Snow #1

Hello again. It's been maybe a week or so and I haven't blogged in a while. I started reading Snow shortly after finishing What is the What, but I am having difficulty immersing myself in this novel. I don't know why I am having such a hard time finding myself interested in it, but if things do not pick up soon, I might ditch this book and read 1984 instead.

Currently, I've read about 30 pages of this book. The information on the back cover interested me and the title made the book seem like it would contain endless amounts of literary symbolism that I would be able to blog about.

As the title suggests, it is winter time and snowing in Kars. I find it interesting how the main character, Ka, has such a similar name to the city where he is visiting. The snow is welcoming and brings Ka great joy at first, but after staying in the city, he soon finds the snow overwhelming, inhospitable, and heavy. I find it quite intriguing that the snowflakes can be seen as thick and heavy. When I imagine snowflakes, I see fluffy and light flakes gently landing on the earth. But that's just me. I have not ever had to endure such harsh conditions before.

Winter suggests old age and retirement. Ka is a middle-aged man and maybe the snow is hinting at his imminent death. Maybe he will die at the end since it is his "friend" who is narrating the story and not him. Speaking of this "friend", I find the narrator to be mysterious and I really want to find out who he or she is. I think the narrator is a man, though, so that is what I will refer to him as from now on. The narrator is speaking of Ka's visit as if it were in the past, so he knows all that will happen to Ka. This narration reminds me of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, my favorite book. The narrator in that book is death itself. It was hard to understand at first, but I became accustomed to how death knew the whole story and would even spoil parts of what would happen to me. In a way, the narrator of Snow reminds me of Death from The Book Thief. And that thought just led me to wonder... What if Death is the narrator in Snow as well? What if...Death is Ka's "friend" because Ka dies in the end?

Would that be a bit too much? You know, to have another book use Death as the narrator? I don't know. It's just a crazy thought and if Death were the narrator, I would enjoy this book a whole lot more.