wyenotgo
Ottawa Public Library
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wyenotgo's rating:
Added Feb 10, 2016
Wealth and PowerWealth and Power, BookChina's Long March to the Twenty-first Century
by Schell, OrvilleBook - 2013Book, 2013
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Feb 08, 2016
Comment:
An overarching theme of this book is China's long struggle to overcome its nearly two centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers. Justifiably proud of an ancient and highly accomplished culture, China has been punished by a succession of invading armies, colonized by imperialist aggressors, exploited by foreign business interests, offended by proselytising missionaries. All of which has been so difficult for China to tolerate that despite their starkly conflicting political approaches, a whole succession of governments and revolutionary movements have all shared a determination to set China on a course toward self-determination, ascendancy and prosperity.
The question that remains unanswered is whether the latest regime, an incongruous marriage of so-called "communist" one-party rule and unbridled capitalist oligarchy shall in the end truly overcome China's sad history and achieve true stability in addition to "Wealth and Power". Indeed, the writers have not even succeeded in determining how much of China's newfound success is real and how much is grandiose stage decoration concealing fraudulent and failed business schemes. There is no mention of China's complete lack of business transparency. The current state of the millions of agrarian and urban poor is hardly touched upon, nor do they address the appalling degree of state censorship, abuse of minorities, "disappearances" of opponents, mock trials and party corruption at all levels. It seems to me that the writers have been mesmerized by ostentatious sudden wealth and feats of engineering.An overarching theme of this book is China's long struggle to overcome its nearly two centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers. Justifiably proud of an ancient and highly accomplished culture, China has been punished by a succession…
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Book
by Winterson, JeanetteBook - 2011Book, 2011
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Feb 03, 2016
Comment:
If I could award this book more than 5 stars I would do so!
At times humorous and ironic, at times extremely moving, especially in the final chapters. Insightful, lyrical, completely engaging, right from the very first sentence. It's rare to encounter a writer who is willing to bare her soul to this degree -- and yet she is never maudlin, weepy or self-indulgent in doing so.
One of the best things I've read in the past several years.If I could award this book more than 5 stars I would do so!
At times humorous and ironic, at times extremely moving, especially in the final chapters. Insightful, lyrical, completely engaging, right from the very first sentence. It's rare to…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Jan 27, 2016
Comment:
The greatest shortcoming of this book is its terrible lack of ECONOMY. I have to confess to a morbid fascination with it, even though there is much to detest about Murdoch's style, her content and especially her characters. The only saving grace I've discovered in this collection of unpleasant people is their vaunted cleverness -- which renders them even more abhorrent. And there are so damn MANY of them: Murdoch gleefully explores the entire family history of each resident of her screwball imaginary town, back to at least two or three generations, whether they have any relevance to the narrative or not. Add to that her irksome la-di-dah interjection of bon mots à la française and parenthetic asides and it's hard for me to explain why I continued to wade through about 265 pages of "set-up" before her narrative finally got going. I kept hoping that at least one sympathetic character would emerge out of this menagerie of misanthropes, sycophants, schemers, sociopaths, misfits, social climbers, whiners, poseurs .... you get the picture. Or that someone would do the right thing and murder George, the disgusting, drunken psychopath before long even though he appeared to be the main protagonist. Murdoch spends nearly a hundred pages exploring George's personality and motives, even though her one sentence "He saw the world as a conspiracy against him and himself as a victim of cosmic injustice" probably would have sufficed.
Bottom line: Murdoch's self-indulgence (permitted by her editors, to their discredit) impairs what could otherwise have been an engrossing story, namely the complex relationship among George, Tom, Hattie and Rozenov.The greatest shortcoming of this book is its terrible lack of ECONOMY. I have to confess to a morbid fascination with it, even though there is much to detest about Murdoch's style, her content and especially her characters. The only saving grace…
Bernard MalamudBernard Malamud, BookNovels and Stories of the 1940s & 50s
by Malamud, BernardBook - 2014Book, 2014
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Jan 26, 2016
Comment:
In "The Assistant" Malamud conveys the essence of the immigrant experience better than any writer I know. In this case, that of the poor, uneducated eastern European Jew. So, of course this book is about suffering. That is not to say this is a tiresome or unpleasant book to read; quite the contrary. Malamud makes a meal out of suffering but in a way, enables his reader to enjoy the meal. Malamud's character development is superb. He plumbs the depths of inner conflict, passionate desire to do the right thing despite natural tendencies to do wrong ; this he accomplishes every bit as well as Dostoyevsky in "Crime and Punishment". This is also an excellent story, with the outcome always in doubt; Frank's guilty secrets and conflicted personality, Helen's confusion about Frank's true nature, Morris's increasingly desperate business situation, all these combine to form a complex plot. And Malamud brings it all to an abrupt end that is satisfying without answering the question "what next?"
