Kay's Bookshelf

Genre: Classic :) Main characters: Atticus Finch, Jeremy “Jem” Finch, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch Time and place: around 1935, the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama First sentence: “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” Summary: At nineteen, Mayella Ewell had a very hard life, surrounded by people who only expected her to work for their welfare. The only friendly face in the neighborhood was Tom, a black guy who used to pass by the house on his way home, and sometimes stopped to give Mayella a hand with her chores. This Tom was young too, and so it was only a matter of time until Mayella started to get interested in him more than she should have. Well, suffice it to say that it all ends with a trial, where Tom is judged for beating and raping young Mayella. It is thus that the paths of Tom and Atticus Finch meet, for an experience that neither Atticus nor his family will soon forget.

General impression
There is a bit of a contradiction here: I liked this book a lot, and yet when I put it down I couldn’t help being disappointed. Everything is in the right place, and yet … I expected it to be a lot more intense. I couldn’t get drawn in, and I felt like I was watching Maycomb and its characters through a window, instead of feeling in their midst. I have no idea how that happened, except perhaps my expectations were way too high: having heard so many good things about it throughout the years, I was expecting something deep, profound, Earth-shattering, and I only got a few events’ worth of story instead.

It is of course obvious that I haven’t tapped in all its hidden wealth of themes and symbolism (themes such as that of hidden talents, such as Calpurnia’s knowing how to read, or Atticus being such a great shot; symbols as Atticus’ shooting the rabid dog, having only one shot to rescue his neighbors, while being blinded by the lack of glasses being a foreshadowing of his one shot at saving Tom, through the legal system who is said to be also blind — although we know it’s not, as their decision is not taken on objective reasons); but still I feel I would have liked something more intense to go by (I think that this is an effect of the age we live in, of the contemporary books and movies that we’re currently exposed to perpetually trying to shock out hearts out, so much so that we have grown jaded, and as such is rather hard for some of us, some of the younger generations at least, not to feel like there’s something missing in a nice & tame old-fashioned novel like TKAM is) (although, in my defense, I don’t remember feeling this kind of disappointment when reading Jane Austen, whom I love, or Jane Eyre for example, so my theory is definitely not set in stone — yet I am sure I would have loved this book a lot more had I read it say twenty years ago).

Characters
I loved the characters, how could I not. While there are some who call all of them stereotypical (Atticus = the white guy who could do no wrong; Calpurnia = the black maid who knows her place and takes care of the children; Scout = the precocious tomboy; Boo = the town eccentric; Bob Ewell = the illiterate redneck; and so on), I will also say that I enjoyed meeting most of them.

My favorite character was (oh how predictable) Atticus Finch, for all his maturity, his principles, the way he struggled to be a role model for his children, no matter how hard it was, or whether the battle he embarked upon had an already decided outcome or not (remember what he told his children on the night Mrs. Dubose died? “Courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what“). However, most of all I liked him for the fact that he literally could do no wrong (or at least he does not do it within the pages of the book). Sure, that might sound boring and one dimensional, but to me it was a welcome break from the quotidian :)

The most complex character of them all I thought was Mayella, so she’s almost a second favorite of mine, because of the sorry life she was condemned to. Illiterate and lonely, at the hands of a violent father — I don’t think life could get much worse. Not to mention that the poor thing is not very bright, so the chances that one day she’ll be able to build a better existence for herself are virtually nil. This is why, although she is closer to being a negative character rather than a positive, I couldn’t help caring for her, rather than the opposite.

Other than that, the rest of the cast are also likable (of course, almost everybody in this book is), but nothing out of the ordinary. I liked the way Scout was shaping up her vision of the world, following her father’s example; the way Jem kept caring for his little sister; the manners Calpurnia taught; the fact that Atticus’ brother, Jack, had life principles very similar to Atticus’ own; Miss Maudie and her azaleas; and so on. All sorts of little warm and fuzzy moments, I like to call them :)

Plot
There is not much of a plot to speak of (and I imagine that some of my disappointment with the book stems from here), as everything revolves around Tom’s trial and its effects on the life of the small town where Tom and the rest lived.

Setting
This is where the genius of Ms. Lee shines through: when it comes to the setting. The author has been influenced heavily by her own childhood, spent in a small Southern town, when she created Maycomb, and it shows. You can feel the said setting living and breathing, and the interactions between people are very believable (even for someone such as myself, who’s never seen a small American town in her life). In a way, Maycomb is a character just like Atticus is, among other things because of the collective prejudice towards black people that almost everybody shared.

