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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
I couldn't distinguish the characters and didn't find myself interested in their story right now.
What a riveting story of three generations of Russian women during Russia’s history between the 1917 revolution & the last days of the Soviet Union. Present day Rosie has to piece together her family.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took a lot of focus to follow this one, between the leaps back and forth in time, all the different versions of these long Russian names and nicknames (Alexey Alexeyevich = Alexey Ivanov, Rosemary = Rosie = Raisa = Raisochka), plus people changing their names. There were also the random fairy tales interspersed along with straight up errors (it said at one point that Valentin got married in 1915, which I noticed because it made no sense based on what I knew about the story so far, and continued to make no sense because he was with Tonya in 1915 and married Viktoria in 1917). ANYWAY. A lot of plot complexity, but not much character development and overall I found the whole story more confusing than enjoyable.
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
The main character, Rosie/Raisa, took me on a tour of 20th C Russia that taught me more than I’ve learned reading history. The only reason I didn’t give the book five stars? I kept getting confused. However, I’m now thinking that if Loesch is paying tribute to Russian novelists as she claims, then she did well to confuse me, as being confused is part of the experience of reading a great Russian novel.
The prose is lush and I came to know modern-day Russia a page at a time, relishing this new intimacy.
The prose is lush and I came to know modern-day Russia a page at a time, relishing this new intimacy.
This book drew me in so fast and I really enjoyed the first 2/3s of the book. And then it just flopped. Relationships didn't make sense and story choices, once resolved, were not satisfying. I liked the pacing and story structure and even the concept but things were sorely lacking: depth, connection and believability.