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A review by andrew61
The Light and the Dark by Mikhail Shishkin, Andrew Bromfield
4.0
This is a complex story of two lovers whose lives are told by means of letters to each other. The complexity is that the writer plays with the readers concept and assumptions about time. The opening sentences were ones I went back to repeatedly as I struggled at first to fully understand what I was reading ; ' I open yesterday's news and it is all about you and me.
It's going to be the word in the beginning again, they write.
But meanwhile in the schools they rattle on in the same old way, saying first of all there was a big bang, and the whole of existence went flying apart.
And what's more , supposedly everything already existed even before the big bang-all the galaxies we can see and the one's we can't'
This presages what is then a straightforward epistolary narrative which also is built on shifting sands.
Two lovers meet at the outset Volodenka and Sasha. Volodenka then goes off to fight in the Russian- Chinese war of 1905. Sasha continues her studies becoming a doctor. Volodenka writes detailed letters during the course of the war. At times the history is graphically violent and brutal as he describes the horror of conflict , I will never look at a jar of pickled onions again in the same way . At other times reflective as he revisits his personal relationships particularly those with his parents and blind step-father. The latter being particularly poignant as we learn of his initial cruelty and loathing of the man which later shifts to regret. the letters continue during the course of the war.
Sasha's letters however literally last her lifetime as we follow her personal relationships with mother and father as an adolescent , lovers, husband and his daughter and ex wife, friends, and ultimately her aging parents. But the letters are still being sent to Volodenka.
This book was for me a contradiction, I generally like books that go from A-B, I don't like to feel that the writer is playing with me intellectually or imposing his superiority on me so initially I was irritated by the construct and it's rationale but as I settled into the letters I became engaged in the stories , the characters lives and what was a well told story. Thus ultimately I enjoyed the book although I came away thinking I had missed something although whether it is as simple as love transcending time i'm not sure. certainly I'd be interested to learn more about the book , writer and his ideas and he is certainly a writer I will read again.
It's going to be the word in the beginning again, they write.
But meanwhile in the schools they rattle on in the same old way, saying first of all there was a big bang, and the whole of existence went flying apart.
And what's more , supposedly everything already existed even before the big bang-all the galaxies we can see and the one's we can't'
This presages what is then a straightforward epistolary narrative which also is built on shifting sands.
Two lovers meet at the outset Volodenka and Sasha. Volodenka then goes off to fight in the Russian- Chinese war of 1905. Sasha continues her studies becoming a doctor. Volodenka writes detailed letters during the course of the war. At times the history is graphically violent and brutal as he describes the horror of conflict , I will never look at a jar of pickled onions again in the same way . At other times reflective as he revisits his personal relationships particularly those with his parents and blind step-father. The latter being particularly poignant as we learn of his initial cruelty and loathing of the man which later shifts to regret. the letters continue during the course of the war.
Sasha's letters however literally last her lifetime as we follow her personal relationships with mother and father as an adolescent , lovers, husband and his daughter and ex wife, friends, and ultimately her aging parents. But the letters are still being sent to Volodenka.
This book was for me a contradiction, I generally like books that go from A-B, I don't like to feel that the writer is playing with me intellectually or imposing his superiority on me so initially I was irritated by the construct and it's rationale but as I settled into the letters I became engaged in the stories , the characters lives and what was a well told story. Thus ultimately I enjoyed the book although I came away thinking I had missed something although whether it is as simple as love transcending time i'm not sure. certainly I'd be interested to learn more about the book , writer and his ideas and he is certainly a writer I will read again.