Maycomb is also shown to be a paradise for children, such as Scout and Jem, a place to spend the days in childish adventures of one sort or another — it even has its very own boogeyman, aptly nicknamed Boo, a source of wonder and fear for our small heros to fight and eventually overcome.

Thoughts on the title
The title represents the most obvious symbol/theme of the book (one that even I have managed to discern, ha!): the death of innocence. The wording is taken from something that Calpurnia once said, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.“. There are two such “mockingbirds” in the novel, Tom Robinson and Arthur Radley. Unfortunately one of them ends up being killed, and only a handful of characters realize how much of a sin that was — at least the other’s fate is set in fairer hands, and he is free to go.

Thoughts on the ending
Predictable.
show spoiler

What I liked most
Although Atticus discouraged them, I was enchanted by the children’s attempts to get Boo Radley to join them for an ice cream. To me it was the perfect manifestation of their innocence and kindness, the way they saw a lonely person (which they imagined to be miserable because of that) and tried their best to “cure” his loneliness the best way they knew how.

What I liked least
There’s nothing that I have actually disliked. It was a nice book overall :)

Recommend it to?
Everyone, since it’s one of the classics :)

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Genre: Juvenile Fiction Main characters: Meggy Swann Time and place: 1573, London First sentence: “‘Ye toads and vipers,’ the girl said, as her granny often had, ‘ye toads and vipers,’ and she snuffled a great snuffle that echoed in the empty room.” Summary: Meggy’s father, a dedicated alchemist, one day figured that he shouldn’t pay an assistant since he has a son of his own, of about the right age. He sent the child’s mother a letter, summoning him to London, and then waited. To his surprise, the son turned out to be a girl instead of a boy, and one with cripple legs to boot. Thus Meggy Swann (’cause she is the son-turned-daughter) suddenly finds herself in a strange and frightening city, with a father that could not care less about her, and separated from her only friend, a goose named Louise. Her simple life is shaken one day by her overhearing her father plotting to kill a certain baron — she felt she should intervene, but how, since she is just a poor girl with crooked legs?

First of all, here’s what the author has to say about the way the book was born (from the book’s Amazon page):

“Alchemy and Meggy Swann started, as all my books do, with a “what if?” What if there was a man who was a poisoner in Queen Elizabeth’s court? Why did he do it? How did he feel about what he did? The idea of making the man an alchemist came later. What great cover, I thought, for a poisoner. So I immersed myself in the arcana of alchemy and the alchemist’s search for transformation.

And then, as in all my books, the focus changed to a girl–his daughter–how she felt and what she did. Transformation? Did Meggy seek to be transformed? How and why, I wondered. And so her wabbling was born.”

A wonderful idea, but unfortunately I wasn’t particularly fond of the execution. Sure, the book starts out great, and Meggy is an interesting and colorful character, but the good things kinda stop here. Imagine that Meggy spends the best part of the first 100 pages simply walking around London, going from place to place. This made the pacing feel quite slow, and I was a bit sad about it, since it all started out rather promising, becoming almost a chore later on.

Since a lot of space it taken by Meggy’s travels, there are fewer pages left for characterisation than I would have liked. Meggy’s father for example is quite one-sided, he only cares about his experiments and would do anything to continue them, and that’s about it. Sure, he does show a bit of consideration for Meggy now and then, but his efforts are too tiny to be actually worth considering and/or making the reader feel the guy actually had feelings. Roger, on the other hand, is a nice enough guy, but his friendship with Meggy felt a bit out of the blue to me, and only there for the plot’s sake as at first there was nothing those two had in common (plus Meggy had quite a temper, not exactly the kind that encourages people to get close).

Alas, at least Meggy’s character is the most fleshed of them all. At thirteen, she’s had quite a rough life, in a time when most people believed that physical deformities are the ways the devil marks his own people, and with practically no parents to speak of (she hadn’t even known she had a father until very recently). Somewhat aggressive on the outside, she has her heart in the right place and she’s particularly good with children. A bit of a poet and not afraid to work hard, she never lets herself be discouraged by the difficulties surrounding her, and I admired her for that. Interestingly enough, her best friend, the goose, is very similar to her, as they share both the physical problems (there is something wrong with Louise’s wings), and the façade they offer to the outside world (a mighty temper).