(I have yet to read "The Natural"; did not much like the film and suspect the book was not Malamud's best work; may not get around to reading the book))In "The Assistant" Malamud conveys the essence of the immigrant experience better than any writer I know. In this case, that of the poor, uneducated eastern European Jew. So, of course this book is about suffering. That is not to say this is a…
The Women Who Wrote the WarThe Women Who Wrote the War, Book
by Sorel, Nancy CaldwellBook - 1999Book, 1999
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Jan 22, 2016
Comment:
An exhaustively researched and detailed account of the role played by women war correspondents during WW2. Absorbing and readable throughout, the book highlights not just what those women did but who they were as individuals, how they got there and why they did it.
There are far too many individual stories to mention here but a couple that stood out for me are Pat Lochridge's account of the tide of wounded marines being gathered up and taken to hospital during the assault on Iwo Jima; and the account of the first three women arriving at Buchenwald when it was liberated.
This is a story that needed to be told. Those young women were pioneers in every sense. The world did not change because of their exploits -- inequality between the sexes in the world of work still prevail even to our present day. But they certainly demonstrated how nonsensical and unfair that inequality is and their voices could never be totally ignored again.An exhaustively researched and detailed account of the role played by women war correspondents during WW2. Absorbing and readable throughout, the book highlights not just what those women did but who they were as individuals, how they got there and…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Jan 21, 2016
Comment:
I give this one two stars but only for the quality of the writing which is quiet, understated, eloquent. This is a book about loss. As a lonely foreign student, Subhash is abandoned by the older woman with whom he has established a relationship. Then without realizing it, he is victimized by the selfish actions of his brother who, having married a girl against his parents' wishes, gets himself killed and leaves his young pregnant widow as an outcast in his parents' home. That in turn destroys Subhash's relationship with his parents when he marries his brother's widow to take her away to America. His marriage is doomed from the start and after his wife's abrupt departure, even his relationship with his beloved adopted daughter drifts into nothing. The aging Subhash becomes increasingly lonely, abandoned and directionless.
The book moves slowly, with no discernible object, simply the sad, depressing story of a man who has failed, seemingly through no fault of his own.
Disappointing.I give this one two stars but only for the quality of the writing which is quiet, understated, eloquent. This is a book about loss. As a lonely foreign student, Subhash is abandoned by the older woman with whom he has established a relationship.…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Dec 29, 2015
Comment:
The book is not really classifiable; I've never encountered anything like it before, morphing as it does from poetry to prose to stream-of-consciousness musings, dreamscapes and back. At first glance it appears almost unreadable, reminiscent of James Joyce. But after a few pages one gets the rhythm of it and Smith's use of the voice of the painter Francesco (or rather his/her ghost) observing people as they study his and others' works on display is intriguing. How this connects to the second half of the book remains unclear until much later. She certainly waxes lyrical, even fantastical at times, so this is definitely not a book that will appeal to readers who don't appreciate prose.
My major complaint is Smith's decision to abandon intelligible sentence structure in favor of random mutterings of the teenage protagonist in most of the contemporary portion of the book. While this may serve to place the reader "inside" George's thoughts, it does so at the expense of making it laborious to read. I'm not being stuffy here; there's a reason for grammar and punctuation: It facilitates the clear communication of ideas from writer to reader. Disjointed, random, unstructured comments that are meant to convey character and perhaps "make it real" quickly become tiresome when they cause a reader to lose the thread of the narrative (which is what happened to me unless I slowed down and concentrated on every phrase, as if I were reading a text book). Ironically that never happened in the part of the book set in the renaissance time frame! The contemporary half of the book just never achieves the rhythm and flow of the renaissance portion.
If this book is "about" anything, it's about character development -- i.e. the two main protagonists. For me, that's an admirable objective on the part of the author and I was cheering for Smith to make those two unique characters live and breathe for me. I believe she succeeds to some degree with Francesco but doesn't quite make it with George, despite having invested so much effort in "voicing" her as noted above. Too bad, because I think George had more potential as an interesting and likeable character but somehow, it just doesn't quite come off. Many other readers will probably disagree with me about this.
