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A review by janeinbc
Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
4.0
This is really a 4.5 star read for me.
Sean Michaels has crafted something unique in his debut Giller award winning novel. He has fictionalized the life of physicist, engineer, theremin inventor and KGB spy, Leon Theremin. Told in the form of a letters that Theremin is writing recounting his life. The book is broken up into two parts.
The first part covers the period of time as Theremin as a young physicist in Russia and his time living in NYC to promote his instrument and create other inventions. It is here he falls under the spell of young Clara Reisenberg. It is the period of the jazz, the time of speakeasies but it is also the time of the Great Depression. Theremin is naive and idealistic and living the high life. Even during the Depression he seems oblivious to it it many ways.
Theremin's voice changes dramatically in the second half of the book when he is returned to the motherland. Things are now harsh. Michaels description of Leon's life as a prisoner in the gulag, doing hard labour is vividly rendered and all the flights of fancy and the ephemeral magic of New York and the theremin are almost forgotten under the weight of this second half of the book.
Sean Michaels has crafted something unique in his debut Giller award winning novel. He has fictionalized the life of physicist, engineer, theremin inventor and KGB spy, Leon Theremin. Told in the form of a letters that Theremin is writing recounting his life. The book is broken up into two parts.
The first part covers the period of time as Theremin as a young physicist in Russia and his time living in NYC to promote his instrument and create other inventions. It is here he falls under the spell of young Clara Reisenberg. It is the period of the jazz, the time of speakeasies but it is also the time of the Great Depression. Theremin is naive and idealistic and living the high life. Even during the Depression he seems oblivious to it it many ways.
Theremin's voice changes dramatically in the second half of the book when he is returned to the motherland. Things are now harsh. Michaels description of Leon's life as a prisoner in the gulag, doing hard labour is vividly rendered and all the flights of fancy and the ephemeral magic of New York and the theremin are almost forgotten under the weight of this second half of the book.