Customer Reviews

The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman Trilogy)

5 star:		(200)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

"The Bronze Horseman" is more than a beautiful love story set against the backdrop of WWII Leningrad, where author Paullina Simons was born and raised. Ms. Simons portrays here, with great sensitivity and realism, the terrible suffering that the citizens of Leningrad experienced during the Nazi siege and their struggle to survive. She also probes the intricacies of family relationships, the ties that bind, especially in times of terrible hardship. Simons alludes frequently to Alexander Pushkin's tragic epic poem, "The Bronze Horseman," from which this novel takes its title.

Seventeen year old Tatiana Metanova was wearing her "splendid white dress with red roses" and enjoying an ice cream cone when she looked up and saw a soldier staring at her with "an expression she had never seen before." Thus begins the intense and complex relationship between Tatiana and her Alexander (Shura) Belov, a First Lieutenant in the Soviet Army. Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin's Foreign Minister, had announced the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union only a few hours before the two young people meet for the first time.

Tatiana lives in a tiny two room flat with her sister and best friend Dasha, her twin brother, parents and grandparents. Her sense of family is very strong, especially since she has never had a truly close relationship with anyone other than her kin. When Tatiana brings Alexander home for the first time she discovers that her sister Dasha had already met him in a club and had bragged about him as her new boyfriend. Dasha takes what had been a casual romance very seriously and believes she is in love. Alexander does not reciprocate her feelings, however. Tatiana has been very sheltered by her family and is quite naive and very innocent. Slight, blonde and lovely, she is thought to be the most fragile member of the family. Tatiana and Alexander continue to see each other, keeping their relationship a secret from everyone. As the love and friendship grows between the couple, Tatiana becomes determined to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister's.

The consequences of war, bombings, starvation and death, overwhelm the city, and take a terrible toll, especially on Tatiana's family. Alexander tries his best to protect them but he has a terrible secret that must be kept at any price, and this secret complicates the intertwined relationships even more.

This is an epic tale that I found almost impossible to put down. It takes unexpected twists and turns that highlight the horrors of war and the inner strength of Tatiana and Alexander, as well as the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the characters. At first I was impatient with Tatiana's obsession to "give" Alexander to her sister. However, as Ms. Simons continues to develop her character the motivation becomes more clear and does make sense.

The author writes with great passion of love, war and survival. Ultimately I think this novel is as much about the human spirit's will to survive as it is about love. The dialogue between Tatiana and Alexander, as well as their love scenes are beautifully written. I will admit to sobbing more than a few times before the final page. I highly recommend this wonderfully romantic and tragic historical novel.
JANA

I like it when people recommend books for me to read. Quite a lot of people have recommended "The Bronze Horseman" for me, and because I like big, epic stories a while ago I put it in my stack and a few days ago I tried to read it. Notice the word tried.

This is a book that could have been great. The premis is great-love triangle between two sisters and a soldier during the siege of St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) with secrets on the soldier, is nearly classic. Tatiana and her older sister Dasha live together with their parents and grandparents, and Tatiana's twin brother in two bedrooms and Tatiana had just turned 17 when she and Alexander meet in a romance filled haze. War against Germany was announced only a few hours before and Tatiana is supposed to be buying food for her family-but it's nearly impossible to find. Alexander helps her buy food at the army supply store and he and his creepy friend Dimitri carry them home for her. But it turns out that Dasha already knew Alexander and thinks she's in love with him.

Tatiana, not wanting to hurt her sister, refuses to stand up for her relationship with Alexander, which continues to advance in secret through the siege. The rest of the novel is hardship and terrible times-people surviving on no food with no heat and bombs bursting overhead all the time. The author manages to capture the desperation and the terrible, tired acceptance of the war conditions in the city very well.