I've no idea how to place this book on a rating scale but I have to say I find it astonishing how highly rated it tends to have been by other readers. Maybe I just don't "get it" ....The book is not really classifiable; I've never encountered anything like it before, morphing as it does from poetry to prose to stream-of-consciousness musings, dreamscapes and back. At first glance it appears almost unreadable, reminiscent of…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Dec 25, 2015
Comment:
This book is a combination of Mitch Albom's religious musings and a couple of interesting character studies, recounting his encounters with two individuals who clearly made a strong impression on him: the aging Rabbi who led Albom's congregation during his youth; and a black preacher who had previously for many years led a life of crime, addiction and degradation. Albom's high regard and affection for those two admirable individuals shines through, but this book is definitely not Albom's best. It has none of the magic that made "The Five People You Meet in heaven" and "For One More Day" so engaging. He appears to have tried to recapture the love that illuminated "Tuesdays with Morrie" but for me, the religious discussion got in the way.This book is a combination of Mitch Albom's religious musings and a couple of interesting character studies, recounting his encounters with two individuals who clearly made a strong impression on him: the aging Rabbi who led Albom's congregation…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Dec 18, 2015
Comment:
This short novel has a certain ethereal quality, stopping just short of credibility. Shadowy characterization, but the lightweight whodunit plot was able to hold my attention right to the last word. Perhaps likely to appeal more to women than men but I still enjoyed it.This short novel has a certain ethereal quality, stopping just short of credibility. Shadowy characterization, but the lightweight whodunit plot was able to hold my attention right to the last word. Perhaps likely to appeal more to women than men…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Dec 18, 2015
Comment:
One of the best murder mysteries I've ever read. The opening premise of a man suddenly receiving an email from his wife who was murdered eight years ago certainly gets one's attention. That's followed by a plot with more twists than a mountain bike path. It's difficult to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are and almost everyone seems to have secrets that somehow bear on the plot.
An unusual bonus, seldom encountered in books of this kind is that several of the minor characters (the fugitive hiding in the woods, the drug dealer, the lesbian model, the doctor's father-in-law) are well drawn, interesting and really contribute to the story.
Some readers have criticized the plot for being far-fetched. Of course it is! That's what this genre of book is supposed to be -- a piece of fantasy. Yes, there are technology anachronisms; a legitimate quibble but I'm willing to overlook minor issues like that when the entire book is so entertaining.
A well deserved four-and-a-half stars.One of the best murder mysteries I've ever read. The opening premise of a man suddenly receiving an email from his wife who was murdered eight years ago certainly gets one's attention. That's followed by a plot with more twists than a mountain bike…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Dec 12, 2015
Comment:
Straightforward style and linear story-telling that will appeal to many men but probably fewer women. Detective John Corey is a character very much along the lines of those created by David Hosp or John Grisham -- damaged, undisciplined, rambunctious; he's hell-bent on finding whoever killed his two friends and doesn't bother playing by the rules. DeMille has scaled back Corey's "wise-guy" patter that became tiresome in "The Lion", so I'm giving this book an extra half star for that. The rural, seaside Long Island setting provides atmosphere and helps to balance the ugliness of the murders and the unhelpful presence of CIA operatives with their own agenda -- not to mention the menace of virulent pathogens at a secretive research facility. DeMille's notable shortcoming is that his female characters are very attractively presented at the outset but he make little effort to flesh them out as really interesting people as David Hosp does. In this genre, I still like Hosp better.Straightforward style and linear story-telling that will appeal to many men but probably fewer women. Detective John Corey is a character very much along the lines of those created by David Hosp or John Grisham -- damaged, undisciplined,…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Nov 26, 2015
Comment:
A very peculiar book. It almost seems as if Thomas undertook to white two entirely unrelated books and somewhere along the line got the two of them tangled together into one manuscript. Much of it is taken up with several different accounts of the troubled dreams, sexual fantasies and psychosomatic illnesses of a young woman under the treatment of a fictionalized Sigmund Freud. But along the way it morphs into an account of a notorious Nazi-era massacre in Ukraine.
