REVIEW: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

This was an interesting book, very different in many ways from my normal reading experience. Although it is a translation I found the prose to be excellent and challenging - and at times difficult. It painted a white, wintery, icy atmosphere that made it a perfect winter read. I felt the need to sit in front of a warm fire while reading this book and its explanations of the different varieties of glaciers.

The main character Smilla is part Danish and part native Greenlander, or Intuit. Her Eskimo childhood and blood have given her an instinctive ability to read snowy terrain, find her way through ice. Smilla is a fiercely independent and slightly shrewish creation. When the book first kicked off - I thought I might be reading about a waspish elderly lady. However - it turned out the heroine was in her late 30's.

We see this world through Smilla's eyes. What was interesting was the relationship of Greenland and Denmark and the way the Eskimo are treated by the Danish. This is something I knew very little about before reading the book and I found it interesting.

The plot has Smilla investigating the death of a little boy , a fellow Greenlander who managed to get under her hard boiled exterior. She is utterly relentless in her investigation. Nothing can dissuade her. This stubborn nature, her harshness, her quick mind are all part of what makes Smilla a fascinating character to read. She will follow the trail to the boy's murderer to the bitter end.

The plot itself is vague and shadowy. Because I knew nothing about Denmark, I was able to suspend disbelief and believe in the giant interconnected conspiracy theory that the book portrays. But quite honestly it was swallowing quite a pill to buy into the resolution.

Things I liked : Smilla's waspish personality, the descriptions and information of the Arctic, learning more about Greenland, the snowy cold setting

Things that did not work for me: The overall conspiracy the book is based on. The lack of resolution

Grade : B-

Comments

[Nike Shox OZ Shoes]

It is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

[The Magic Of Making Up]

What is all the fuss about this book?-I found the geographical setting an interesting idea and was totally up for being enthralled. Hoeg does write beautifully about snow and ice-clad settings, but a good novelist he is not, in my opinion. I found the pace of the plot turgid and dull, dull, dull. I was not particularly interested in any of the characters and didn't much care what happened to any of them. Although some of his descriptive narrative is extremely beautiful and different, much of it went on for far too long, and as a result, I forgot what I was supposed to be reading about. I'm a bit annoyed that a novel which seemed to captivate many of my friends, quite frankly left me cold.
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