John W. Dennehy tells the story of a couple who want to renovate their farmhouse, but things quickly go cold. Problems begin to surface when one man realizes his wife isn’t quite up to the task at hand. To make matters worse, she seems to be changing. Her temperature drops and her features fade, leaving only a cold shell of her former self. But the problem here isn’t just renovations or weather. Something darker is slowly emerging in the lives of Robert and Eliza, a seemingly happy couple.
The book moves along quickly, and in reality, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to read. That’s a plus, but the minus is that Dennehy has numerous opportunities to expand on the couple’s relationship and history. Indeed, we learn enough about the characters to keep us engaged, but we can’t fall in love with the couple because the reader doesn’t know much about their complicated past, and indeed, their present.
“The Ice Storm” reads like a short story, and interestingly, we learn from the pages that this story was originally anthologized. As a short story or short novel, it’s fine, but as a mature, complete story, it could have been a wonderful novel.
Dennehy’s style is straightforward and easy to read, but that’s not to say he’s not a good writer. There are plenty of descriptive paragraphs that draw the reader in. But once again we run into the problem of truncation. Once the good stuff starts flowing, we’ve overcome that problem.
I’d love to see this story continued and given the life it deserves. It has a great setting, some sympathetic characters and an ending that still feels a little ambiguous. As it stands, The Ice Storm is worth a read, but with a thorough overhaul it would undoubtedly become a must-read novel. Either way, I have another Dennehy novel on hand, and maybe it’s time to see how he handles the larger scope of his story.
If you want a quick read, order it now.
score: 3.5/5
