Customer Reviews

Sashenka: A Novel

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What British historian could ever tell me, the former USSR citizen, about Russia and its history, especially Soviet history?

This is what I thought before opening the book. I do not quite like historical novels in the first place. And after reading all range of Russian authors from Tolstoy to Shalamov I thought to have a right to be skeptical.

I was wrong.

Montefiore's book sucked me in like a giant black hole. Frankly, I have never read any "foreign" book about Russia that is so true in events, details, characters and language.
When I read the first chapter I was almost shocked by incredible style of Simon's writing. I could not believe I was reading an *English* text. I do not understand the magic, I do not know how it is done, but if you want to get an impression how original Tolstoy's text would *feel* in Russian - just read the first chapter of Sashenka.

Interestingly, Simon keep changing the writing style as story progress in time eventually making it more and more "soviet", but original chapter's style is unbeatable.

Another moment I want to mention - Simon mixes real and fictional heroes in this novel. Some heroes are 100% real and under their real names, some others (like Sashenka herself) are mix of several people, many of which are easily recognizable if you know this historical period and finally some characters are completely fictional. I ended up Googling some of fictional characters to make sure they were fictional, because Simon made them so incredibly realistic.

And, of course not only characters are alive, the every page of the book is. Simon managed to take tons of dusty yellow pages from almost (and up to date) inaccessible KGB archives and resurrected them to tell us their stories. Well, this is all merged into one story, the story that is just not possible to characterize in a short review. Just read the book, it's brilliant.

Simon Sebag Montefiore's grasp of the Stalinist era is masterful, and it's that historical detail that makes this book work. Alas, he is less adept at the art of fiction.
Still, this novel, as the author himself notes in his conclusion/afterword, admirably fulfills his goal of making the horrors of the Stalinist Terror live for the contemporary reader, particularly those who aren't likely to pick up Sebag Montefiore's superb books about Stalin himself, Young Stalin or Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. For those who have read the superb book about the impact of these years on ordinary Soviet citizens, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, this provides a fictional counterpart, one where imagination takes over and the reader following Sebag Montefiore's plot can transport themselves into the world his lead character, Sashenka, inhabited. Fortunately the reader, unlike Sashenka, can also escape this closed and paranoid world.
Sebag Montefiore's strength is portraying that world, from the corrupt decadence of the final years of Tsarist rule (which takes the reader from palaces to prisons) and the claustrophobic paranoia of the 1930s, which Sashenka herself displays almost without realizing it when she discovers that Stalin and his leaders, including Lavrenti Beria, have honored her dacha with a visit on the eve of May Day -- a visit that, on the surface a triumph, will hold unexpected and disastrous consequences for Sashenka and everyone around her.
Unfortunately, it's not until that point that the narrative really picks up and starts moving. While the characters and dramas of the first part do prove necessary to the plot (in ways that aren't apparent until much later), at the time they simply feel annoying and superfluous. And however necessary they ultimately become, the initial section is far too long, and many of the characters are too wooden and the dialogue stilted or unbelievable. Had this section been shorter and more tightly written, it would have contributed to the drama without serving as a drag.
Leaping forward from 1916, when Sashenka, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish industrialist, is first arrested as she leaves her boarding school and imprisoned for her Bolsheik views, the second part of the book deals with 1939, when she and her Bolshevik husband their two young children appear to have reached the pinnacle of success in Stalinist Russia.
This is where the plot and characters alike suddenly grip the reader and don't let go. I read the final 40% of this book in a single sitting, late into the night/early morning. Only days after the May Day party at her dacha, Sashenka's world starts crumbling around her and she can't understand why. Is it her fledgling affair with a Jewish writers who doesn't toe the Party line -- an unprecedented deviation from being the perfect Party loyalist and exemplar of Soviet womanhood? Or is there something in her family's or husband's past that is returning to haunt her?
The third section -- told through the eyes of a young historical researcher -- is perhaps the best of the three, however. There are few surprises in what is discovered -- except for the true, relatively mundane cause of the downfall of Sashenka and her husband. It is here that Sebag Montefiore finally wraps up the narrative in one neat package. Had he approached the story from the same persepctive throughout and used flashbacks to explore the historical dimensions, this would have been a far stronger novel, I believe.
Still, as it stands, this is an excellent plot that is written adequately, despite Sebag Montefiore's difficulties with character. (Shifting points of view are distracting, and even Sashenka doesn't emerge as a real character until quite late in the 1939 section -- the reader can identify with her intellectually or generally, but the real test -- could you imagine how she looked or how her voice sounded, how she would react in a situation not described in the book? -- of whether a character "lives" isn't one she could pass. (Just apply that standard to Scarlett O'Hara, for instance, and you'll see what I mean.)
Very much worth reading, especially for anyone who is interested in the emergence of modern Russia, how and why Communism took root there for 70 years, and the lives of Russians during and after that period, and who would rather read an impeccably-researched novel than a non-fiction work.

