not in ILL

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Of all the different types of contemporary novels out there, perhaps my favorite is the "Michael-Chabon-type" one (for lack of a better term), in which an academic attention to style and craft is applied to a fast-moving, often wackiness-infused plot; and the latest volume I've read to fit this bill is John Minichillo's The Snow Whale, a delightfully dark and smart comedy that's sure to appeal to fans of Karen Russell, Jonathan Franzen, and other urban-hipster types. The story of a sad-sack corporate manager stuck in a loveless marriage in the bland suburbs, our tale kicks off when he completes one of those trendy home DNA tests one day and surprisingly learns that he has a significant amount of Inuit blood in him; then after learning that the diminishing actual Inuit population in northern Alaska are still allowed by law to hunt whales once a year with literal canoes and hand-thrown harpoons, he decides that this is just the thing he needs to shake him out of his middle-class white-guy malaise, declaring to his bewildered wife and neighbors his intention to participate in this year's whale hunt, but not before impulsively hiring an inner-city black kid known only as Q (who he accidentally meets after almost getting mugged in a bad neighborhood one night) to be his assistant and the producer/director of a low-budget documentary Q will shoot about the trip, forced to pretend to be the lily-white man's mixed-race son in order to be legally allowed in the canoes in the first place.

Much like T.C. Boyle's Drop City, then, the rest of this cynically funny story is essentially a comedy of errors, as Minichillo hops back and forth between the two equally dysfunctional environments, laying the groundwork for them eventually coming crashing together -- not just our protagonist's struggles over his "Iron John Moment" in an environment determined to crush it (with even the employees at the overpriced REI store at the mall warning him that he will almost certainly be killed if he goes), but with an equal amount of scenes set in the crumbling small Alaskan town where the bored, alcoholic Inuit live, the main conflict there being between the half-senile tribal "leader" who relishes the idea of this clueless white guy's help on what he's decided is going to be a suicide run during his very last whale hunt, and his pragmatic, exasperated middle-aged son who can only picture the decades' worth of lawsuits that would arise from such a thing -- the story itself turning into a much more straightahead action-adventure in the second half once the whale hunt actually begins, with an ending that I'll let remain a surprise but let's just say is unexpected and highly satisfying. It's a dry humor to be sure, but one I found really engaging (take for example the military submarine trackers stationed at the edge of town, and the ongoing bets they have with the Russian sailors they're "spying" on over who will win each new subsequent round of American Idol), and I can confidently state that this will be right up the alley of McSweeney's fans and other lovers of wry, dark, world-weary character-based comedies. It comes strongly recommended in that spirit, and has a good chance at this point of making CCLaP's best-of lists at the end of the year.

Out of 10: 9.3 ( )

There were parts of Minichillo’s debut that had me giggling with delight, usually because of a consistently entertaining couple of characters as well as some sly, clever writing on the author’s part. Minichillo writes in a way that makes you want to get behind John and his adventure, despite its frequent absurdity.

The whole novel felt a bit exaggerated, less like a tale I sunk into with disbelief suspended and more like intellectual candy on which to suck. The story lay just beyond the grasp of believability for me, but I don’t think believability was the point. Overall, The Snow Whale is a strong debut and a thoroughly entertaining read.

My full review is posted on my blog, Erin Reads. ( )

The Snow Whale by John Minichillo, which is published by local Maryland publisher Atticus Books, is a satire of Moby Dick by Herman Melville to a certain extent. The debut novel centers on the life-changing decision of John Jacobs, a zombified office worker selling desk doodles to corporations via telephone, to find out his ancestry through a cheek-swab DNA test. The results come back and find him more than one-third Eskimo/Inuit, and its enough for John to quit his job, take a vacation from his marriage, and head to Alaska to claim his birthright and go whale hunting.

“And why couldn’t a mild-mannered desk doodle salesman like Mike be the recipient of the Genghis Khan gene?” (page 9 of ARC)

His wife, Jessica, is equally in a rut, but still enjoys her job as a ballroom dance instructor. She wishes that her marriage was more passionate and spontaneous, but the spontaneity she gets from John is not exactly what she’s looking for. However, she agrees that he should go to Alaska given the passionate gleam in his eyes. While some of the actions John takes are irrational and a bit nutty, readers will enjoy the shear witty prose and dialogue that accompanies the surreal situations presented.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/08/the-snow-whale-by-john-minichillo.html ( )