<i>Smilla's Sense of Snow</i> by Peter Hoeg

Rodin does not have a good record. Two books, two misses.

I started out really like the book. I liked the mystery about the boy's death. I liked the relationship between the boy and Smilla and the boy and the mechanic. I though that was going to be the story. Then I realized that this is a thriller and a NYT best seller.

There are a few things that bother me about conventional thrillers. One is the amount of time pope spend having the crap beat out of them, with generally little to no effect on the speed of the plot. Here, once Smilla's beatings started, it was a pretty regular occurrence, though she was still able to continue with the adventure with no issues. It got to the point where I was unable to suspend disbelief for any longer. There was little chance that she could have done half of what she did if she really had the crap beat out of her as described.

Another thing I dislike is how the plot has to get so out of hand after a while because the author has almost backed himself into a corner and can't otherwise find a way out. Really? Aliens?

I really did like the background on Smilla and her life with her mother in Greenland. I would have liked to hear more about her childhood and her interaction with her brother. I liked hear about the different clothes, boots and tools that Greenlanders used as they lived, worked and walked on the ice.

One other thing that really bothered me was the review on the back of the book from People that Hoeg was Hemmingway-esque. No. That is entirely wrong. There was more exposition than Hemmingway would have ever used and the plot was far to complicated to be a Hemmingway story. And there wasn't nearly enough drinking.

Not a very good read, though I did enjoy learning about Greenland and its relationship to Denmark.

4/10

<i>The Bonfire of the Vanities</i> by Tom Wolfe

I had trouble believing this book was set in the 1980s for about the first 300 pages. Wolfe's descriptions and people seemed out of the 1950s or 60s. It wasn't until a character was said to have AIDS that it really became clear to me. From then on I was able to place the story in the correct temporal context.

I struggled a bit with the outcome of the story. Despite the NYC that Wolfe was trying to show where the old-boys-club is breaking down, I have a significant amount of trouble believing that its true. Wolfe painted money---or having money---as being fundamentally useless if your crime takes place in the Bronx, but I would think, even in such a case as described in this book that money would be able to get the individual out of trouble. It may not be legal, it may be underhanded, but it seems more likely for an anonymous rich man (not Paris Hilton) to buy his way out.

I was frustrated by Sherman's lack of a backbone in doing the right thing: going to the cops when it first happened. Wolfe had to put "the other woman" in the car with him, or else Sherman *would have* gone to the cops, as he was one who believed in and respected authority. I was still, though, frustrated with the guilt that he felt, but I guess the situation was intended to show: although Sherman was a bear with bonds he couldn't stand up to himself otherwise.

At the end Sherman is able to break through that barrier, but it seems a bit inauthentic to me: I can't believe demonstrators would be allowed in the courtroom. That may have a modern bias based on the current security checkpoints. Aside from that, the judge and the jury are intended to decide based on the facts, not on the emotion of the crowd.

Wolfe's writing in some respects remind me of Charles Dickens. Excessive detail that makes you wonder if he is getting paid by the word. Wolfe also uses his metaphors over and over again so you understand *quite clearly* that the Bronx courthouse is an island fortress. He does carry the reader along on a brisk ride, and I was able to stay reasonably engaged with the characters throughout the book.

The only other books of Wolfe's I've read are non-fiction. Looking back, I rated both of those---The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Hooking Up---well and have memories of liking each. Based on that, I would have to say that I like Wolfe's non-fiction better than his fiction.

5/10