But her writing style is so annoying! I have never, ever, read a book that had as much day to day detail as this one did. You could almost pull out a calendar and write down what the family ate for each meal, each day, for months. I never knew so much about Russian food before-anfd I'm half Russian! The same thing happens with Tatiana's thoughts, and very occasionally, at completely random intervals, Alexander's. And the way they focus on their relationship-during a WAR-is almost crazily self centered. Dimitri comes off as more a menace than the Germans, more than hunger even!

I really wanted to like this book-I already had the two sequels lined up and everything but it got to the point where I just could not go on reading of Tatiana and Alexander obsessing and fighting and making up and cooking cabbage pie and blueberry ice cream and marinating mushrooms and drink vodka....This author doesn't know how to skim over anything. It was tiring, exhausting to read. Still some part of me wants to get the book back out and see if we can make it work. It did have an appeal, even if it was an exhausting one.

I know almost everyone who starts this book loves it so no doubt I will get hate mail and un-helpful votes for daring to say a bad thing about it and I do almost feel I should apologize for my feelings about it but I must tell the truth.

Two stars. I really didn't like this. (There, I said it.)

How can I not give a novel that kept me up until 3:30 a.m. (and not later than that only because I finally fell asleep over the book) five stars? [And started me reading it again by 9:00 next day?]

It's not a perfect novel. I could wish that the author had developed the pathos of Dasha's situation more: in love with Alexander, and never realizing that he actually loved her sister, until the last days of her life. The reader's only given tiny hints of the reasons why Tania loves her sister enough to sacrifice her love for Alexander to her; aside from these hints, Dasha comes across as a selfish and empty character. Also, I never believed that Dasha really "loved" Alexander; from the first instant, it simply seemed liked she had an infatuation that would ultimately pass if he'd only stopped seeing her altogether!

The emotional flatness of most of the people around Tatiana & Alexander makes a reader work at filling in their backstories. For instance, Tania's mother makes a brief mention of Dasha's reaction to Tania's and her twin brother's birth: Dasha says that the parents could keep the boy (who, indeed, they favor) but that Tania was Dasha's baby. From that hint, a reader has to imagine a whole backstory of Dasha's protectiveness & love of Tania; a background which we are just not given. If this little hint had been explored, then Tania's sacrifice (concealing her love for Alexander, and tolerating his relationship with Dasha) would make that much more sense. As it is, the reader is frustrated by it, because the Dasha depicted here is just not worth that kind of sacrifice.

Yet, the beauty of the book is -- while one is wishing for fully-fleshed characterizations of Dasha; Pasha the only son (who just disappears from the story), and Tania's parents; all which would have enriched the book considerably -- the love story between Tatania & Alexander is so strong, and the amazing secret that twists Alexander's life is so compelling, you ultimately forgive all that isn't there and relish their love, which just gets stronger & stronger as the story proceeds.

The chapters on the Leningrad siege; Tania's reunion with Alexander, and Tatiana's ultimate escape from Russia, are extremely powerful. Tatiana matures from a girl who lies across her bed reading a book instead of doing the emergency food shopping her father asks her to do, into a woman who can escape from a frozen wasteland in Finland into Sweden. That's quite an accomplishment, and long before the author got her there, I was completely absorbed in this woman's story.

Despite its faults, this is a story that stays with you after you close it, and that's no mean accomplishment either. Now I'm off to locate a copy of the sequel, because these two characters, Tatiana & Alexander, live & breathe for me; I HAVE to know what happens next. I can't remember when that's happened last. That's one damn good book.

Review of The Bronze Horseman, by by Paullina Simons
Reviewer: Mark Lamendola

This is one of the most spell-binding books I have read in a very long time. Actually, I heard it on cassette, narrated by Kate Burton. Ms. Burton, a stage presence in her own right, is the daughter of Richard Burton. Obviously, the publishers thought highly of this book. And they had good reason to.

Ms. Simons was born and reared in Leningrad, and immigrated to the USA. She's written other books, including a sequel to this one. Unfortunately, the sequel (Tatiana and Alexander) is available in some countries (e.g., Australia) but not yet in the USA.

