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A review by emmalthompson85
Hunters in the Snow by Daisy Hildyard
3.0
Hunters is the snow is written in the style of a non-fiction book. The conceit is that this is a book published by a young historian drawing together her memories of her grandfather with his late works on historical figures.
For me, the book was balanced too heavily in favour of the historical narratives. Maybe if I had a better grasp of the wider historical context I'd be able to see how the author drew on the stories they have to highlight parts of the grandfather's psychology but I'm not big on books that require extra knowledge to get them. The entire thing came across as a little dry. The heavy weight placed on the historical narratives basically leaves the reader in a position to try and build their own story about the Grandfather's life through these works but I felt like there wasn't enough to build on and, I'm sorry, but when reading a book I like to be told a story, not invivted to construct my own. There are themes running through the book, the idea of journeys is omnipresent and also disguise and lies. But I can't help but feel that the book repeatedly draws attention to these things but doesn't seem to reach any conclusion on them. Other symbols and repeated motifs seemed almost thrown in at random. It give the impression that the author wants you to think this is a more intelligent book than I actually found it to be. And, even at the end, I still wasn't entirely sure what the author felt about her grandfather. Hero worship, certainly, but there had to be something beyond that.
Technically, this was a well written book, but I didn't feel at the end like I'd been told a comelling story, met a compelling character or had a point made to me in some way that made me think. It wasn't a bad book, it just failed in almost every measuer to be a good book.
For me, the book was balanced too heavily in favour of the historical narratives. Maybe if I had a better grasp of the wider historical context I'd be able to see how the author drew on the stories they have to highlight parts of the grandfather's psychology but I'm not big on books that require extra knowledge to get them. The entire thing came across as a little dry. The heavy weight placed on the historical narratives basically leaves the reader in a position to try and build their own story about the Grandfather's life through these works but I felt like there wasn't enough to build on and, I'm sorry, but when reading a book I like to be told a story, not invivted to construct my own. There are themes running through the book, the idea of journeys is omnipresent and also disguise and lies. But I can't help but feel that the book repeatedly draws attention to these things but doesn't seem to reach any conclusion on them. Other symbols and repeated motifs seemed almost thrown in at random. It give the impression that the author wants you to think this is a more intelligent book than I actually found it to be. And, even at the end, I still wasn't entirely sure what the author felt about her grandfather. Hero worship, certainly, but there had to be something beyond that.
Technically, this was a well written book, but I didn't feel at the end like I'd been told a comelling story, met a compelling character or had a point made to me in some way that made me think. It wasn't a bad book, it just failed in almost every measuer to be a good book.