Smilla's Sense of Snow/Cassettes

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Summary: Very interesting!
Review: I liked this book very much! What else can I say! It's wonderful and my impressiones are so great!!! I'm happy to have this book at my home!!!

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Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I'm journalist from Russia, I've read this book and I liked it very-very much!!! I read russian translation but I'd like to read in Danish! May be I'll study this language to read about Smilla in Danish!

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Summary: A thriller with strong themes of cultural displacement
Review: As a thriller this book fails to catch fire. With a strong character like Smilla, a bit of humour and some deep reflections the book is more of a force. Much of the first half of the book deals with Smilla's feeling of being uprooted from her close-to-nature Greenlandic culture and the clash with being a modern Dane. I liked the mix of moods in this book. Here identification with the dead Inuit child gave the central character more substance and a high moral standing. A more believeable book results. Another thriller The Big Picture by Douglas Kennedy fails at the hurdle of moral ambivalance. On the other hand it is more readable. The literary weight of the Smilla story should not deter as the second half of the book sees a dramatic rush of action. Overall the mood of the book is pleasing and worth taking time to read.

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Summary: Unlike anything I've ever read - a unique gem
Review: Intelligent, a good read, with strange perspectives. Foreign and philisophical. At first it looks like a mystery, but there is much more to it. The plot is secondary to the characters. If you like it after the first page keep reading.

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Summary: Ice, Snow a Chilling thriller
Review: Hoeg keeps the marvellous suspense up all through the book. As soon as I finished reading it, I reccomended it to all of my freinds, and they loved it to. Peter Hoeg defined the characters so well. The scretive mehcanic, Pofesser Loyen and of course the determined Smilla. The movie followed the book really well and I would reccomend it to you if you like movie type of books

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Summary: one of the best books ever
Review: I've read another of Peter Hoeg's books, "The Woman & the Ape", which was one of the WORST books ever; yet, this is one of my FAVORITES of all time. I refuse to see the movie, as it is a bastardization of the book(Smilla is supposed to be middle-aged, not svelte and 20!!) I literally could not put this book down...it lingers in the mind. I loved the story settings: it wasn't just in 1 locale, and it did not take place in either New York, LA, London, or Paris, like every other book. If you only like "fluffy" snow, stay away. But if you take perverse interest in getting frostbitten, this is the book for you.

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Summary: X-Files Meets Nancy Drew
Review: Oh, how I wanted to really love this book...and after 18 years in Michigan, 5 in Caribou, Maine, and 4 in Colorado, I think I've seen enough different kinds of snow to give Smilla a run for her money. BUT. She makes Holden Caufield sound like a cheerleader with "Up With People", and the underlying plot would make Chris Carter blush. (In fact, the Grand Guignol finale seems strangely similar to the "X-Files" episode "Ice"....)The evocation of nature is weak in the extreme (has Hoeg ever **really** been in the snow??), Smilla needs a s***** job and a 30-year mortgage if she wants something to bitch about, and the "Mechanic" may as well be named "Mr. Plot Device". The writing is "literary" as in "self-conscious to the point of pretentious", but I will assume some of that is due to the translation. Obviously some readers are entranced by a strong-willed heroine, but Smilla gets old REAL fast - her motivation is obscure at best, and most of the time she seems to behave contrarily just for the sheer piss-and-vinegar of it. Better books with similar themes: Literary mystery: Eco's "Name of the Rose" Arctic horror: Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" Strong-willed female detective: Any PBS "Prime Suspect" episode Life in the snow: Shackleton's "South" or Solzhetisyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" If I give the book a "5", the film gets a "4", but only because of the beautiful cinematography: the plot is reduced to incoherence, and the ending requires a total suspension of disbelief.

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Summary: A fascinating but ponderous story, beautifully written.
Review: Mixing the lurid premise of a rich mystery thriller with the genuine class of a literate novel, Peter Hoeg immediately captured this reader's attention with the title character. Smilla is a strong-willed, bright, intuitive and deeply sensitive woman (and tries to prove she's anything but) who develops an obsession with the strange death of a neighbor boy who, she's surprised to discover, has had deep impact on her life. Smilla is one of the strongest, most interesting women characters in contemporary literature. Her story is provacative and her need to know what happened to the young boy, Isaiah, is infectuous. When her story takes her improbably to "The Sea," much of the mystery's fascination sails away with her. Hoeg's beautiful writing (and on-target homilies), fortunately, remains. But the last half of the book is rough sailing and the conclusion can't satisfy too many people -- including Smilla, who finally finds what she's searching for (perhaps that's Hoeg's point). You don't have to be smart or literate to appreciate this novel, but Hoeg manages to create a multi-textured world of spirits that will appeal to many levels of different readers.

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Summary: Masses of brilliant ice, and more science than mystery.
Review: Peter Hoeg is a large intelligence, that much is obvious. The book elicits a visceral response--the reader can feel the cold and the ice. The problem with the book for me was a lot of buildup surrounding a great expedition, which turns out to be a large meteor. It took me til the end to realize the book was really about science, more so than a mystery or a love story or a geographical tale. Like Annie Proux's Shipping News, the author studied his subject and was able to express it in marvelous detail--proving the old adage that Eskimos have 100 words for snow, Miss Smilla knows her ice formations. The book must be even more compelling in its native Danish language. It was a treat in the Los Angeles flu-infested winter.

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Summary: Hated It
Review: I will give this book a three because it was obviously well-written. I also found the beginning interesting - who ever knew that Greenlanders are a detested minority in Denmark? Also, in the interest of disclosure, I admit that I much prefer a novel to a mystery. However, I absolutely suffered through this book. Nearly everyone in my book club hated it also. We now refer to it as the Insufferable Smilla!