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artemisia5's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book out of sheer need for escapism because I was homesick. And the book does a pretty good job at that. The book was pretty interesting by itself. I believe the author could’ve given much more reasons as to why Esko is fascinated by the idea of Katerina. Other than that everything else was pretty great, I loved the characters designs.
blevins's review against another edition
4.0
Greatly enjoyed this novel by Richard Rayner that has a few favorite topics of mine weaving through its epic story of romance--architecture, revolution, civil war, Finland, the mafia, prohibition, more architecture and the 1920s. Set in Finland and New York in the range of 1917 to about 1929 with Rayner packing a lot of action and story in this short span of time--almost too much to be honest. Toward the end with the characters talking about all the time that has passed and it's only been a decade--well, that's actually not a lot of time to have gone by really. This has kind of a slow start, but after the first 50 pages I was extremely hooked. I've read a couple of Rayner's non-fiction books--The Blue Suit and Drake's Fortune--and highly enjoyed those, but I will have to seek out other novels if he's done them. This kind of reminded me of William Boyd when he wrote a couple of sweeping epics around WW1--that's a good thing as I'm a very big fan of Boyd's work.
marilynsaul's review against another edition
4.0
This was a wonderful book, though I got quite annoyed (frequently) with Esko's ridiculous obsession with a most unworthy woman! I learned a lot about architecture and found myself wishing this was not a novel but biographical, so I could go visit the buildings! I also learned about Finland during the Russian Revolution, and I'm amazed at how little I knew about the situation. Excellent writing. I highly recommend this book.
harmless_old_lady's review against another edition
2.0
meh. I thought the subject and setting were so great--turn of the 20th century Finland and the main character seemed compelling--an impoverished, brilliant and crippled young boy!...but the writing is so bad, I just could not get into it. I kept trying, but it plods along. Finally skipped big chunks and skimmed, and really, I'm sorry, just not interested. oh well.
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