01 Sep 2013 23:36:34
The novel is a jumble of memories and anecdotes that chart the misadventures of philosophy graduate Nathan, who rather improbably makes his living as a glorified bird-watcher paid to do field research by Indiana University. He painstakingly notes the habits of songbirds and describes his patch of forest with astonishing clarity, yet he remains oblivious to his own chaotic existence.
From Nathan's perspective, Indiana is an enchanting mess of contradictions, "my own lifelong imbroglio", a place where thumbs risk being nipped off by turtles, the Ku Klux Klan might invite you round for tea and where present requests to the town of Santa Claus always get an answer. Kimberling creates these unlikely anecdotes with a light touch, ensuring they are witty, observant and critical all at the same time. Even when he moves away from his home town, Nathan cannot quite escape the place that shaped him.
Nathan's relationship with an impossible redhead, Lola, who does not love him as much as he loves her, is the novel's romantic refrain: Nathan carves her name into dozens of hardwood tree trunks, "commemorating Lola everywhere with towering solemnity", but disappointment is never far away. When Nathan half-seriously proposes that he and Lola get married, imagining her with his surname, she replies: "Your name is lovely. It's perfect. For you."
At the same time as being down-to-earth and humorous, Snapper is suffused with a certain melancholy, and it is Kimberling's expert balancing of all these elements that allows the novel's insights – into who we are and where we come from – to hit home.
