Snow in August is a good example about the prejudice and racism in the 1940's. Pete Hamill has truly done a marvelous job at depicting the effects of WWII on an anti Jewish town, Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn was in the midst of religious and racial turmoil. Hamill describes how ripped apart this neighborhood had become, one Jewish storeowner was beaten into a coma and one woman was almost raped. Snow in August is about an eleven year old Irish Catholic boy, Michael Devlin, that grew up in Brooklyn in the midst of all sorts of scary, violent and very strange situations. Due to his friendship with a Rabbi, Michael and his widowed mother find themselves threatened and in a great deal of danger.
             Pete Hamill describes the situation in America during the late 1940's. This was an era following WWII and the Holocaust, an era in which Hitler had sought to annihilate the Jewish race and nearly succeeded. The persecution of the Jews in Europe during the mid 1940's seems to have had a contagious effect on other parts of the world, including America. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-semitic hoodlums, Michael and the Rabbi are caught up in a situation of hate and violence that would nearly need a miracle to resolve, as if it is not enough. It is not enough that the Rabbi lost his wife in the Holocaust and Michael lost his father in the Battle of the Bulge. Pete Hamill goes on in his story showing how the aftermath of the war can also be painful and devastating. Both Michael and the Rabbi learn that all is not wonderful and safe in post-war Brooklyn. A gang called the Falcons and their vicious tough, leader, Frankie McCarthy who hates the Jews and the Blacks threatens to destroy the lives of the Rabbi, the boy and his mother, he inflicts serious beatings on the two lead characters leaving them with threats of worse consequences to come. As the story unfolds, the young hero turns to the lethal secrets of the Kabbalah to try to kee...