A thing that the author does very well is bringing that time and place to life. One can almost smell the smells and see the sights that London presents to her unwary visitor. Also, I have found quite interesting the fact that Ms. Cushman has tried to preserve the language of those times, giving the book a special flavor. I liked that quite a bit. I also doubt it’s that good an idea since this is supposedly a book for grades 5-8, and the younger children may be put off by the sheer amount of unknown words, but overall I still liked the idea nevertheless :)

Thoughts on the title: A bit confusing, since I didn’t find that alchemy and Meggy Swann had that much in common. Basically, Meggy finds out what alchemy is, that’s most of their connection. Would have preferred a title that represented the book a wee bit better.
(There was a hint somewhere that the alchemy in the title was not to be taken literally, since it refers to the way Meggy’s relationship with her father transformed throughout the book, but all I can say to this is “Really??”, that’s how far-fetched it seems to me.)

Thoughts on the ending: Quite predictable and also somewhat disappointing, because for me it seemed that all the plot threads came together too easy, skirting plausibility for the sake of everyone ending up happy. show spoiler

What I liked most: Hats off to the author and her research. I have really enjoyed reading about what alchemy is and what alchemists of the time thought (especially as the idea is explained a bit more in depth in the after-word).

In the alchemist’s own words, here’s what he was trying to discover:

“[...] I seek to break apart by art things combined by nature, to transform and purify them until I have a substance so pure, it can purify other matter. This substance [...] when cast upon the imperfect will perfect it. [...] Making gold is but a step in the process of transformation [...]. Base metal is an imperfect or diseased state of gold, the perfect metal. When I discover the means of transforming base metal into gold, I can apply that method to other substances, even living things, and perfect them in their nature.”

And more:

“All substances are composed of the same matter. [...] Their differences are due to the presence of different qualities imposed upon them, such as redness or hardness or coldness. By taking away those qualities, I hope to isolate the prime material of a substance, and then, by adding other qualities, to transform its very essence.”

I find this fascinating, as I have never thought about things that way :)

What I liked least: show spoiler

Recommend it to? Fans of Karen Cushman or of 16th century London.

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Genre: Historical Fiction Main characters: Moses Froben, Amalia Duft Time and place: 18th century; St. Gall, Switzerland and Vienna, Austria First sentence: “I grew up as the son of a man who could not possibly have been my father.” Summary: The son of a deaf woman, Moses was born in a belfry, near bells. Not only his tiny hearing was not affected by them (his ears were formed around their sounds, it’s his explanation), it was also enhanced. He could hear sounds that most people couldn’t, and he delighted in them, storing them in his memory for later on, taking particular joy in the ringing of the great bells. “For every sound ever made was trapped in the metal of those bells, and the instant my mother struck them, she released their beauty to the world.”

The story begins in a small Swiss village, where the people wanted to build bells for the glory of God. Unfortunately they could find no experienced bell-maker, so they cast them themselves. In their enthusiasm, the three resulting bells were so big that they actually deafened people who happened to be nearby when they rung. And so it is that the bells would not have been rung ever again after the first try, if it wasn’t for a “dumb idiot girl” who, feeling the vibrations, thought them so wonderful she wanted to experience them again and again. She got up into the belfry and, using the mallets the villagers had created for that purpose, she struck the bells again, and again, in order to enjoy the way they made her feel.

Years later, the girl, now a woman and still ringing the bells every day, gave birth to a baby boy. A boy whom she cared for as well as she could, and who was thought by the villagers to be deaf and dumb too. He was perfectly fine though, and, when his secret was discovered, his own father threw him into the river to get rid of him, afraid the boy will reveal the identity of the father and shame him. Luckily for the boy, he was fished out by a monk called Nicolai, who named him Moses (after the baby boy who was once born by the river to the pharaoh’s palace) and vowed to take care of him as best he could.

Thus little Moses was taken to the St. Gall Abbey, where a new cathedral was just being built. It is there where he discovered the joy of music, and where others discovered his beautiful voice. It is also the place where his body will be changed forever, and his heart too, as he will fall in love.

The book is promoted as being like Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, only with sounds. Well, I loved Perfume just as much as the next one, but I think the comparison does not make justice to the book. There is indeed a similarity, that where Perfume takes place in a world comprised almost entirely of smells, Moses’s world comprises almost entirely of sounds. Only, Perfume is nothing more than a quest of a madman to find the perfect smell — and I found this book so much more than that. Moses’ life is not an easy one, but riddled with challenges, taking the reader on a ride in his quest to find his one and only perfect love.

