Scan barcode
marcatili's review
3.0
This is a story haunted by the great Russian authors. They are mentioned, quoted, laced in throughout this novel in a way that suggests it is as much about the loss of the great Russian literary tradition with the rise of Communism as it is about the loss of any one particular author.
In the purges of late 1930s Russia, Pavel works as an archivist in Lubyanka prison. He one day interviews an author he admires greatly, and later smuggles an unpublished manuscript from the archive and keeps it hidden in his basement. This set up will make you think the story is about how a brave man works to save otherwise lost works of great literature. But in fact it's about fear and loss in Soviet Russia.
Some of the themes that surface in this book – the frustrations and grind of bureaucracy, for example – are not deeply explored.
Instead, this novel really focuses on not just fear and loss, but the threat of being forgotten. The archive is a place where stories go before they are destroyed, the last vestige of their forgotten authors burnt into ash. But Pavel also clings vaguely to the memory of his lost wife, her own ashes lost in a storeroom due to some administrative mix-up and indefinitely irretrievable. Meanwhile, he fears his mother will forget him as she declines into old age.
This isn't really a book about heroism or rebellion. It's about just wanting to leave something behind.
In the purges of late 1930s Russia, Pavel works as an archivist in Lubyanka prison. He one day interviews an author he admires greatly, and later smuggles an unpublished manuscript from the archive and keeps it hidden in his basement. This set up will make you think the story is about how a brave man works to save otherwise lost works of great literature. But in fact it's about fear and loss in Soviet Russia.
Some of the themes that surface in this book – the frustrations and grind of bureaucracy, for example – are not deeply explored.
Instead, this novel really focuses on not just fear and loss, but the threat of being forgotten. The archive is a place where stories go before they are destroyed, the last vestige of their forgotten authors burnt into ash. But Pavel also clings vaguely to the memory of his lost wife, her own ashes lost in a storeroom due to some administrative mix-up and indefinitely irretrievable. Meanwhile, he fears his mother will forget him as she declines into old age.
This isn't really a book about heroism or rebellion. It's about just wanting to leave something behind.
cubsfan3410reads's review
1.0
I tried it! I made it about 60 pages and completely lost interest. I hope others enjoy it.
kellymce's review
2.0
Too many adjectives, too many corny metaphors. But the archivist character is actually pretty good.
More...