As a reader, you can't help but yearn for Tatiana and Alexander to realize their hopes and dreams. Yet, they face so many obstacles along the way that it's never certain they will. Their immense and powerful love for each other is evident, time after time.

The siege of Leningrad, in World War II, is something few American history books talk about. But, those of us who have read about what happened know how horrific it was. Ms. Simons lived there, and was able to talk to people who had--barely--lived through it. And that siege formed the backdrop for this intense tale of passion, betrayal, and danger.

It all began when 17-year old Tatiana was eating an ice cream on a beach when she noticed a Red Army soldier staring at her. Events moved forward from there. As Tatiana suffered one loss after another--her twin brother, her father, her mother, and her sister--Alexander showed his love for her. He often did so at great risk.

In fact, Alexander risked everything for Tatiana at the end of the novel. But, this love was not one-sided. Tatiana gave of herself, repeatedly--and also took great risks. This story is not about two young people who survive war. It's really about two young people caught in a complex web spun by other people--like the devious Dmitri--while the circumstances of war also bear down on them.

The Bronze Horseman brings romance, suspense, and adventure together into a story that is memorable and moving. That it's also entertaining, breathtaking, and heartbreaking is simply icing on a very tasty cake.

Ms. Simons has a few books published. I hope she writes many more of this caliber.

Seeing how highly rated "The Bronze Horseman" is, I guess I'll be one of those very few who don't care for this book and brace myself for negative backlash. Oh, well, I just can't stop myself from writing this review.

First of all, I am not sure why people love this story so much when there are so much better books/movies out there about: lovers separated by war ("Atonement"), surviving through a war ("Gone with the Wind"), Russia during its communist era ("Doctor Zhivago"), escape from Soviet Russia ("East/West"). I truly can't fine a grain of the excellence everybody is talking about in reviews posted on this website.

The book starts well enough: a very young girl eating ice cream meets a soldier at a bus stop. They constantly fall for each other. They start meeting every day, walking and talking for hours. I must admit, this part is quite entrancing - all these emotions, and Tatiana obsessing over Alexander's every word, every glance, every touch - I suppose I am a sucker for extended foreplay... However the interest starts vanishing once you read for the 50th time which bus they take, how many kilometers they walk, what streets they decide to walk along this time, etc. I guess Paullina Simmons must have done a lot of research about Leningrad and wrote her book with a map of the city nearby, but this is not the kind of detail that adds to the story!

The next blow comes in when we learn that Alexander (Oh my!) is the man Tatiana's sister Dasha is madly in love (and sleeps on regular basis) with. Tatiana, the tender-hearted martyr she is, decides to give up her love for Alexander for the sake of her beloved sister. Which would be OK I guess (every epic love story has to have some kind of obstacle for lovers to overcome) if we don't learn later that Dasha is a self-centered tramp who also physically abuses Tatiana. Does Dasha deserve Tatiana's sacrifice? No, she doesn't, therefore Tatiana's sacrifice is pretty much pointless and even silly. Dimitri is a more convincing "obstacle," but even he (I am sure of it) wouldn't make passes on Tatiana if Alexander simply marries her. What I am getting at is that the obstacles standing between our lovers are laughable at best and do not justify 400 pages worth of angst.

This fateful meeting is followed by another 100 pages of repetitive ramble. How many times can I possibly enjoy reading about Alexander and Dimitri coming over to Tatiana's house, having dinner and drinking plenty of vodka, Tatiana watching Alexander with angst, Alexander seating with unreadable expression, Alexander getting it on with Dasha while Tatiana is groped outside by Dimitri, etc. My answer is: not many, it wears off after second time.

Same goes for the next 200 pages (in a very small font) depicting blockade of Leningrad where the same thing happens over and over again: Tatiana goes out to get her family's food rations, she is cold and in danger all the time, she comes home and portions the food (1 kg, 500 g, 300 g, 250 g of bread, etc.), everybody eats, they are hungry, they go to sleep. Same thing happens the next day, and next, and next, until someone dies.

