Addressing himself to his childhood friend Arkadi from exile in Paris, Alyosha recreates their happy years in a village commune outside Leningrad in the 60s, when the sky was always blue and each summer they marched with drum and trumpet at communist youth camp, their eyes set on the glorious future promised by the propaganda machine - until they learn the full horror of what their parents had suffered during the war and under Stalin, and begin to see through the lies. 'Moving and gripping' The Times
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'A marvel' -- L'Echo 'A superb novel' -- L'Express' 'The many who loved LE TESTAMENT FRANCAIS will not be disappointed' -- L'Alsace
About the Author
Andrei Makine was born in Siberia in 1957, and taught at the University of Novgorod. In 1987 he left the Soviet Union and sought asylum in France, where he lived rough before finding teaching work. He is the author of the bestselling Le Testament Francais, winner of the Prix Goncourt and Prix Medicis, and an international bestseller. Confessions of a Lapsed Standard-Bearer, his second novel, is his third to be published in English, following The Crime of Olga Arbyelina (Sceptre, 1999).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book,
By Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Confessions of a Lapsed Standard Bearer (Paperback)
Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer is a beautiful book. The story involves two families, that of Yakov Zinger and Pyotr Yevdokimov. The story is told in the form of a memoir of their youth written by Pyotr's son Alyosha to Yakov's son Arkady. The story unfolds slowly.On the surface the memoirs invoke memories of the children's summers in their village. They were young pioneers filled (apparently) with a belief in the inevitable victory of socialism. As the name of this novel implies they were the standard-bearers of socialist youth marching towards the `radiant horizon'. However, flowing beneath the beautiful words evoking their idyllic summers is the undertone of tragedy that envelops each of the families' pasts. Those tragedies are slowly and inexorably revealed. Pyotr, a sniper operating behind German lines during the Second World War lost both limbs at the hands of an "unfortunate artillery mistake' by his own troops. Yakov survived a German prison camp in Poland by surrounding himself with a mountain of dead and frozen bodies. Their wives tragic pasts are also slowly revealed. One survived the siege of Leningrad and witnessed unspeakable horrors in the process. The other lost her parents to Stalin's purges and spent her youth in an orphanage for children of those purges. As these stories are revealed the boys' otherwise inexplicable actions leading up to their confrontation with their Pioneer group leaders becomes slightly more understandable. I cannot convey the beauty of this book in adequate terms. Its power lies in the contrast between the beauty and power of Makine's writing about village life through the eyes of innocent children and the stark but unexpressed horror that percolates through the lives of these two families. This unstated horror serves as the thematic counterpoint to the rather unremarkable events that form the core of the narrative. This was a book worth reading.
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