In The Spotlight: Peter Høeg’s Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow

Hello, All,

Welcome to another edition of In The Spotlight. Many crime fiction novels are written by authors who identify themselves as crime writers. But sometimes, an author who’s written other kinds of novels writes a crime novel that then becomes very highly regarded. Such an author is Peter Høeg. He’s written several different kinds of novels, some of which explore relationships, some of which explore religion, and some of which explore the roles of ethics and science. Today, let’s take a close look at his contribution to the world of crime fiction. Let’s turn the spotlight on Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow.

The novel begins at a funeral for a young boy Isaiah Christiansen, a Greenlander who now lives in Copenhagen with his widowed mother. One of the people at the funeral is Smilla Jaspersen, herself a Greenlander who’s half Inuit, half Danish. The official story of Isaiah’s death is that he was playing on the roof of the building where he lived and had a tragic fall. Jaspersen, who lives in the same building, is drawn to the roof where the accident happened. When she gets to the roof and begins to look around, though, she gets a strong sense that Isaiah Christiansen’s death was not an accident. She grew up in Greenland and understands snow and ice, and what the snow on the roof tells her is that something or someone drove the boy off the roof; he wasn’t playing, he was fleeing. But Jaspersen doesn’t get an awful lot of support for the complaint she files, although a police inspector does interview her.

Jaspersen isn’t satisfied with the explanation and begins to dig deeper. Bit by bit, she finds out a little about Isaiah’s past. It turns out his father died during an expedition to Greenland – an expedition Isaiah had joined. So Jaspersen begins to look into the circumstances of the expedition. That’s when she attracts the attention of some very unpleasant and highly-placed people. First, she gets a visit from a police officer who basically threatens her with prison if she keeps digging into the case. Then, she’s nearly killed when she tries to visit one of the people who was on that expedition. That doesn’t stop her for long, though, and she continues to search for answers.

Along the way, Jaspersen gets help from some unlikely sources. One source is Elsa Lübing, who worked for many years as the secretary to a shipping company that plays a key role in the novel. Another, is mechanic Peter Føjl, one of Jaspersen’s neighbours, who had also befriended Isaiah. Finally, Jaspersen puts the pieces together and figures out what the expedition (and a few before it) was about, and how it connects with Isaiah Christiansen’s death and that of another person. Her conclusions lead Jaspersen to a new expedition on which she finagles a place as a maid/cleaner. It’s on that journey that she finds out the truth about the expeditions and deaths and in the end, she gets the answers she’s been searching for.

One of the most important elements in this novel is the character of Smilla Jaspersen. In some ways, she’s an unlikely sleuth. She’s not particularly fond of people and she doesn’t usually get involved in others’ lives. She’s not a detective or private investigator. In many ways, there’s no reason for her to be involved in the case at all. But Jaspersen is a scientist. She understands physics, mathematics, snow and ice. She is also intuitive. Her Inuit background has given her a deep sense of the land and the way people and land interact. She has, as she puts it, “a feeling for snow.” And she’s made a personal commitment to find out what happened to Isaiah. Finally, she is as dogged a character as any other in fiction. Here, in fact, is what one character says about her:

 

“You were supposed to be kept out of this but you kept on getting involved. You were supposed to be left behind in Copenhagen, but suddenly you wound up on board. You keep popping up.”

 

Those qualities make her very believable as the sleuth. We learn Jaspersen’s backstory little by little as the novel evolves, and as we do, we see why she is the way she is. She’s been done down, placed in boarding schools, shipped to Denmark with other young people from Greenland, and in other ways treated badly by “the system.” It’s to Høeg’s credit that she’s not painted as a “tragic heroine.” In fact, she’s courageous, quick-thinking and not above what amounts to blackmail to get information and help she needs. She’s far from helpless. Still, it’s little wonder Jaspersen has no great love for people nor any deep attachments. She’s got a fascinating and unusual perspective.

Another important element in this novel is the setting. The reader is placed in several different locations as the story progresses, and each one is described so that the reader is really there (I know it’s cliché but in this case it works). One of those settings is Copenhagen. Interestingly enough, we see Denmark through the eyes of an “outsider,” as Jasperson doesn’t really consider herself Danish. In fact, she has no great love of living in Denmark, although there are, she admits, good things about it. Here’s one description of part of Copenhagen:

 

“Frederiksberg, the area around Genforeningspladen, Brønshøj – the snow makes it all look like a village. Hejrevej is short and narrow. It runs into Duevej.”

 

And here’s what Jaspersen has to say about Danish bureaucracy:

 

“For many Greenlanders, the most difficult thing about Denmark is the paperwork. The state bureaucracy’s front line of paper: application forms, documents, and official correspondence with the proper public authorities. There is a certain elegant and delicate irony in the fact that even a practically illiterate life like Julianne’s [Isaiah Christiansen’s mother] has sloughed off this mountain of paper.”

 

Through Jaspersen, Høeg shows us Denmark, warts and all as the saying goes.

We also get a sense of Greenland and that part of the Arctic:

 

“We’ve reached a flat, windswept plateau. A series of regular crevasses opens up before us. We must have reached the ablation zone, that spot where the glacier’s lower layers move up towards the surface. There’s a knob ofrock that has parted the flow of ice. I didn’t notice it from below because it’s some type of white stone. Now it gleams in the gathering gloom.”  

 

And interestingly enough, many of Jasperson’s descriptions of Greenland include the Inuit words for different kinds of ice and snow. It’s obvious that she identifies clearly with that side of her culture.

The mystery itself is believable, especially once we know who’s behind the deaths and what the motive is. It’s not the kind of motive most of us would have for murder, but given the killer, it makes sense. And no, the killer isn’t a psychopathic serial killer.

The pace of the novel has some elements of the thriller in the sense that the action, when it happens, happens quickly. There’s a very, very effective twist at the end, too. That said, though, there is also a great deal of reflection in the novel. Smilla Jaspersen is a philosopher and she does quite a lot of thinking. It’s not really rumination though, and doesn’t hold back the pace of the novel. Oh, and one more note about the mystery itself. We do find out who the killer is and what the motive is. But there are certain elements in the story that do not have “neat endings.” Readers who want all of the “loose ends” tied up may be disappointed in that. But the reader is not left in doubt as to why and how the deaths happened and who is behind everything.

An interesting mystery that takes place in a distinctive group of settings, Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow features an unusual and fascinating sleuth. It also features some strong social commentary on “haves” and “have-nots,” on Danish/Greenlander relations and on life itself. But what’s your view? Have you read Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow? If you have, what elements do you see in it?

 

 

 

Coming Up On In The Spotlight

 

Monday 19 March/Tuesday 20 March – Deadly Appearances – Gail Bowen

Monday 26 March/Tuesday 27 March – The Case of the Velvet Claws – Erle Stanley Gardner

Monday 2 April/Tuesday 3 April – Don’t Look Back – Karin Fossum