The Tsar's Dwarf [Paperback]

Peter H. Fogtdal (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

Soerine, a deformed female dwarf from Denmark, is given as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great, who is smitten by her freakishness and intellect. Against her will, the Tsar takes Soerine to St. Petersburg, where she becomes a jester in his court. There, she lives a life that both compels and repels her. Soerine eventually gives in to the attentions of Lukas, the Tsar’s favorite dwarf, and carves out an existence for herself amidst the squalor and lice-ridden world of dwarfs in the early 18th century. In this inhospitable milieu, Soerine’s intelligence and detached wit provide her some small measure of protection — until disaster strikes in the shape of a priest who wants to “save” her. The Tsar’s Dwarf is a masterfully told and brilliantly translated novel about aberration, endurance, and the human condition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Hawthorne Books (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979018803
• ISBN-13: 978-0979018800
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sort of Post Modern Moll Flanders, August 28, 2008

By 

Seven Kitties "7kitties" (Blue Point, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Tsar's Dwarf (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Who are you? Are you defined by your country? Your gender? Your language? What about your body?

Soerine's story for us begins when she's expected to pop out of a cake and sing a song in Russian to the visiting Tsar Peter. It's a humiliating premise and from her refusal to play by the rules, we see her not only assert her deeper humanity, but let us know that she's not going to give up her dignity that easily.

We find her personal history interleaved with the story as it unfolds in Russia, a world of stark and cold whiteness, a perfect emblem for her unemotional state. She hates everybody, or claims to.

This is one of the real keys to this novel: first person narration is always unreliable, and in Soerine's case, she thinks she's telling us the truth, but she's lying to herself. As much as she claims insults don't hurt her, she hates this person or that person, we figure out pretty quickly she means the opposite.

She's in search of her humanity, and even more, her purpose on the earth, when of the countries (Denmark and Russia) are themselves wrestling with the problem of self-definition. That's what makes this novel a step forward in the Moll Flanders tradition: While Moll was an eighteenth century woman trying to free herself from dependence on men, Soerine is an eighteenth-century woman trying to find her purpose, especially tough in a time and place where women were thought not to have souls, and deformities were the sign of the Devil. Her purpose is not to dance and sing for money, exploiting her 'freakishness'; but what is it?

Options open up and are pared down by Soerine herself: we see her shutting one door after another, growing ever more worried that no more doors will be opened. The real crux of this novel is 'should she succeed' just as much as 'will she succeed'.

The prose is sparse and bleak, fitting Soerine's perspective, and more than a little vulgar. But it reads itself, like Soerine, deceptively easily--if you go back and reread, many passages are understatedly elegant. It's deep and rich and the sparsity of language allows for a wonderful complexity of symbolism--cold, herbs, letters, tales, etc. And though Soerine doesn't want you to like her, you end up caring very much. She's a character that will stick in your memory long after you've put this novel down. And, if you're like me, you might cry a bit at the end, which is always my test of great and moving literature.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Would You Like A Little Dwarf With Your Cake?, September 11, 2008

By 

paisleymonsoon (Tulsa, Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Tsar's Dwarf (Paperback)

(What's this?)

The Russian Tsar Peter the Great collects dwarves like some people collect stamps. So when he visits Denmark, the Danish king has a complimentary dwarf jump out of a cake for his pleasure. Only, this is an ugly little dwarf named Sorine with a mind of her own. And, to the tsar's amusement she's jumped out of the cake naked.

Sorine becomes Surinka and goes to Russia to become part of the tsars collection of dwarves. The tsar has even built a dwarf-sized house for his little pets. Sorine a.k.a. Surinka is not amused. And she decks the first dwarf that tries to get her to sleep with him in his dwarf-sized bed.

It all sounds amusing, but Sorine is far from amused with her station in life. She's grumpy, ornery, and speaks her mind. Life hasn't been good to her, but part of this is her fault for pushing away the people in her life who have tried to show her affection. As she grows older, we watch the emotional walls she's erected around herself crumble.

I found myself enjoying this book much more than I thought I would. It's a pleasant, mindless read. Some might see the story as being a dark one, but I found more humor than darkness. Besides, what's a Russian setting without morosity? And I did enjoyed the psychotic character of the tsar and the grumpy character of the dwarf quite a lot.

Also, I have to say that I wish the cover of every paperback book was made like this one with expandable French flaps that function as built-in bookmarks.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow start, but definitely an intriguing read, September 26, 2008

By 

M. Garrison (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tsar's Dwarf (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I'll be honest -- the first 100 pages of this book were a slow read for me, and I felt more irritation than empathy for the main character. If I had just checked this book out from the library, it probably would have gone back unfinished.

Once I got past that point, though, the book started to pull me in. You begin to see a deeper level of Sørine, and you also see her become more open to changes in perspective. Rather than just hearing about all the parts of life that she hates, and about all the people who piss her off, you start to see glimpses of what truly matters to her. Over the book, Sørine goes from the slums in Denmark, performs at the king's palace, is given as a gift to the dwarf-collecting Russian tsar, is sent to a sadistic convent, is used as a museum exhibit, and stows away as a Polish nanny. Throughout, there's a lot of focus on Sørine's ever-changing internal dialogue about religion, and also about the parallel changes in how she sees being a dwarf -- is she human? Is she in the same "class" as the other dwarfs? The descriptions throughout were wonderful as well: enough so that I could truly see the book in my mind, but not so much that it kept me from seeing the story in my own way.

This is definitely literary fiction with a dark side -- so readers who feel put off by intense scenes of violence and sex probably aren't going to enjoy The Tsar's Dwarf.

Oh, and one note about the physical book itself. It is absolutely gorgeously made -- not only a great cover, but high quality materials and thoughtfully designed in a way that just feels great in your hands. I read this book over the course of a week's bus rides to and from work, and every day people would comment on it.