Simon Sebag Montefiore is one of our more prominent historians. His non-fiction books are authoritative, very readable, and popular. His TV series are also a perfect balance between education and entertainment. For those of us passionate about history, he is spreading the word with great success.
This novel, however, suffers from the same problem I’ve encountered before in academics writing fiction. They find it hard to change style. Non-fiction and fiction are hugely different; they need to be. It may not be something most people think about, but the whole essence is different. For me, this book has no heart; no soul.
It is split into three sections; following the title character through the Russian revolution, and then through the purges of Stalin’s time, and finally after Glasnost, following a young woman who is commissioned to investigate the family history of one of Russia’s new rich. The settings are perfectly realised; the author knows his Russian history. We know that from his non-fiction work. The unreality of the years of turmoil around the revolution. The febrile atmosphere around the court of Stalin. And then the doubts and uncertainties as the USSR collapsed, with the young trying to overcome the reticence and secrecy of their elders. All of these times are beautifully rendered.
My problem with the book is that I didn’t really like a single character in the book. I felt little empathy with any of them, indeed the main characters infuriated me at times. One moment, I would sympathise with a decision or an action, understanding why they did it. The next moment, they would do something so out of character, that I’d lose what little respect I had for them.
It is difficult at this remove to understand what life was really like during the times in which the book is set. Thankfully, I haven’t lived through such pressures, where you never know who to trust, or who you may have to betray to survive. But the main characters veer markedly between insightful intelligence and dumb blindness of everything going on around them. There never seemed to be anything in between; no normal human reactions. No balance.
As a work which clearly and accurately portrays the times in which it is set, it is remarkable. But as a novel about people who I want to relate to as a reader, it didn’t work for me. I ultimately didn’t care what happened to the main characters; and for me, that is what fiction is all about.
This is a review of the Corgi 2009 Kindle edition.
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