Montefiore is a very talented nonfiction writer and has been in the forefront of the Stalin years winning several book awards with Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and Young Stalin. In Sashenka, the author attempts to weave a story of fiction into the historical backdrop of three different time periods of tremendous change in Russia/Soviet history: 1916, 1935 and 1994. It might have been too much of a time frame to write about in just 500 pages. I do think that the story suffered from a lack of depth in the characters and the basic background of Russian history in the time periods for this story. I did not feel catapulted into the story (such as with The Alienst); and I expected more from this excellent historian.

The first part (1916) is a very well thought out storyline that follows the tale of the Zeitlin family. The father had bourgeois sentiments while the daughter had Bolshevik interests and then disavows her family in pursuit of these Communist tendencies. This part of the story is well done, even if the writing is only adequate. Part II is less a storyline but instead sets up the dramatic ending of the book. Part III is a follow up to uncover the secrets that are not told early in the story and to close the gaps in the plot. This is an excellent technique and it is used very well by Montefiore.

Montefiore might someday become a master story teller. He has already accomplished that in the world in nonfiction. However, his ability to find the right word or phrase or rhythm for the reader is just not there. There is no artistry in the prose. The writing is flat and lifeless much of the time. There are moments of truly good writing, but not the consistency that is needed to carry the book to a 5 star rating. It is difficult to move between writing styles and while this reader was certainly entertained by Montefiore's plot, I was disappointed in the execution. However, I look forward to his next fiction attempt and I hope that we see it soon.

I'm not a big reader, and had this book passed on to me as one worth reading. I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it - an easy read, and found it hard to put down. The main character certainly keeps you on your toes... what decisions and thoughts will she have next. A sad ending.

I couldn't wait to read Sashenka. Simon Sebag Montefiore's prior nonfiction works (Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and Young Stalin) are, arguably, the last word on Stalin. He's better than Deutscher, Volkogonov, and Conquest--I doubt that Stalin will ever squirm under a more penetrating eye, and I hope Sebag Montefiore tackles Trotsky next.

At first glance, Sashenka is daunting to anyone who's ever contemplated writing a historical novel. Sashenka, the eponymously-titled story of a pampered young girl from St. Petersburg's Jewish aristocracy who becomes a rip-roarin' Red revolutionary, is jammed so full of precise historical details (right down to the peculiar vibrating chair that her father the Baron uses to aid his digestion)that any prospective historical novelist might well figure, "What's the use? No one'll ever do it better," and quit in despair.

But on second reading, Sashenka isn't nearly as threatening. Sebag Montefiore has peopled his heroine's family with stock images from the Russian Jewish Stereotype Store--the Idealistic Young Girl, the Parvenu Moneybags, the Grim Revolutionary, the Saintly Old Rebbe and his Equally Saintly Old Rebbetzin, the Gladhanding Bon Vivant (hey, Mr. Sebag Montefiore? Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Family Moskat called. It wants its character back) and most offensively, the Bored and Debauched Rich Housewife, a type already used to better effect by Sholem Asch and Isaak Babel. It's tough to believe that one family could contain all these stereotypes, but this one manages.

Sadly, Sebag Montefiore has substituted rich detail for actual character development, because none of these stereotypes ever really comes alive. Including, sadly, Sashenka herself. Which is too bad. Because I think if I got to know her better, I'd have had a real crush on her. She's pretty hot, in a Red sort of way.

The second part of the book, though, not all the rich detail in the world can save from sheer implausibility and a mawkish ending where everyone in the world is reunited more or less happily. Except for (spoilers deleted), because she croaked years ago. Oh well. Too bad, because she was pretty hot. In a Red sort of way.

Sashenka is great as worm's eye view history. To read it is to learn gobs about 20th century Russia. As a novel, it's shlocky. The literary devices are just a leetle too well-worn (Sashenka's actions, quel horreur, echo her detested mother's!), and the story, once it leaps to the present day, kind of lurches aimlessly off into silliness. Apparently, once he could no longer use all the rich historical details at his command, Sebag Montefiore sort of lost interest.

Mr. Sebag Montefiore, if we ever meet, please don't punch me in the face. I don't mean to be a shmuck, but I like you a heck of a lot better as an historian than a novelist. Now, can we talk about that biography of Trotsky? Because I'd climb mountains to read that.