The honeymoon part is written in exactly the same way. Another 100 pages of the same scenario: Tatiana and Alexander make love, talk cheesy rubbish, Tatiana makes cabbage pies/potato pancakes/mushrooms, they make love, talk rubbish, swim, Alexander attempts to build something, Tatiana flirts, they make love again, more cabbage pies. Come on, enough already!

Some more irritating things: Tatiana's magical recovery from broken leg and 3 ribs in a matter of weeks; her ability to speak and understand English after flipping through English-Russian dictionary; Marina's pointless presence in the story; Tatiana's martyrdom; Alexander's "perfection" in comparison to Russian men who, according to Simmons are all smelly, with dirty finger nails, and oblivious to violence against women.

Bottom line is: this book could have been much better with 300 pages of repetitive nonsense edited out, because ultimately it has a decent story of love and survival in difficult circumstances, but unfortunately it got buried under a mountain of cheesy rubbish.

Needless to say, I will not be reading the sequels or any other books by this author.

I was surprised to see the many raving reviews about this book. It seems that many people don't notice - or don't mind - its obvious shortcomings. First, the general story idea - a moving love story in war-beaten Russia - is wonderful. The history is well-researched and equally well-presented. Actually those parts that concentrate on describing the effects of the blockade on Leningrad and the current events are the best of the book and would deserve five stars. One can feel the despair, the hopelessness and the desparate will to survive. Great writing, riveting story. However, this great five-star-deserving part unfortunately stands out alone next to the other parts of the book which range from medium to simply unbearable.

The first threehundred pages of the book have a tendency to be slightly repetitive and the setting of the love story is not really believable. Tatiana - who is so altruistic that it gets annoying - falls in love with Alexander - who in the beginning is a bit too perfect to be true. However, Alexander is the boy-friend of Tatiana's sister Dasha and so Tatiana and Alexander agree (or rather: Tatiana insists) that they hide their feelings for each other in order to protect Dasha's feelings. The lengths to which they go for this are unrealistic and slightly unnerving. The arrangement also sets the stage for an ever-repeated pattern of conversations between Tatiana and Alexander which goes like this: one of them does something in order to hide the love between them - the other one doesn't get the true intention and is annoyed - they argue without clearly saying what's actually bother them. Sometimes they make up, sometimes they don't. If one stops being annoyed, the other starts being annoyed. If they get ready to actually talk openly to each other, some kind of interruption prevents them. This happens a bit too often to still be interesting and actually by page 300 I was ready to stop reading, but forced myself to go on.

The pattern of using the same scene over and over again with slight alterations dominates most of the book, be it the above-mentioned misunderstandings or the family meal situations. The most blatant use of this technique is to be found later in the book: after the wonderful and thrilling historical bit, the story plunges deeply into the smutty romance-novel level. On 90 pages of the book, the same scene happens 33 times (!) - yes, I counted, because I thought I was suffering from a deja-vu. There are slight alterations in background and dialogue, but basically its thirty-three times (!) the same: young couple talks to each other while enjoying some leisure activities or doing daily chores, conversation becomes slightly teasing and either ends with ambiguous remark or with ambiguous remark followed by deatils about their physical intimacy. After a while I was terribly bored by the repetitions and felt ready to throw the book down and explain "Yes, I got the point, they're crazy about each other and enjoying the carefree days they have together." I seriously can't understand why no editor shortened this passage. The tendency of the author to make her point again and again seriously got over the top there.

Another issue that spoiled the reading for me was the partially bad writing. I noticed that some reviews here mentioned it as well. This bad writing is amazing, because parts of the book are written so extremely well and other parts are almost embarrassing to read because of the bad writing - mainly the dialogues.

This could have been a marvelous book - the historical details, the story idea, the well-described characters, the ability of the author to really create the atmosphere. But it has so incredibly many terribly weak points - the partly bad writing, the repetitive scenes, some extremely annoying characters (the four old village women, for example) and the plunges into the depths of a smutty schmaltzy romance novel - that it takes away too much reading pleasure. A real pity, but apparently it didn't harm the commercial success.

