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timeywriter 's review for:
Russian Winter
by Daphne Kalotay
Oh, this novel was so close to being fantastic to me. It had so many interesting elements. An elderly Russian ballerina putting her jewels up for auction and a man attempting to show her his connection to her. All the while going back to the ballerina's life before. I love jumping back and forth between history, been the early 2000's and the 1940's-50's in Communist/Stalin Russia. And yet, it lacked so much too.
Nina rises up through the ranks of the Russian ballet. Along the way she both makes friends and betrays them, finds love and is heartbroken by it. It is a Russian tragedy and with a dash of fearful Communism on the side. Honestly, the fear and totalitarianism that was Stalin's Russia was the most profound part of this story, for it was incredibly realistic. And then jump ahead to when Nina is older and selling off the jewelry she gained through her fame and a Russian professor, Grigori, is attempting to contact her as they both hold a piece of an amber set. I think it was the characters who fell short for me. There were too many instances where everything was building up, only to leave me with a deplorable "oh" moment. The ending alone made me turn the page and wonder where the rest of it might be. It felt like so much was put into Nina's background, of her becoming a ballerina, that not a lot was then put into her connection with Grigori, it was just sort of shoved in there at the end and never came to a satisfactory culmination. I also like when I feel connected to even side characters and I lacked that as well here. I found Nina to be the stereotypical ballerina, selfish and brutal, and I had a hard time sympathizing or connecting with her. Above anything, I don't feel like anything about how she actually obtained the what, nearly a hundred items of jewelry was ever even mentioned. Just, too many plot points fell through.
As much as this held too many loose ends and fallen away story lines, I found the writing beautiful. It brought to life a horrid era of Russian history through the splendor of the ballet. It was a wondrous juxtaposition and I only wanted more.
Nina rises up through the ranks of the Russian ballet. Along the way she both makes friends and betrays them, finds love and is heartbroken by it. It is a Russian tragedy and with a dash of fearful Communism on the side. Honestly, the fear and totalitarianism that was Stalin's Russia was the most profound part of this story, for it was incredibly realistic. And then jump ahead to when Nina is older and selling off the jewelry she gained through her fame and a Russian professor, Grigori, is attempting to contact her as they both hold a piece of an amber set. I think it was the characters who fell short for me. There were too many instances where everything was building up, only to leave me with a deplorable "oh" moment. The ending alone made me turn the page and wonder where the rest of it might be. It felt like so much was put into Nina's background, of her becoming a ballerina, that not a lot was then put into her connection with Grigori, it was just sort of shoved in there at the end and never came to a satisfactory culmination. I also like when I feel connected to even side characters and I lacked that as well here. I found Nina to be the stereotypical ballerina, selfish and brutal, and I had a hard time sympathizing or connecting with her. Above anything, I don't feel like anything about how she actually obtained the what, nearly a hundred items of jewelry was ever even mentioned. Just, too many plot points fell through.
As much as this held too many loose ends and fallen away story lines, I found the writing beautiful. It brought to life a horrid era of Russian history through the splendor of the ballet. It was a wondrous juxtaposition and I only wanted more.