Sashenka, I couldn't have left it in the bookstore after having read the worldwide known Sebag Montefiore's Russian history books. I knew it, it was a good choice. Sebag Montefiore is an accomplished historian and turns out to be also a talented novelist.
Sashenka is a beautiful historical novel with the added value of having an absolutely faithful historical background, which it makes it also a pleasant learning instrument.
It is the story of a woman, Sashenka, in Russia before and after the revolution.
The plot is divided in three parts.
Sashenka as a young girl, Sashenka as an important official figure in Stalin's regime, and the archival research of a young woman in contemporary Russia.
In this way, some passages are omitted, making the developing of the story more agile, and creating a growing sense of suspense between the second and third part.
One. Sashenka was born from a nouveau riche family. The household situation is discomforting and makes the young girl feel uneasy. Through an uncle, she learns about the ferment of the revolution and immaturely but passionately she throws herself into the cause.
Two. We find her married to an important man of Stalin's regime and she herself occupies a relevant political role. Sashenka has children and a serene life. The perfect high rank Bolshevik family. One day she does something unexpected. And everything takes a dramatic turn.
Three. We are in contemporary Russia, a student is asked to make some archival researches on Sashenka.
Since the beginning, the reader can perceive some sort of anxiety, like a crescendo. Then facts lead to a dramatic blast, followed by the silence and slowly a new life, and new windows are opened on the past. Some of those talk about love, devotion, and passion, some others about death, sacrifice, and fear.
In Sashenka, Sebag Montefiore develops the events on the setting of an accurate historical background. At the beginning, it is easy to grasp the flavor of the preparation ground for the revolution thanks to the vivid descriptions of places, characters who certainly lived at the time, codes, methods, clothes, architecture, taverns, smell and noises.
And then the regime, the rigid system, the power, the hierarchy, the relationships among the men around Stalin, the reverence, the dread, and also the prisons, the tortures, and the bureaucracy. The intangible is given in a such dramatic way, that it comes natural to feel the terror of those years in all its aspects.
Particularly fascinating (and philologically reassuring) is the mingling of fictional characters with historical ones. There is an episode in which Stalin himself visits Sashenka's house.
The plot is intriguing, complex and smooth, the dialogues are well orchestrated, the shifting of the scenes has a good rhythm, the visual descriptions are precious, the characters' psychological introspection is articulated.
Wonderful compelling story, the story of a clever woman, sweet mother of two beloved children who lived in her beloved Russia, in one of the most dramatic changes in its history.
It could be a great subject for a movie.
Sashenka, the woman, followed me for days after I finished this Sebag Montefiore's novel.
It made my cry.

I could not put this novel down! I thought it was well written and paced, but I did find myself skimming through the last section because by that point, (2AM work night)I needed to know the conclusion. I wept like I did as a teenager 30 years ago when I finished Jane Eyre. Some knowledge of Russian history is helpful but not required. Read it!!

This tautly written drama is rich in atmosphere and captures the tension and idealism underlying Revolutionary Russia. Yet, as the story moves into the Stalin era, the erosion of those ideals is woven into the interplay of well-drawn characters. Sashenka, herself, is an idealistic, almost but not quite fanatical, revolutionary who resists the belief that the revolution has been subverted by Stalin's rise to power. This is revolutionary Russia drawn up-close and personal.

A compelling read that easily flows smoothly and powerfully past its minor flaws.

Beginning in 1993, I have made 16 trips to Russia, living there for almost three years. I have met people who survived life under Brezhnev and subsequent regimes. I listened to their stories, and stories they told about their parents who knew the Stalinist Terrors. Anyone of them could have told parts of Sashenka's story, but there is so much more to be told. Simon Montefiore has created a masterpiece. An incredible love story plays in front of unspeakable terror and inhumanity. I read the first two sections slowly, savoring the craftsmanship of his story, wanting to make it last, but when I reached the final section, I read it in one sitting, needing to learn the resolution. Powerful!

As someone who grew up in the former Soviet Union with distant family members who perished under Stalin I thoroughly appreciated this book. I am giving it 5 stars, even though the author use dias ex machina too much. Sometimes the events turn too conveniently for the story to reflect reality, and some names and Russian words have not been transliterated from Russian to English the way I would have done it as a native speaker.

That said, though, the story is compelling and realistic. And to the reviewer who complained that there are too many conversations and not enough action -- get over yourself, you are not reading a beach novel or a crime mystery. During the Stalin years the conversations themselves were a crime.