D. M. Thomas is clearly an extremely skilled writer on several levels, combining prose, poetry and psychological story telling. But how many different versions of one person's hallucinations are really necessary, no matter how imaginatively crafted? In the end, I personally find psychoanalysis to be a dreary and tiresome topic for the same reason that I decry so-called "reality" TV.
A book highly praised by many who apparently see merit in it that I just don't perceive.A very peculiar book. It almost seems as if Thomas undertook to white two entirely unrelated books and somewhere along the line got the two of them tangled together into one manuscript. Much of it is taken up with several different accounts of the…
A Good Man Is Hard to FindA Good Man Is Hard to Find, BookAnd Other Stories
by O'Connor, FlanneryBook - 2019Book, 2019
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Nov 16, 2015
Comment:
A common theme of Flannery's stories seems to be victimization in one form or another. Her malefactors are crafty and vicious despite being ignorant, stupid or both, their victims inept, vulnerable or damaged (e.g. a mentally handicapped woman, a girl with a wooden leg, a naïve immigrant etc.) Even when the story includes no malfeasance, the scenario that develops is dreary and rather pointless despite Flannery's injection of wry humor. These people lead failed lives. The mood of the stories brings to mind some of Faulkner's writing (e.g. As I Lay Dying). Her prose is at times quite compelling and memorable but her characters and their actions get in the way of any enjoyment of the book. Too bad.A common theme of Flannery's stories seems to be victimization in one form or another. Her malefactors are crafty and vicious despite being ignorant, stupid or both, their victims inept, vulnerable or damaged (e.g. a mentally handicapped woman, a…
The Beast God Forgot to InventThe Beast God Forgot to Invent, Book
by Harrison, JimBook - 2000Book, 2000
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Nov 13, 2015
Comment:
This book contains three stories and in all three, I found myself trying to figure out just what the stories are all about. They're not classifiable as having to do with war, crime, terrorism, adventure, exploration, romance, philosophy, mysticism, finance, politics, natural history, travel, economics, science ..... or any other recognizable aspect of life, real or imaginary. Eventually, I figured it out, Jim Harrison: It's all about YOU. There's almost no skill, accomplishment or insight at which you don't excel and most of those folks about you would stumble into disaster without you to point out their failings.
We are not amused.This book contains three stories and in all three, I found myself trying to figure out just what the stories are all about. They're not classifiable as having to do with war, crime, terrorism, adventure, exploration, romance, philosophy, mysticism,…
The Last Flight of Poxl WestThe Last Flight of Poxl West, Book
by Torday, DanielBook - 2015Book, 2015
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Nov 13, 2015
Comment:
One issue that lies at the core of this book is that of human frailty, the wrong decisions that we make at times, how those choices affect the arc of our lives, how we come to terms with the mistakes we've made. At one point, Torday writes that when we apologize, we're really asking for a gift: the gift of forgiveness. The question then has to be: Can we bestow that gift upon ourselves? Further, if the one who has been wronged cannot forgive, are we then doomed?
The other issue is: When telling a supposedly true story, how important is it that it all be true? If parts of it were made up, so as to tell a good story that people would like, is the entire thing a fraud? Should we feel cheated upon discovering some falsehoods? Or is the story still valid AS A STORY?
I don't know the answers to any of those questions. I do know that Torday writes very well and that he has succeeded in presenting us with two quite believable characters, Poxl and his surrogate nephew Eli. Despite all of that, I debated giving the book only two or perhaps 2 1/2 stars because in the end I found it disappointing. I guess that's because what it boils down to is that Poxl is himself a failure and not really a likable man; he's not evil or cowardly, just ineffectual.One issue that lies at the core of this book is that of human frailty, the wrong decisions that we make at times, how those choices affect the arc of our lives, how we come to terms with the mistakes we've made. At one point, Torday writes that when…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Oct 01, 2015
Comment:
This was my first introduction to DeMille and I have to say his style is a bit different from most writers of this genre, in that he introduces a fair bit of wise-guy humor, a sort of modern-day film noir voice-over. That takes a bit of the edge off the rest, which is pretty much in the nature of "Die Hard" style over-the-top brutality. I was a bit disappointed that despite including long first-person monologues by the protagonist, John Corey remains a fairly one-dimensional personality. Entertaining, but if you like this kind of material, I think David Hosp does it better.This was my first introduction to DeMille and I have to say his style is a bit different from most writers of this genre, in that he introduces a fair bit of wise-guy humor, a sort of modern-day film noir voice-over. That takes a bit of the edge off…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 24, 2015
Comment:
A disappointment, in several ways:
First, from a literary standpoint, the language is flat, bland, unpolished. In a novel of this genre, that may be tolerable (even Grisham and Forsyth are not masters of prose) but ...
Secondly, much of the story is too far-fetched and the depiction of all the main characters amounts to little more than archetypes -- e.g. the main protagonist Harrison being a former top level security agent who succumbed to drug and alcohol problems and had to leave the service, saw his marriage fall apart ... etc.; the outrageously super-wealthy elite, wallowing in extreme luxury and single-mindedly pursuing even greater wealth with total disregard for the environment, society and the rest of humanity. And so it goes.
Finally, the exploits of the teenage triplets, subduing an armed, trained terrorist with paint guns; clichés such a cliff-hanging rescues, fights reminiscent of "Terminator" movies; enough already!
The central concept of the book had real possibilities; dialing it back (a lot) and investing some effort in character development might have produced a much better result.A disappointment, in several ways:
First, from a literary standpoint, the language is flat, bland, unpolished. In a novel of this genre, that may be tolerable (even Grisham and Forsyth are not masters of prose) but ...
Secondly, much of the story…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 12, 2015
Comment:
This is surely the most intensely moving volume of poetry I've ever encountered. Of the several translations of these poems that I've read, this one is by far the best; regrettably, while I was able to obtain a copy from our library, the book is no longer in print and may not be available anywhere. Revered in Russia nowadays as one of their greatest poets of the modern day, Akhmatova was nevertheless persecuted ruthlessly by the Stalin regime; those harrowing experiences not only permeate her later work, they raise it beyond art to the level of a primeval cry for justice, mercy, humanity. Her earlier poems are mostly lyrical, their beauty of thought and expression shining through despite the challenge of translation; but beginning with the events of 1913 and the start of the revolution, her focus already begins to change, pervaded by the suffering of the Russian people, first at the hands of the Tsars and later under successive Bolshevik regimes that followed -- then made immeasurably worse during WWII, when Akhmatova experienced first hand the two and a half year siege of Leningrad.
Even in the fragments of prose included here, Akhmatova grabs you by the heart. An example is her account of meeting a woman while queuing up during the late 1930s during one of the successive waves of repression by the secret police. At the time, Akhmatova's poetry was banned from publication but someone in the crowd "recognized" Akhmatova as a prominent poet:
"A woman standing behind me whose lips were blue with cold, and who, naturally enough, had never even heard of my name, emerged from that state of torpor common to us all, putting her lips close to my ear (there, everyone spoke in whispers) asked me:
- And could you describe this?
And I answered her: I can.
Then something vaguely like a smile flashed across what once had been her face."
In their determination to silence, isolate and discredit Akhmatova, the regime questioned and arrested her friends, imprisoned her husband and her only son, burned every copy of her books they could find, threw her out of the writers' union, thereby depriving her of the ability to earn a living. But they never broke her. Indeed, their abuse became fuel for her art and her condemnation of the behavior of Stalin and his apparatchiks remains more powerful than all the lies they could ever dream up.
A triumph of art!This is surely the most intensely moving volume of poetry I've ever encountered. Of the several translations of these poems that I've read, this one is by far the best; regrettably, while I was able to obtain a copy from our library, the book is no…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 11, 2015
Comment:
A better than average crime thriller. Rankin could be thought of as a British equivalent of David Hosp. That is, his protagonist (in this case a police detective) is not an arms-length professional sleuth but is directly and very personally involved with the crime situation. And like Hosp, Rankin's characters are damaged, conflicted individuals, muddling along rather than the sort of clever, crafty, ingenious operatives created by such writers as Christie or Doyle. As such, Rankin's Inspector Rebus is quite a believable fellow and the series of crimes he is facing here are likewise realistic.
Despite all that, for me the book failed to build up to the level of emotional involvement that the situation ought to have reached in the later chapters, partly because Rankin didn't take the trouble to develop the character of his daughter Sammy or Rebus' relationship with her and partly due to Rankin's low-key style. All of which places it in the ranks of fairly routine 3-star crime novels; diversionary reading but ultimately pretty light fare.A better than average crime thriller. Rankin could be thought of as a British equivalent of David Hosp. That is, his protagonist (in this case a police detective) is not an arms-length professional sleuth but is directly and very personally involved…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 04, 2015
Comment:
As a novel, this is a dystopian but probably realistic take on our penal system and what it does to the people who operate within it. The protagonist, Tony Breau describes it as a life sentence; as a case worker, guard, supervisor, whatever, your sentence continues until you burn out, turn off, retire (voluntarily or otherwise) or meet a violent death. It's all part of the "system" with its own inviolable rules, some of them unwritten; violate them at your peril -- particularly the rule of solidarity and silence. I was struck by the similarity between the code of silence prevailing among justice system workers and that of the Mafia "Omerta!" And yet, the story is rife with betrayals of every kind. Indeed, it's the betrayals that drive this story along.
The book would be a good candidate as the basis for a 21st century Film Noir movie, both on account of its dark mood and its scarceness of truth. Everyone in the story is hiding some aspect of their background, their personality, their actions: the ex-con Strickland, the right-wing former US cop MacDonald, even Tony's former sweetheart Caddy. None of the confrontations are straightforward and alliances are shifting, false or unwelcome. Doing the right thing almost always seems to be the worst possible choice.
MacIntyre's flat, understated style adds to the gray aura of the book. All is presented in muted tones, somewhat like its maritime setting, where the horizon between sea and sky is hard to discern and often blurred further by foul weather. Relationships among the characters are similarly blurred; even Tony's relationship with his borrowed dog seems uncertain.As a novel, this is a dystopian but probably realistic take on our penal system and what it does to the people who operate within it. The protagonist, Tony Breau describes it as a life sentence; as a case worker, guard, supervisor, whatever, your…
The Oldest Living Things in the WorldThe Oldest Living Things in the World, Book
by Sussman, RachelBook - 2014Book, 2014
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 01, 2015
Comment:
A magnificent book, combining aspects of travel, exploration, natural history and the celebration of life on this fantastic planet that we've just begun to understand. One of the themes that leapt out at me was how often those life forms that have survived the longest do so in some of the most hostile and unforgiving locales -- total deserts, arctic permafrost, ocean depths. Almost every page of the book reveals new insights, surprising vistas, impressive life strategies and adaptations that have enabled creatures to thrive over thousands of years while seemingly more sophisticated animals and plants died and were replaced by offspring or disappeared altogether. Sussman's patter about her personal adventures are a bit trivial (one can skip over most of it without missing much) but her survey of geologic time and taxonomy of life on Earth are very well done. And the photographs are stunning!A magnificent book, combining aspects of travel, exploration, natural history and the celebration of life on this fantastic planet that we've just begun to understand. One of the themes that leapt out at me was how often those life forms that have…
The Zhivago AffairThe Zhivago Affair, BookThe Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over A Forbidden Book
by Finn, PeterBook - 2014Book, 2014
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Sep 01, 2015
Comment:
The title may be a bit misleading: Cold War clashes between the Kremlin and the CIA form a very small part of this book. In reality, it's a biography of Boris Pasternak and a journalistic account of the artistic repression imposed by the Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet regimes in the 1950s and that continued through the 1970s. While the vehemence with which the regime persecuted Pasternak for what they perceived as an anti-Soviet novel clearly revealed to the western world the state of fear that drove the Kremlin to act as it did, and though they were never really successful in suppressing the work, none of that relieved Pasternak and his family and small circle of closest friends from the effects of the Kremlin's vicious, unrelenting attacks. Perhaps the most outrageous of all was the dreadful punishment that continued to be visited upon Pasternak's lover Olga Ivinskaya and her young daughter Irina after Pasternak's death, ostensibly for illegal currency trading (i.e. having helped Pasternak to smuggle in some money from abroad to support his family while he was prevented from earning a living) but really out of spite and in an attempt to further discredit anyone who had supported Pasternak in any way.
The final irony is surely that Khruschchev, having read "Doctor Zhivago" after his ouster a few years later concluded that "We shouldn't have banned it. There's nothing anti-Soviet in it."The title may be a bit misleading: Cold War clashes between the Kremlin and the CIA form a very small part of this book. In reality, it's a biography of Boris Pasternak and a journalistic account of the artistic repression imposed by the Stalinist…
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Aug 28, 2015
Comment:
One of Shute's very best stories, covering a vast time span, beginning in Southeast Asia during WW2 and re-uniting some of the characters many years later in Australia.
wyenotgo's rating:
Added Aug 28, 2015
Comment:
A typical Shute story in many ways, including a sudden time-shift into a different world, a device that Shute frequently used.
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