C hilly Scenes of Winter has one protagonist, Charles, who pursues Laura in various comic or bittersweet ways. There are no real antagonists, however, nor even any mean-spirited characters, only a series of portraits of attenuated survivors of past emotional scars or disappointments. As Charles lives out his dreary coming-of-age, he seeks companionship primarily from Sam, an unemployed friend with a perpetual cold. Both are bemused at the passing of time and unable to come to terms with it.

The novel is filled with contrasts.

Charles is employed and has inherited a house which he barely occupies; Sam is an unemployed salesman. Charles's sister Susan has gone to college to find a doctor to marry; she dotes on her brother. His friend Pam is a lesbian in search of a soul-mate beyond the pale of conventional society. Charles's mother is crazy and suicidal, his stepfather obsessed with Turtle...