Kisses in the Snow-Melt: A Novella

Preface Kisses in the Snow-Melt is a heart-felt, sometimes humorous tale about two teenagers that explores their transition from friendship to love and sexual intimacy. Rowland and Lynette come from families with opposing notions of what a youngster should be told regarding sexuality. Rowland’s family never speaks of it while Lynette’s family has a relaxed yet radical candor. Rowland’s main exposure to Lynette occurs while skinnydipping at her favorite swimming hole. Lynette’s upbringing frees them not only from religious repression but also from a lurid culture that exploits teenage sexuality for the sake of sales while dodging its reality. Through Lynette’s grandfather Brian, a retired professor of biology, one gains a greater recognition of the fact that literature has failed to offer even one redemptive tale that pictures sexuality as a respectable part of adolescence. Cynical, satirical, or scandalous, novels such as The Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, and The Lord of the Flies avoid the point. The basic point is that, perhaps for the first time in the history of the novel, Kisses in the Snow-Melt shows such love as normal and potentially beautiful. “Kisses in the Snow-Melt is a very fine novella on an important subject. It is civilized and sensible. Although erotic, it is never prurient. Technically it is excellent with smooth dialogue, description, and narration…” Peter Bien, Professor of English Emeritus, Dartmouth College