A simple plot summary would make If Winter Comes appear very melodramatic and didactic. Hutchinson's style in the novel works to lessen, although not eliminate, those tendencies. Humor is one saving grace: for example, Mark and his wife have two servants, sisters named Jinks. Mark nicknames them Hi-Jinks and Lo-Jinks. Their appearance in the plot occasionally breaks the tension, and the last word of the book is theirs, a comic underpinning to the dramatic reunion of Mark and Nona.

A second and more effective device is the use of Mark's friend Hapgood as narrator. A minor character, Hapgood works well as a narrator. He appears at the beginning of the book, giving the reader background information by telling of his recent visit to Mark. Then he disappears for a while as a traditional narrative takes over. But when Mark's fortunes are at their lowest, Hapgood appears, and the...