I had picked up this book more out of curiosity; I had not read a Scandinavian novel yet. I believe that if you co-exist with some phenomenon of nature for a substantial period, you develop some bonding with it. I, for example invariably think of Rourkela where I grew up, on seeing the occasional rains here in Bangalore or when the wilting heat threatens to lay waste the entire city. And I felt snow is something about which Scandinavians should feel alike.
"Miss Smillia's Feeling for Snow" (MSffS) can best be described as Ludlum married with Alexander Dumas giving birth to a something looking like R.L. Stevenson. The book is a thriller, a social commentary and an exercise in character building all rolled into one. The plot is as complicated or as simple as all Ludlum plots are – a child falls from the roof and dies; an accident say the authorities; murder says Miss Smilla, to whom the tracks left in snow speak of a more gruesome tale. As Smilla, the protagonist of our novel delves into this mystery, the more complex and gargantuan it becomes. The plot has been in action for decades and the death of the child is nothing but a small link in this long chain of events.
However in trying to juggle various styles, the author in entirety does justice to none. Character building in a fast paced narrative is not a easy art to master. I really liked the first part of the book where the reader still does not know the scale of events to come, and the author's digressions into the past life of Smilla in Greenland, her displacement into Denmark after here mother's death, her inability to let go of her natural innuk attitude in favor of the manners of the west all provide for interesting reading. These also show that even in an (so called) advanced western society, the barriers of who are and who are not remain.
But as soon as the scene moved out of Copenhagen to Kronos, the ship on which the characters set sail to claim their golden fleece, the story became cumbersome. The author just could not balance the speed with his proclivity towards interludes on everything from social history of eskimos in Greenland to good culinary practices. And in my opinion, all threads of the story were not brought into a suitable conclusion in the end as should a good chase novel do. I felt I was cheated of my grand ending. Story telling on board a ship, a limited spatial space and character set is something only some authors like Stevenson or Melville have perfected. Høeg sadly cannot lay claim to this greatness.
In my opinion this MSffS can lay claim to neither the genre of "chasing the grand conspiracy" nor to realm of good old storytelling via the characters. It is an experiment, but a half baked one.
