Louise Nealon's Snowflake is a novel that keeps readers guessing, a madcap family drama and coming-of-age saga for Debbie, who has grown up on a dairy farm outside Dublin in an eccentric household. "My uncle Billy lives in a caravan in a field at the back of my house," it begins. Billy is a bit of a drunk with an unusual interest in constellations and Greek mythology; he keeps the farm running and is devoted to his niece. His sister, Maeve, Debbie's mother, is less stable. She considers herself a writer and a prophet, fanatically recording and interpreting her dreams.
Debbie is now off to Trinity College as a commuter student to study English, but she is deeply self-conscious and without city skills; she spends "half the day scoping out toilets to squat in and take a break" and cry. Her first friend on campus is Xanthe, a young woman of greater experience and privilege but, to Debbie's surprise, with problems of her own as well. The idea that everyone is suffering something, even unseen, is not a new one, but it is refreshingly presented by this cast of wonky, wonderful, traumatized characters in a chaotic, beautiful, flawed world.
Debbie's first-person narrative is self-deprecating and endearingly messy. Her life is constantly off-kilter, one wrench thrown after another, and this quality could be too much, but Nealon's earnestly wacky protagonist pulls it off. Snowflake shows an expert eye for detail and pitch, and an appreciation for the absurd, the profound and the ridiculous--especially when they converge. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia