Post by jinky on Jun 22, 2007 9:14:05 GMT 10
admin said:
Read both these books recently after being recommended to me well 'The Kitchen Boy' was anyway but couldn't remember the title so got both the authors books from the library, I did prefer the recommended one, but 'Rasputin's Daughter' was interesting too.n the last dozen years or so, one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century was finally uncovered and resolved. In 1991 the graves of the last Tsar of Russia and his family and servants were found in a remote Siberian forest. Using DNA testing, the remains were scrutinized and finally identified and given a final burial in St. Petersburg, Russia. With the testing, the final identification of Anna Anderson as not being a relative of Nicholas II was discovered.
But with that discovery, came another mystery. Two of the children's bodies were not found, one of the daughters and that of the Tsarevich, Alexei. Author Robert Alexander gives a tantilizing hint of just what might have happened on a hot July night in a Russia ripped apart by revolution.
Told as a set of taped memoirs, an old man in Chicago finally speaks the truth about his past. Misha's seen almost a century, and now that his wife has died, feels that he can reveal at last who he just might be. Slowly, we get to see a family imprisoned in cramped conditions, trying to maintain dignity and their faith under the control of a pack of sadistic guards.
Rumors fly about that there is an army of White Russian troops coming, and the Tsar's family prays daily for a miracle to happen and rescue them. Told through the eyes of a boy, the fourteen year old, Leonka, we get to see days passing by with tedium and near madness. The guards taunt, pilfer and scrawl obscenities on the bathroom wall.
And it is Leonka who finds a hidden message and is drawn into a conspiracy that will lead up to the night of the 16th of July, when at last, a family's imprisonment ends, and a mystery begins.
But as details are shown, conversations heard, the reader begins to wonder, is Leonka who he says he is?
The author shows the family with all of their weaknesses and strengths. The research is extensive and digs into some of the more obscure aspects of the family, such as a jewel diary that Nicholas II kept, the family's pets, diaries and letters that were smuggled and kept.
But interestingly enough, Alexander keeps it all to a minimalist elegance that doesn't go too far into the realm of fantasy. Taking a snippet from here and there, we get plenty of twists, introspection and a tight narrative that is packed into less than 225 pages, a feat in this day and age of near thousand page bestsellers.
A final twist will floor you, and make you wonder, and possibly encourage you to do your own digging into history.
In an endeavor similar to his debut novel, The Kitchen Boy, Alexander couples extensive research and poetic license, this time turning his enthusiasm toward perhaps the most intriguing player in the collapse of the Russian dynasty: Rasputin. This eyebrow-raising account of the final week of the notorious mystic's life is set in Petrograd in December 1916 and narrated by Rasputin's fiery teenage daughter, Maria. The air in the newly renamed capital is thick with dangerous rumors, many concerning Maria's father, whose close relationship with the monarchy—he alone can stop the bleeding of the hemophiliac heir to the throne—invokes murderous rage among members of the royal family. Maria is determined to protect her father's life, but the further she delves into his affairs, the more she wonders: who, exactly, is Rasputin? Is he the holy man whose genuine ability to heal inspires a cult of awed penitents, or the libidinous drunkard who consumes 12 bottles of Madeira in a single night, the unrestrained animal she spies "[eagerly] holding [the] housekeeper by her soft parts"? Does this unruly behavior link him to an outlawed sect that believes sin overcomes sin? The combination of Alexander's research and his rich characterizations produces an engaging historical fiction that offers a Rasputin who is neither beast nor saint, but merely, compellingly human.
the answer to this thread has to be i am reading this thread right now like it says.what are you reading right now.nort what book are you reading when you are not online.
i am so going to get a rolling pin for this ;D