Speaking of perfect love, I liked the fact that Amalia, Moses’ love interest, has a pronounced limp (due to an accident in her childhood), because it separated her from the cliche beautiful-rich-girl type, and it also allowed her to show character (as she never let her deformity be in the way of the things she wanted to do). Speaking of which, no one in the book is actually flawless: Nicolai has a great heart, and he “never lost sight of the beauty of the world, no matter how obscured was God’s great puzzle.“, but he was also consumed by the pleasures of the flesh (a thing that will lead him to his death later on); Remus also has a good heart, and he is very learned, but he is “wolfish”, very aloof, bordering on aggressive to those who do not keep their distance; even Guadagni has his heart in the right place, only he lets his fierce pride blind him now and then.

A quote I liked:

“I’ve got a lot to lose. I love so many things. Too many, the abbot would say. Too much. Shed a little love, he’d suggest. Cure yourself of that sin. But that’s exactly what I’m afraid of, don’t you see? That’s exactly my biggest fear, what keeps me awake every night. What I fear is this: I’ll wake up the next morning and everything is just the same, the world is the world, but all the love I feel for it has vanished, and I realize that all along my love was only a disease — like small pox of the soul.”

Thoughts on the title: Perfect. Because all the important moments of Moses’ life have been marked by the sounds of bells: his mother’s bells, even before he was born; the bells of the abbey, saving him from self-harm; the huge bell of Stephansdom twice, once showing him the way, once being an ally to his plans. Not to mention that to Moses everyone is a bell, ringing with the sounds around him/her.

Thoughts on the ending: Also close to perfect. Believable, which is what matters most.

What I liked most: The writing, the writing, and the writing one more time. The writing was beautiful (despite the author’s tendency to compare things to bells hung up from the sky a bit too often; not that I didn’t love this metaphor, on the contrary, the first time I saw it — when Moses, hitting the high notes, felt like he was lifted off the ground, his whole being vibrating like a bell hanging from the sky — I was charmed.)

What I liked least: Not a fault of the book’s (which is close to faultless in my eyes), but I would have wanted to find out a bit more about the relationship between Remus and Nicolai.

Recommend it to? Everyone who likes intense love stories, historical fiction, and/or beautiful writing :)

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Well, I am not certain what expectations I had prior to opening this book (especially given the fact that I had heard of Mr. Barker only vaguely before, plus my copy of the book had a very uninteresting cover), but I was very pleasantly surprised.

The Book of Blood

The house at 65, Tollington Place has the bad luck to be situated in the same place as a highway of the dead. A thing that, naturally enough, makes it haunted. Doctor Mary Florescu has seen her chance to prove, once and for all, that the supernatural exists, so she moved to the house, together with her assistant and a medium. This latter, Simon, was actually a fraud, taking pride in the way he managed to fool everybody. Not knowing that, in the process, he has angered the dead. The dead that, one day, did came and did leave tangible traces: their stories, written all over Simon’s body. This is how The Book of Blood came into existence — written in blood, on human skin — and some of the stories in it are those that follow.

I don’t know how to feel about this. Sure, I love the idea behind it. The imagery is interesting too. However, I did not particularly like the characters — Simon wasn’t actually supposed to be likable, which is ok, but Mary… I am left with a question mark regarding the way I should relate to her. One of the disadvantages of short stories I guess, they have too little space to determinedly define their characters.

I wonder why the doctor had a Romanian name :)

The Midnight Meat Train

Leon Kaufman is an ordinary guy, living in New York, intrigued, like the rest of the people in the city, by the latest mysterious murders discovered. People have been stripped, cut, and bled to death in subway wagons, by an unknown guy dubbed the Subway Butcher. Theories abound, and everyone has an opinion, but the unfortunate Kaufman is the only one to find out the truth, one evening when he stayed up too late at work.

I cannot add the whole quote, because it’s about one page long, but I really liked the way this story has begun: with Leon examining his feelings towards New York: it used to be his promised land, and he had been in love with it from afar for about twenty years. When his dream of coming to live here had come true, Leon was delighted, openly declaring his feelings to the world. And yet, less than four months later, he is thoroughly disillusioned:

“New York was just a city.
He had seen her wake in the morning like a slut, and pick murdered men from between her teeth, and suicides from the tangles of her hair. He had seen her late at night, her dirty back streets shamelessly courting depravity. He had watched her in the hot afternoon, sluggish and ugly, indifferent to the atrocities that were being committed every hour in her throttled passages.
It was no Palace of Delights.
It bred death, not pleasure.
Everyone he met had brushed with violence; it was a fact of life. It was almost chic to have known someone who had died a violent death. It was proof of living in that city.”

