SNOW by Orhan Pamuk
Reviewed by Alex Glaser
Margaret Atwood is correct when she claims that Orhan Pamuk is literally ‘narrating his country into being’ with the book Snow. More than anything else, this novel of a lost poet in search of love and inspiration in small town Turkey concerns itself with heady political, social, and spiritual questions unique to modern-day Turkey. The author treats these debates with care and prudence, and these debates in many ways reflect the ongoing debate about Turkey’s (in/ex)clusion to the European Union, making the novel incredibly relevant to Easterners and Westerners alike.
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Mason LaVerle sets out from an isolated Montana commune seeking to replenish the gene pool of his dwindling, inbred religious sect, the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles. What he finds is that the only people willing, or even likely, to come back with him could use some pretty serious help themselves. In Walter Kirn’s book everyone is in need of being saved. Besides the Apostles tucked away in Bluff, there are teenage Wiccans, new-age environmentalists, trust-fund ranchers, a harried writer, a failed actress, even a herd of buffalo; all seem perfect candidates for a little earthly salvation as prescribed in the pages of the Apostles’ newsletter, Luminaria (except the buffalo, who of course can’t read).