Snow

by Jenifer Levin

Raina Scott, a daredevil adventuress, is "missing" in the jungle of the American-controlled island of Bellagua, where a chemical defoliant is being used to wipe out rebel forces

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Jenifer Levin is known for her novels Water Dancer (nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award), Snow, Shimoni’s Lover, The Sea of Light (nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in Fiction), and her short story collection Love and Death, & Other Disasters. Her essays and short fiction are widely anthologized. She has also contributed feature articles to the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, among others. One of the first openly gay authors to be published in the mainstream press, The Washington Post named her part of the “lesbian literati”.

Levin graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Comparative Literature, subsequently studying Medical Anthropology and South Asian history. She traveled widely in Europe and Southeast Asia, lived and worked in Israel, and studied Tibetan Buddhism for 10 years. A former competitive swimmer, she has coached women’s running and weight-training and completed several marathons.

Levin has two sons whom she adopted as toddlers from Cambodia. Her essays about Cambodia—a country devastated by war, poverty, and genocide—before and after the intervention of the United Nations, and her experiences adopting and raising special needs children, have appeared in several anthologies.

She and her family live in New York City.

Reviews

[Michèle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book threads a thin line between fantastic and spy novel.
I read it about 20 years ago and I am still enrapted by the descriptions, the profound sense of empathy that ms Levin carry in her writing. The two female lead are strong characters, but all the others are well written and each (villains as well as good) carries their own wounds.

The snow of the title refers to a bio weapon destroying the tropical forest of a fictional island country, coveted by some superpowers.

more later.

I am re-reading Snow, and the writing is still powerful. The insight in humans' psyche, the humanist values are embodied at pages 70-72 of my edition, when Saunderson's character explains the hollowness in the tyrants.

"unwholesome"

[Michèle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A boook that really impressed me with its power of evocation.

[Feliks · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few interesting and capable thrillers I've encountered which is penned by a female author. As you go along, you notice that it just doesn't hit 'the usual notes'. There are oddities that --if you hadn't told me it was written by a woman--would have led me to infer that fact. The male sensibility just isn't present. That being said, none of the twists and characterization Ms Levin introduces, make it a bad read. Pretty darn good read, actually. While its not really a "man's thriller" --it doesn't have that kind of toughness or gusto--lacks a certain 'brutality'--it makes up for this by adding in other ingredients. It holds up all on its own; in the territory Levin chose to explore. Worth reading, because of the subtle elements it brings together: a female hero; island mysticism; a little bit of Conrad-ian moral predicament; and stylish, nimble prose. I'd recommend it based on the uniqueness of all this. Good book to pair with Bari's, "LightSource".

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another deft and dense turn by Jenifer Levin. Hard to find. Worth it.