Preview of Snow in August Summary:

The moral education of a young man and his initiation into the world of adult tasks are the themes of this bildungsroman.

Still on crutches from his beating, and deserted by his two friends, Sonny and Jimmy, Michael emerges from a period of introspective isolation to take dramatic action. He begins to question the street ethic that kept him from moving against the Falcons earlier, the ethic to which his mother herself ascribes, never to be a squealer: "I should have told them everything ... I learned, sometimes you keep your mouth shut about a crime, that's worse than the crime." His own personal odyssey and Jackie Robinson's ordeal teach a lesson about intolerance, violence, and hypocrisy, epitomized in the baseball's commissioner's handling of Robinson and Leo Durocher, his manager, that make the exploits of captain Marvel seem childish. Michael must become his own hero, adopting a new role...