Understand that I really did want to be able to give this book 5 stars. It was beautifully written and the emotions were real, distinct and powerful. The Leningrad backdrop is a perfect setting for this ambitious book. I felt the characters and I felt the pain.

Yet, two things stop me from giving it 5 stars. Firstly it was the 100 page honeymoon interlude where the same sex scene was repeated over and over again. Incredibly unrealistic, repetitious and somewhat anticlimactic in its appeal. It felt flat to me. Sure, sex is fun, but come on? Sex is certainly an incredible extension of a relationship, not the be all, end all of things. I was hoping for a little more depth than just youthful lust being satiated over and over again.

The other thing that bothers me is that is boarders on religious and capitalistic pandering. The authors opinion seeps through over and over again. By the end of the book, I was almost wishing for myself to find this enlightened and beautiful 'America' blessed by God himself, until I remembered I live here. Its just too black and white. Russia, communism & atheism equals darkness and American, religion & capitalism equals light. Amen.

This book is brilliantly written. I absolutely fell in love with Tania and Alexander. Paullina Simons is a very talanted and gifted writer. I have read all three books in this trilogy and they are all wonderful. I have read a LOT of books and these are my all time favorites. The down side is, Ms. Simons sets the bar so high that I am dissapointed in most books that I have read since. I understand that she is writing the screenplay. Oh please let that be true!

If you love romance and history, read this book!

This is one of the best books I'v read in my life to date! I ran across a recomendation for it on a Diana Gabaldon site. The Outlander series is beloved to me and I can't help but compare everything to it. Although this is a very different sort of yarn ,this story is heartbreaking, gut wrenching,romantic,It has it all!It's the first of a trilogy. I ordered them all and was not disappointed. These will stay on my bookshelf forever and I will read them again and again.A modern day classic.

Having read all of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, I wanted a nice, big epic as a replacement, or as something to keep me amused while I wait for DG's next big book. I picked up The Bronze Horseman on a whim. I thought that the premise of a romantic story set against the backdrop of WWII Leningrad in Russia, during the years 1940-1943, would make very interesting reading. Well, this novel became something of an acquired taste for me. I had a difficult time getting into the first two-hundred or so pages, but then the book became riveting as the story began to unfold. This tells the story of seventeen-year-old Tatiana Metanova, a pretty and good-natured young woman whose loyalty to her family is so grand that she sacrifices her love for dashing soldier Alexander so that her sister and best friend Dasha, who also loves Alexander, could have him. To make things worse for Tatiana, she is forced to answer the attentions of Dmitri, another soldier, who has information that could destroy Alexander. What transpires is a story of love, betrayal, struggle and pain in the light of the casualties of war. There are many twists throughout the novel.

As said earlier, I had a difficult time getting into the novel at first. The first half of the book felt slow and dull to me and I had to force myself to continue. I'm glad I did because Tatiana and Alexander are a great romantic couple. They have this star-crossed lovers appeal that convinced me to continue reading during the times I felt I wanted to throw in the towel. Based on my review, the heroine may come across as a martyr to you, but her infinite love for her sister forces her to make some rather difficult decisions and this makes her an appealing character. Alexander is also great. His feelings for Dasha frustrated me at first, but then he grew on me as well. I agree with the reviewer who says that Dasha had a fancy for Alexander but did not love him, and that made her selfish and somewhat unlikeable to me. I also agree with the reviewers who say that the secondary characters are underdeveloped because there is too much focus on Tatiana and Alexander and the backdrop of the Leningrad Siege. The subplots centered on people dying of starvation and during the battle are depressing, but it paints a rather realistic look into the consequences of the war. All in all, The Bronze Horseman grew on me so much that it became one of the most enthralling stories I have read in a while. It is right up there with the Outlander series. Paullina Simons has written a wonderful novel set in her native Russia. I look forward to giving Tatiana and Alexander a whirl -- that is if I can obtain a copy.