It was a story rather filled with gore — blood, blood, and more blood — and some curious creatures too. Did I like it? Not necessarily. I did read it breathlessly though, because I was quite eager to find out how it ended (and also, to find out who died, because I figured that someone must die in order for this story to end up written on Simon’s skin). Did I enjoy the ending? I have no idea. I figure it’s a good one though. show spoiler

The Yattering and Jack

The Yattering has a mission: to get the soul of Jack J. Polo for his master, Beelzebub. Unfortunately for him, there are a lot of limitations to what a fury can do to his assigned person, such as never leaving his house, or never touching him, and, although the Yattering is doing everything in its power, Jack remained completely oblivious to its manoeuvres. Stuck in the same house for months, with no company most of the time, the poor Yattering is nearing its breaking point. At least, it consoles itself, Christmas will soon be there and Jack’s daughters will come visit, giving the harpy the leverage it needs to fulfill its mission.

This story was, to me, more amusing than horror (which is why I have rather liked it, hehe). The frustration of the poor fury, plus the extreme obliviousness of Jack to all its efforts, were enough to put a smile on my face. An example of the way Jack treated life:

“Events seemed to make no dent in his perfect indifference. His life’s disasters seemed not to scar his mind at all. When, eventually, he was confronted with the truth about his wife’s infidelity (he found them screwing in the bath) he couldn’t bring himself to be hurt or humiliated. ‘These things happen,’ he said to himself, backing out of the bathroom to let them finish what they’d started.”

Definitely one of my favorites so far :)
show spoiler

Pig Blood Blues

The story takes place in a youth correctional facility, where a former policeman, Neil Redman, has just started working. Filled with good intentions, he stumbles straight into the heart of a mystery involving a pig, a current inmate, and a former one, who still roams the facilities as a ghost, or perhaps something else.

As every other story so far, this one was captivating: once I begun it I couldn’t put it down — Mr. Barker really has a talent when it comes to creating stories like that. However, this is the first story when I didn’t quite “get” what happened after a certain point, and so my enjoyment of it was a bit less than the rest.

Hats off to the title, which I have found quite inspired. This is a story having to do with pigs (one in particular), but it is also an allusion to the fact that Redman was called a pig too, due to his past in the police force. Only one of these two “pigs” will have its blood shed in the story though, so it is that one the title points out to — but still, I liked the ambiguity of it all.

show spoiler

Sex, Death, and Starshine

Terry Galloway is the new director of the Elysium theatre, and his mission is to stage a production of The Twelfth night, starring a famous actress of the moment, Diane Duvall, as Viola. Only the famous actress cannot act to save her life, so the play is in shambles, two days before opening. The salvation comes in the shape of a former devotee of the theatre, a certain Mr. Lichfield, who, knowing that this is the last performance the Elysium is ever going to see, has kindly persuaded his wife Constantia to play Viola instead of Diane.

By now the “starshine” part of the title should be obvious, the “sex” should be covered by saying that the relationship between Galloway and Diane wasn’t exactly platonic, but where does “death” come into it? Very simple: some of the characters are already dead when the story opens, some of the characters will be so by the time the curtains fall. Sort of creepy, but also sort of fascinating, I would say.

The idea at the end, about art imitating life was quite interestingly put. show spoiler

Also, there is a minor character somewhere in there called Wellbeloved, how cool is that :)

In the Hills, the Cities

Mick and Judd are in their honeymoon, touring Europe. While in Yugoslavia they get lost and reach two cities who have a very strange tradition: each ten years all the inhabitants of each city harness themselves to one another and build a giant out of their bodies, and the two giants fight each other to see which is better. This year however something goes terribly wrong, as one of the giants falls down and dies, while the other goes out of its mind and run for the hills.

This was by far the most shocking story of all. The imagery it conjures, the sheer number of human lives lost is… I don’t have a word for it. A horror story if there ever was one. I am terribly impressed both by the imagination of the author, to think up something like that, and at the way he chose to envision the two “flesh-knitted giants“: scary, disturbing, frightening, and also a sight that might be interesting to see.

