Quick-review: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

...by Peter Hoeg

I finally decided I would read a 'modern classic' no matter what.  So often I give up, because what actually transpires to be actually fairly ordinary is also laced with language and themes which I, as a benighted traditionalist, can't be bothered with (and such things generally have nothing to do with the story).  But this time I decided to finish it whatever....

Well, on the positive side he is a great writer: even in translation from the Danish, it's good prose.

Otherwise...it's, well, modern.  A very bleak book.  No one is happy (not for long anyway), pretty much most everything goes wrong, and most people have some kind of secret. The plot proves intricate as the reality of what has been happening is unfolded, but to be fair you could probably say that about Dan Brown - the gradual revealing of the big picture and who's connected to who isn't that unique I guess.  In that sense what sets it apart from Brownian stuff is the prose and the reflections on life and ice (there's a lot of ice).  But does it have a proper ending?  Not really;  and one can have enough of 'realistic' books that leave lots unresolved.  On top of this is the mandatory language issue - and the bizarre obsession with (often odd) sexual details which have absolutely nothing to do with the story.  But presumably prove you're a grown-up writer?

And though this is difficult to establish given I knew the writer was male:  to be honest I think you could tell Miss Smilla was being written by a bloke...