Summer Snow

By William T. Hathaway

SUMMER SNOW is a spiritual novel set now amidst the war on terrorism as an American warrior falls in love with a Sufi mystic and learns from her an alternative to the military mentality. As US Special... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097384423X
• ISBN13: 9780973844238
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Nascent Books
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Read This Book!

A great read! The author is a master of language. Whatever scene I was reading, I wanted to stay with it and savor it longer before moving on to the next. Summer Snow is one of those books I wanted to keep reading -- but it ended before I was ready to leave it. Summer Snow reads on several levels all at once. Very much point and counterpoint. There is the story itself, the romance and the war, and this particular man and woman and the interplay of their diverse cultures and their relationship to the world they both live in. And, all the while, there is the bigger universal picture, and the representation of the power of silence in contrast to the surface turbulence of war. When I finished the book, I felt a sense of peace and a quiet energy, and ever since, I find my thoughts going back to the characters in this novel. Make your next book longer, William!

of war zones & eternity

Rebeccasreads highly recommends SUMMER SNOW as a lively adventure story about love in a time of war. It's also, mainly, a deeply religious & spiritual tale describing transcendental meditation, the history of Sufism & insights into who we are, what we're doing & where we're going. In this time of post-9/11, US Special Forces doing battle with al-Qaeda in faraway places, come now to Kyrgyzstan where Cholpon is a farmer of honeydew melons. She's also a lifelong member of an ashram with both Vedic & Muslim traditions, which bought an abandoned Soviet collective farm in a valley high in the mountains. Now the leader of the ashram tells Cholpon of a vision -- that she is to take a load of produce into Bishkek, the distant market town, sell it, bank the earnings... & await her destiny there. Meanwhile, Jeff Madsen, no longer a youngster in Vietnam, awakens to gunfire. Trying to get a grip on reality, he knows the sound of battle yet can't place himself nor the woman beside him. Finally remembering he's now in the State Department administering foreign aid he watches a raid on the Kyrgyz Air Force Base across the street. Old warrior that he is, he knows what he's seeing: a unit of intruders blasting the gates, rushing into the base & then returning with something heavy on a pallet which they load into their truck. Old warrior that he is, he gets out into the shadowed street, takes up the weapon of a fallen guard & shoots at the leaving truck, hitting the driver. The vehicle slows & intruders pour from the back. As Base guards arrive to do battle, one of the intruders lobs a grenade & Jeff dives for cover. Punctured by shrapnel, he staggers back to the apartment where his lover refuses to let him in. As he stumbles along the hallway, heading out, another door opens & another woman asks him if he's hurt. Cholpon's destiny has arrived. With equal skill William T. Hathaway, in his debut novel, writes about war zones & battles & meditation & eternity.

A spiritual novel that works!

Jeff Madsen is a Vietnam veteran now working with USAID in the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyztan. He gets involved with anti-terrorist activities when he interferes, ultimately unsuccessfully, with terrorists about to steal a nuclear bomb, and helps US soldiers stationed in the country in their desperate attempts to regain the weapon. In the process he meets Cholpon, a woman in her mid-thirties and her teacher Djamila-she is a mystic, teaching a combination of Sufism and transcendental meditation. Jeff learns their meditation, and Djamila locates the missing bomb in a mystic dance vision. How they get to the bomb and rescue it from both US soldiers and al Quaeda militants becomes the climax of William T. Hathaway's second novel, Summer Snow. At 203 pages, the text is dense, and the story is as non-linear as such density allows, interweaving vivid descriptions of the Kyrgyz landscape, dialogue and critical reflections on the political situation of Central Asia in the context of world events. Hathaway brings many aspects of his personal experience to this novel. He was in the US special forces in Panama and Vietnam. Many aspects of warfare come across as factually accurate when he describes the machinery involved, the nuances of how different weapons feel when handled, how they respond in action. Equally, the descriptions of the soldier as warrior are striking, extending from (self-)disgust in times of (relative) calm to the remarkably wide range of terms for different kinds of pains resulting from related kinds of injuries, and culminating in the rush of adrenaline, feelings of power and responsibility and the split-second decisions required in the heat of action. Hathaway spent a year and a half in Central Asia to research and write the novel. As a result, the images of the landscapes and the people come across as lively, colourful and authentic. Hathaway's involvement in current politics as an anti-war activist is apparent in the sharply observed political analysis of the Central Asian situation in the context of post 9/11, post Afghanistan, post Iraq political scene of the world, dominated by the Bush agenda. Hathaway's involvement with spirituality, in particular the Transcendental Meditation movement, is evident in the way he integrates spirituality in a discourse of war and terrorism, which is clearly the opposite to anything spiritual. The novel thrives no end on this gentle juxtaposition of opposites. Cholpon is the disciple of the master, Djamila. Hathaway elegantly and tenderly transposes the guru-shishya relationship, which we know from India in a predominantly male - male context, to different cultural and gender contexts; however, the characteristics remain: the older teacher, with the advantage of more practice, more experience, who reveals knowledge of some of the disciple's mind and soul that are still unknown to the disciple herself, who guides the disciples through the teaching of meditation, and through guida