A quote is most definitely requested at this point (although, not being complete, it definitely does not do justice to the concept):

It was a masterpiece of human engineering: a man made entirely of men. Or rather, a sexless giant, made of men and women and children. All the citizens of Popolac writhed and strained [...], their muscles stretched to breaking point, their bones close to snapping.
They could see how the architects of Popolac had subtly altered the proportions of the human body; how the thing had been made squatter to lower its centre of gravity; how its legs had been made elephantine to bear the weight of the torso; how the head was sunk low on to the wide shoulders, so that the problems of a weak neck had been minimized.
Despite these malformations, it was horribly life-like. The bodies that were bound together to make its surface were naked but for their harnesses, so that its surface glistened in the starlight, like one vast human torso. Even the muscles were well copied, though simplified. They could see the way the roped bodies pushed and pulled against each other in solid cords of flesh and bone. They could see the intertwined people that made up the body: the backs like turtles packed together to offer the sweep of the pectorals; the lashed and knotted acrobats at the joints of the arms and the legs alike, rolling and unwinding to articulate the city.

And I just have to mention how great I think the title is, how much I like the way the imagery those few words evoke before reading the story contrasts the one in the reader’s mind right after finishing it :)

show spoiler

Thoughts on the title: Well, there is a full story describing the idea behind the title, and I have to say I am quite a bit impressed by that :)

What I liked most: “The Yattering and Jack” was my favorite story, because it was the lightest of them all. At the opposite end of the spectrum was “In the Hills, the Cities”, also a favorite, because of the way its strangeness affected me.

Were I to choose a certain element to like then I would say the writing, a thousand times over. Not only the pace is always alert, making the reader want to discover what happens next, then next, then next, but also some sentences are very beautifully phrased (unfortunately I didn’t take notes so I cannot give an example, but this is the feeling I got while reading).

What I liked least: Not that important but I’m a bit sad that I didn’t get the ending of the sow story. Or perhaps sad isn’t the word, curious is. I wonder what detail did I miss.

Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys light horror stories. Expect some gore, of course, but there’s nothing in this book to give you nightmares (or so I think, wait ’til I fall asleep tonight).

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It was with surprise that I discovered, upon looking at other people’s reviews after I finished reading, that the book is generally not that appreciated (some of my friends rating it two stars, or even one star on goodreads). My opinion of it was quite the opposite, namely I was emotionally invested in the characters and so I was curious about what happens to them throughout. Sure, the book is not an absolute masterpiece on its way to becoming a classic, but I most definitely liked it and would rate it more than two stars. I guess it just goes to show that tastes actually do differ :)

Fiammetta (whose name means “little flame” in Italian) could be seen as a cliche, as the “prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold” stereotype. And yet, I saw her as somewhat more than that. Her mother, also a prostitute, has readied her for this particular trade ever since she was a small child, so this is the only way of living Fiammetta knows. Her physical charms mean everything to her (as without them she would starve), and she is also an accomplished entertainer (almost like an Italian Geisha :) ). She is strong, capable, and courageous, but there also a fragile side to her — the side she only shows to a handful of people (such as her one female friend and confidante, La Draga). I couldn’t help, while reading, wondering what may the future hold for her, when her looks will fade and the men around her will no longer be interested in what she had to offer. I think it’s all so very sad, the way she cannot give her heart to anyone, while she has to peddle her body to almost everyone, her loneliness, and her uncertain future.

At first I didn’t much like Bucino, Fiammetta’s dwarf and our narrator. Short and ugly, he’s been acquired by her in order to bring her loveliness out into relief, by contrast. As the pages flew by, I have discovered him to be capable and very intelligent, both owing to his (sometimes revolutionary) ideas, but also because of the way he almost single-handedly took care of his mistress’ household. Like Fiammetta, he leads a rather lonely life, letting no one get close to him. He does have relationships with women, of course, but nothing meaningful, because his duty to Fiammetta comes first and foremost. I wondered about him too, has he ever known love? Will he ever find someone to care for him? I certainly hope he will, as I have grown fond with him while reading.

The strongest point of the book I would say consists of the dynamics of the relationship between Fiammetta and Bucino. They rely on each other, and trust each other fully. They have never been physically involved with one another, and yet nothing can come between them. Sure, it can be argued that Bucino’s very living depends on Fiammetta, but no, what they have is a lot deeper than that (Bucino even refuses a very tempting offer in order to remain on Fiammetta’s side). I very much enjoyed reading about their feelings towards one another, and was happy to see that the author has not fallen into the trap of writing about yet another beauty-and-the-beast type story.

A few words on the writing style: I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Ms Dunant has a way with words, depicting images that come to life under the reader’s eyes. Venice, with its people, its smells, its sounds and sights, almost becomes a character on its own under the keen eye of Bucino and the capable pen of the author. I loved that, of course. Here is a short quote I liked (not Venice-related actually):

“I listen to people talking sometimes, that great river that is language, with all its undercurrents of grammar and nuance, and I wonder how we all learn so quickly to speak it, given that we begin when we are barely old enough to stand upright.”

