a male writer attempting to document extremely distressing circumstances for his female character. Some writers can write of either gender with skill, this is not the case with Mr. Snyder, at least in this book. I found the woman's behavior unbelievable when she encounters her first shock. I found the international trip, and descriptions of a visit to a lingerie shop, very funny, and that was absolutely not what the reader should be feeling. The writer then places Nora in a terribly humiliating situation that seemed to be gratuitous.

When Nora makes a decision to flee her home to a country that places a high value on Christian Religion, with the idea of solving a problem she has, any sense of a plot and a reasonable story come to an end. The circumstances she volunteers for, goes along with, or demands to be included in, are not credible. The tale dissolves into a series of events Nora has no ability to deal with, despite the writer forcing her through the tale.

I really did enjoy the start of the book, and had the story retained the elements of its introductory phase, "Night Crossing", could have been a good book. Unfortunately it slips into cliché, and then slides farther into events that require a suspension of disbelief that was beyond me. There were also numerous events that popped up, generally involving water, which read as though dropped into the tale as opposed to supporting it.

His other books may be tremendous, however, "Night Crossing", cannot be one of his better works.

I have little in common with the main character in this novel, Nora, but I feel connected to her throughout this story. It is not a thriller in the Tom Clancy sense (thank God) but more in a Joan Didion kind of way. The observations made about war in Ireland (the politics of as well as the horror) are moving. The questions Nora asks herself you'll ask yourself as well. I think this book is particularly well written, one of my recent favorites, and I encourage readers to try it. It is a relatively quick read but it stays with the reader... This is the kind of book that you carry with you in your mind for quite some time.