Saturday, January 14, 2012

2012 book 12

Kathryn Harrison's Enchantments
Novels based on actual history often sort of flounder as the author attempts to stay true to the facts while still making the story his or her own--and make it compelling. With the story here, which focuses on Rasputin's daughter, her friendship with poor little Alexei, the stories she tells him about their families, and her adult life working with large animals in a circus--well, it should be something really exciting to read! But Harrison leans too heavily on the literary side, and somehow such an insane story ends up reading really slowly. Masha, Rasputin's daughter, is a fairly fleshed-out character, as is the tsarevich, and their interactions were interesting, but this wasn't at all the engaging, immersive novel I was hoping for (such a book would have been a huge bestseller, I think). I mean, come on, Rasputin's daughter went on to work for circuses and it's just not interesting to read about here. The Wikipedia article is more absorbing. B/B-.
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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 6.

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