SOURCE: Weissman, Benjamin. “The Stuff of Excess: If Thom Jones is the Current Short-Story God, What's the Form Coming To?” Los Angeles Times Book Review (6 August 1995): 3, 15.

In the following review, Weissman offers a negative review of Cold Snap.

One thing I'm certain of is that I've got to be totally wrong about my difficulties with Thom Jones. He's one of the most popular story writers in the country right now, not for doing anything new (if contemporary fiction ain't broke, why fix it?), but for reviving an all-American genre, macho fiction. Tough-guy stories with a twist. The secret: Give all the ruffians or their partners some type of disorder. That makes 'em vulnerable. Like the ailing triceratops in “Jurassic Park,” there's nothing more moving than a weepy incapacitated brute. It's our only way to get close to them, and gosh darn it, monsters need love too. Jones' gallery...