Passion in the Snows

William T. Hathaway's Summer Snow by Milo Clark Book Review Hathaway, William T.: Summer Snow, Avatar Publications, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada, 2005, ISBN 0-9738442-3-X (paperback) - E-book (pdf): ISBN 0-9738442-4-8, Microsoft Reader: ISBN 0-97388442-5-6. (Swans - March 27, 2006) Summer Snow is a relatively simple novel crafted around universal themes: cross-cultural love, first loyalties, governmental duplicities, contemporary lists of nasties, and a chase in search of an errant nuke. William T. Hathaway* is a very interesting man, too. Tested as a special operations warrior in Vietnam and Panama, he is now a strong anti-war activist. Daniela brightens his dark and dank German apartment. He wrote Summer Snow during a year-and-a-half in the country that forms his stage. That stage is Kyrgyzstan, a central Asian relic of the defunct Soviet Union. History is very deep out there. Mountains and crags and roadless wilds dominate the landscape. The Silk Road that once connected Europe to the silks and spices of Asia passes through. For most of modern history, little of note to outsiders happened there. Its strategic siting, however, presently commands a degree of attention from those so minded. It is centrally located in the great swath from Balkans to Bering Strait that undergirds Mother Russia. The Great Game has long been played across its fields. Kyrgyzstan is on top of Afghanistan and provides funnels in and out of that troubled conglomerate of tribal allegiances so recently unknown to most Americans. The only bridge into northern Afghanistan leaves from Kyrgyz soil. The Soviets had a number of missile silos in Kyrgyzstan. It is one leftover warhead that provides focus for Summer Snow's chase. Add in one complexity to differentiate Summer Snow. The heroine, Cholpon, imbued with requisite dark-haired, dark-eyed exotic central Asian beauty is also a devotee of Djamila, an older woman and Shakya, head of an all woman order. Djamila has fashioned a fusion of Islamic Sufism, Hindu mysticism, and Transcendental Meditation (TM). Djamila knows how to save the world. Her women are both devoted and industrious. Cholpon is, however, also a very modern woman with a bra that hooks in front. Needless to say, her bra holds myriad promises of delights most attractive to the American protagonist, Jeff. He is a battle-worn veteran of special operations, Vietnam and such, now retired somewhat. As a rather standard, densely-headed American, a bit on the "ugly" side, he needs some convincing that Djamila's version of TM will lead those who stole the nuke to give it back and go away quietly. Government officials from Kyrgyz functionaries to American diplomats and military, including Jeff most of the time, are insensitive, undistinguished, and unaware of the games being played until, naturally, almost too late. The carnage is an undertaker's dream. In the course of the novel, Jeff manages nearly to get killed several times. He

Sufi mysticism, love, war, and hope in the Middle East

No country on earth is exempt from ruthless power mongers who buy and sell violence and destruction on a daily basis. Humankind is overwhelmed with chaos. This story of an American warrior in love with a Sufi woman is a standout, thanks to William Hathaway's exceptional writing style. The harm we do others always comes back to us. No one understands that cosmic law better than Jeff Madsen. Madsen is a Vietnam era veteran still haunted by his experiences there. His position as U.S. State Department Foreign Aid officer in Kyrgyzstan is playing politics and little else. His marriage is in shambles. His job is a balancing act, placating the Russian and Kyrgyz military while trying not to offend Muslim potentates. When terrorists steal a weapon of mass destruction, Jeff's warrior instincts resurface. Cholpon is a Sufi sister in her mid thirties. She lives in a remote mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan and has survived communism and Muslim mullahs who despise the Sufis. For fifteen years she's learned to harness transcendental meditation and astral channeling to strengthen her chakras. Cholpon meets her karma head on in the person of Jeff Madsen, who shows up on her doorstep bleeding from a terrorist attack nearby. She soon becomes a loving spark of life to a heart Jeff thought was dead. Learning the Sufi way of harmony and peace transforms the warrior. He understands such peaceful unterventions may be the only chance Earth has of surviving endless war. When Cholpon and her gentle sisters locate the stolen atomic warhead, Jeff fears for their survival. Will the Sufi's peaceful interventions or man's warring nature save millions from destruction? This touching love story is also a modern day adventure thriller that blends Sufi mystics, militant terrorists, metaphysical mysteries, and double dealing men of every nationality in surprising ways. This is a true picture of the world we live in as it is, and as it could be if lasting love and peace were possible.