(I very much like the idea of language as a river with its grammar as undercurrents :) ).

Thoughts on the title: Self explanatory. Bucino, the narrator, tells us about his time spent in the company of a/the/his courtesan. That’s it.

Thoughts on the ending: Well, I kinda hated it. show spoiler

What I liked most: The very idea of writing a whole book inspired by a painting :)
Also, I loved the way some real life characters (Pietro Aretino, a poet, who really has written a book on sexual positions; Titian, the famous painter; Elena Crusichi, a “witch” nicknamed La Draga, mentioned in the records of that time) mingled with the fictional ones :)

What I liked least: Nothing has actually bothered me. I could probably complain about the abundance of foul language but hey, would any book on such topic be believable without one bawdy word here and there?

Recommend it to? I am a bit reserved about recommending it, given that, as previously mentioned, I know some people who did not like it. However I found it an interesting read so if you are interested in historical fiction set in Renaissance Venice you might want to give it a try. Do expect some naughty words though.

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I don’t know precisely what I expected, but I was somewhat disappointed in this book nevertheless. Described as being “taut with suspense“, to me it seemed to be quite the opposite. A thing that is not necessarily the author’s fault (after all the members of the imperial family were under house arrest, how suspenseful could that be), and yet I was hoping for a bit more.

It is obvious though that the author has tried his best to make it more intriguing (in a misguided manner, I must say, because he did this by mentioning the night of July 17, the one where the family is assassinated, over and over again, perhaps trying to raise the reader from the torpor inspired by day after day of uninteresting stuff; which would have all been very well had he done it less often). Unfortunately, since the fate of the Romanovs is ultimately known, I couldn’t actually raise in interest in any of the things that happened to them. The book has at its core the escape plan that someone might have conceived in order to save the Romanovs — but since I already knew it was doomed to fail I couldn’t actually care less.

This is probably also due to the fact that I couldn’t much relate to any of the characters. None of the characters have enough “screen time” for him/her to develop any actual complexities (the “show, don’t tell kind”). Sure, the boy muses about the family all throughout the book, but it sounds more like a documentary than anything else. The young duchesses are very rarely present, and there is virtually no interaction with them. At least the things improve a bit when it comes to Alexei (“That poor child had traveled to the bottom of life and back again, and naturally that had had a profound effect on him. [...] Had he matured into a healthy young man and become tsar, he would have been one of the greatest, for while his father found his wisdom too late, Aleksei Nikolaevich had found his much too early.“), but it’s still to little for me to actually get actually interested in him.

There was a particular passage that I liked though, a description of the tsar that seemed very insightful to me. Insightful and very sad:

So in the end this is how Nikolai II must be viewed: a very caring man of moderate abilities who, although utterly devoted to his country, was unable to transform the unworkable autocratic system thrust upon him. Period. That simple.

Speaking of characters, I have been happy to discover that the kitchen boy in the book has actually existed, and has been removed from the Ipatiev house with a few hours before the execution. Unfortunately very little is known about him afterwards. As one of the sources (whose name is unknown to me, but could probably be dug up quite easily) states, “Leonid Sednev, the fourteen-year-old kitchen boy spared by Yurovsky just six hours before the Ekaterinburg murders, was put on a train on July 20 by officials from the Ural Regional Soviet and sent to Kaluga District, where he still had relatives. Sednev wrote a brief set of memoirs of his time in the Ipatiev House before his death in 1929, at age twenty-five.“. However, other sources say he was born in 1903 or 1904, and that he “Fought with the rank Private in WWII and was repressed, sentenced to capital punishment and killed on 17.07.1942“. Yet another of the mysteries of history, I suppose.

Thoughts on the title: I actually like it because it hints at a society long gone (since there are no kitchen boys now). Even sounds sort of poetic in a way.

Thoughts on the ending: I didn’t much care about it since I didn’t much care about the characters. :(
show spoiler

What I liked most: The fact that it deals with a historical character previously unknown to the greater public, and also the fact that it tried to come up with a (quite cool, albeit not very possible) reason why two of the bodies are missing.

I am actually a bit sorry that the said missing bones (those belonging to Maria and Alexei) have been found since the book was published; there could have been so many possibilities to dream about otherwise. :)

What I liked least: At times I got annoyed to no end by the affluence of Russian words. I mean, everyone is talking to anyone else in Russian, since we’re in Russia and all; so why did this had to be enforced over and over again by showing almost half of all dialogues in Russian (while the other half was in English, although spoken by the same people and in the same context)?

show spoiler

Recommend it to? People interested in Romanov-derived fiction I guess.

