In the Midst of Winter

As the title of the novel, In the Midst of Winter, suggests, the extreme weather plays a pivotal role in the physical and emotional dramas in the lives of Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn. For Lucia, snow is a fairly new encounter as it exists in distance for her. Her recognition that “[s]now is always pristine from a distance” (2) is a deep contrast from the close obstruction that the snow serves during the New York City snowstorm that has trapped her and Richard in their homes. Emotionally, the onslaught of snow suggests that feelings that remain secret are no longer “pristine” when they are forced to deal with their reality just as nature reveals its brutality.

While the snow has created an occasion for everyone’s secrets to reveal themselves, the snow also has the capability of rendering everything “invisible” (241). This has a pragmatic use for Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn as they attempt to make their way upstate with Kathryn Brown’s body without being detected. However, the invisibility is only an erasure of the surroundings that keeps the growing intimacy of the three travelers intact. The snow possesses a magical realist quality in the way it mirrors the emotional and psychological development of Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn as they share their unique stories and origins.