By Lauren Bell
The Strange Scent of Saffron is a novel by Miléna Babin, originally written in French, and translated by Oana Avasilichioaei. The novel itself is a quick read (160 pages) and follows the story of Nil, a woman travelling alone in a stolen pickup across the lower St. Lawrence.
Nil is a character written as if encased in a hard shell. She’s tough and a little rough on the edges—but is also the type of person who has suffered and understands the suffering of others; in Nil’s case, her trauma comes from her abusive twin brother. When first introduced to Nil and her sketchy circumstances, it is obvious she is running from moments in her past that have left physical and emotional scars. Wanting to know more about her is what grabs the reader in the first chapter.
While Nil’s story is written in third person, the plot also includes the first person perspective of the other primary main character, Jacob, an exhausted restaurant owner who takes Nil in after she “dines and dashes” from his business. Like Nil, Jacob is an elusive character with his own inner demons: loneliness, a reliance on pills, and an incestuous history with his deceased foster sister. The year in which Nil and Jacob’s story is set is 1988, whose philosophies of having a stiff upper lip and “don’t ask, don’t tell” dictate many of the interactions between the characters. The little we know about the two builds the sense similarity and comradery, as well as the sexual tension between them. When Nil discovers that Jacob is involved in saffron trafficking, he has no choice but to include her in his scheme.
Halfway through the novel Babin also introduces Amar’s perspective, a young child participating in his first saffron harvest on his family farm in India. However, I feel like this inclusion happened too late in the book and didn’t add to the main plots at hand.
My feelings towards The Strange Scent of Saffron are mixed. While there were parts of the book I enjoyed—for instance, I thought Babin handled the AIDS crisis very well in the way the stigma and the reality of the illness is addressed in the novel—but was disappointed she chose not to elaborate on other poignant themes such as racism and trauma when she introduced the opportunity to. Moreover, I felt like the majority of the characters in the book had the same storyline of being bored with life and sexually frustrated and it would have been nice if they had more than just this one dimension. I also didn’t like the ending. While I can respect an author’s wish to keep plots unresolved and leave the story open to interpretation, the ending felt like it happened in the middle of the plot, too close to the climax, and thus I have my own difficulties coming to the conclusion of Nil’s fate.
Thank you to Guernica Editions for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.