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk | Official site of the book | Discussion about the real kitchen boy’s whereabouts

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The story focuses more on Alexandra’s inner life than on her surroundings. This may come as somewhat of a disappointment for readers who picked this book up in order to find out more about Russia, but I for one have liked the way the author has tried to shed some light on Alexandra’s complex and nuanced character. A character that, naturally, affects Russia itself, since her position was of such importance, and it is sad at times to see Alix trying and failing to do it good.

Quite a good chunk of the book is dedicated to Alix’s inclination to the occult. At a time in her life when everyone criticized her and her own life seemed outside her control (by failing to bring a much-awaited heir into the world), she has found a haven in the middle of a group of people that experimented all sorts of mystical things.

Alix was quite taken out of herself. She had not only found a community, an emotional home, she had found-or so she was convinced-an escape from the endless series of failures by which she had been plagued since she first came to Russia.

To me this is one of the saddest passages in the book. And also the start of the fall of the Romanov house, as this tendency of Alix led her to from one charlatan (Phillippe Vachot) to another (Rasputin), affecting her judgement when it came to matters of state.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Nicholas II was not a great ruler, on the contrary, he was weak and ineffective. He was afraid “of the responsibility itself, and the mental labor it was certain to impose. He had never been a man to think things through, to analyze a situation creatively and find solutions to problems. He had always turned away from complexity [...]“. Alix had known this of him since before their marriage, and knew and accepted the fact that she was the one supposed to have the strength for them both. And she did try, and she did her best, despite her failing health, whenever the said strength was needed — but alas, she was oh so misguided it was sad to see.

Speaking of the occult, the author mentions some instances of omens that I am not sure have actually happened. Such as Nicholas mantle falling off at his coronation, a huge mirror falling and shattering behind Alix, shortly before Alexei was born, a cross appearing on the sky on St. Tikhon’s day, Alix at last becoming pregnant with a boy after visiting St. Serafim’s relics, and more. Granted, the Russians at that time seemed to have been a superstitious people (not to mention that there’s also Rasputin, who convinced lots of people that he’s a miracle worker, and whose methods of treating Alexei hemophilia are yet unexplained), and yet their very mention suggests a whiff of sensationalism. A thing not necessarily bad in itself, but since I read the book for its historical truth I preferred the said truth to anything else.

Overall though (while I agree I did not know very much about the topic previously, so my opinion may not be very reliable) the book seemed rather well documented. The author seems to have done extensive research, and there are many quotes from the historical figures’ first hand accounts, via their personal diaries and letters to one another. I loved getting that particular insight into their lives, as it made me perceive them as real people (with their flaws and strengths).

Speaking of which, another thing that I have liked is the familiarity with which the author is treating her characters, using their pet names and making the reader feel part of the family (Nicholas II is referred to as Nicky all throughout, his mother Maria Feodorovna is referred to as Minnie and so on).

Tidbit: Alexandra and I have the same birthday, which makes her the second character in a book (the first real one) with this particularity. I found it amusing, especially at first, when she was younger and her character less affected by her surroundings, to note her “Gemini traits”, such as, for example, her contradictory nature:

“She was capable of gaiety, she laughed easily, with her children she was warm and affectionate. But she gravitated toward illness and death, toward any circumstance in which tragedy loomed and in which she could assume the role of rescuer-a role that allowed her to step out of her everyday, troubled self and assume a simpler, less emotionally demanding identity, that of self-sacrificing caretaker.”

Thoughts on the ending: It was of course predictable (as history tells us how and why Alix and her family died). I liked the way it was written though (the way it focused only on Alix, who is, after all, the central character of the book). Also, I was surprised to find myself more saddened by the said ending than I expected to be given the fact that I knew it was coming all along. I suppose this is a forte of the book, as I didn’t realize how attached to the main character I had become until its demise.

What I liked most: The writing style. I love reading biographies, especially when it comes to historical figures, but I don’t always enjoy them due to their sometimes dry style. This book was the very opposite of dry, reading more like a novel than a non-fiction book.

What I liked least: I’ve no complaints :)

Recommend it to? Anyone interested in Alexandra’s life, of course.

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk | Short clip from the Romanov Coronation (one of the oldest videos ever) | Russian regalia | Photo of Alix, 1898 | Photo of Alix, older, sterner, with her family

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