Review of SNOW ROAD STATION by Elizabeth Hay (New Release)

 4 Stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest novel from Elizabeth Hay.

Lulu Blake, 62, has been an actor her entire life.  Then in 2008, while starring in a Beckett play in Ottawa, she forgets her lines.  Ashamed and panicked, she flees to Snow Road Station, a tiny village in eastern Ontario, where she stays with her best friend Nan.  A family wedding and maple sugaring keep her occupied as she contemplates what she really wants to do with her life. 

I was immediately drawn to the novel when I saw its title.  Living in eastern Ontario, I know of the village.  Also, having grown up in the 1960s and 70s only 20 kilometres away from Killaloe, I smiled at the description of some of its homesteaders:   “draft dodgers . . . hippies from California who had made a new life for themselves in Canada.”  I’m yearning for a BeaverTail! 

After a crisis (snow), Snow Road Station gives Lulu a place to stop and rest (station) but also helps her move on (road).  The author best explains the importance of the title:  “The name is evocative, even poetic, with its three-part movement from snow to road to station—an arrival, a departure, a long wait—a place of rest, a stoppage, yet a road. That movement is mirrored in the novel, for not only did the name give me the book’s title, it gave me its three-part structure” (https://elizabethhay.com/snow-road-station/). 

Acting has been central to Lulu’s life, “her religion, filling the emptiness in her.”  Now, after forgetting her lines, she feels humiliated and unsure about how to proceed.  Should she continue her career or surrender her long-held dreams?  She asks herself, “What would it take? . . . Becoming who you’re meant to be, instead of turning into a major disappointment.”  She has to learn who she really is, to follow the advice of Nan’s son who says it’s important, “’to know who you are and not be pretending to be somebody else – not trying too hard.  Knowing who you are and being fine with that.’” 

Of course such self-awareness is not easy; Lulu actually compares the process to picking wild blackberries, “bare-armed combat with long brambles that rake your skin, as hard to go backwards as forwards once you’ve worked your way into the patch.”  Learning about what is most important and becoming our true selves is like taking maple sap and turning it into maple syrup, a process of refining forty litres to make one litre.  As described in the novel, it takes a lot of work.

As expected, Lulu does experience personal growth.  She realizes that she is like the village of Snow Road Station which has changed over the years, its “importance off to the side.”  It is now “a place that must have had bigger plans for itself in the beginning [but]now seemed happy in its modesty – a field flower.”  It is not important to justify or impress:  “All you have to do . . . is put yourself in the way of beauty, put yourself into the incredible swing of it” and be “part of an orchestration of movement that had no end.”

Perhaps the secret is “paying attention to all the life around her that wasn’t paying the least regard to her.”  Lulu discovers a world of peace and beauty which the author succeeds in describing so beautifully:  “Colours not seen all winter reappeared in the sky – shades of pink that floated high and loose like Easter hats, like flowers.  At dawn the snow was faint-pink as the sun rose, and the woods themselves were light-filled, yet full of long shadows and air in subtle motion. . . . Hemlock needles dusted the surface of the snow, as did beech leaves whitened by winter winds and only now letting go.  Even when overcast, the woods were bright.  It was like being inside an opal.”

The novel also examines relationships.  There is more than one difficult relationship; for instance, Lulu and Nan didn’t see each other for 25 years.  Because there is a lack of open communication, misunderstandings occur and connections suffer.  Based on a comment Nan made years earlier, Lulu thinks Nan judged her harshly but the truth is that she spoke out of hurt and jealousy.  All it takes to repair fractured relationships is an openness:  “It takes so little.  The smallest effort and barriers fall.”

There are so many reasons to like this book, though I was most drawn to its thematic depth and lyrical prose.  Also I can identify with an older protagonist coming to terms with aging.  I highly recommend it.

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.