White Blood [Hardcover]

James Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

[This is the Audiobook CASSETTE Library Edition in vinyl case.]

The son of an English father and a Russian mother, Charlie Doig is a big man--big in stature, in spirit, and in sexual appetites. A naturalist, he roughs it around the world collecting specimens for museums. In 1914, he is on a mission for the Academy of Science in Russia when war breaks out. His pay is stopped and his companion goes off to enlist. Doig, however, has no intention of volunteering to be killed. He returns to his family's home near Smolensk and to the woman he loves, his cousin Elizaveta.

At first, their home remains untouched by outside events, and the familiar ways continue. But imperial Russia is doomed, and with it all the old certainties. Trapped by the snow with Doig and Elizaveta are a motley collection of old aristocrats and two soldiers seeking refuge--one of whom, Doig fears, is a Bolshevik out to destroy them all.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this crackling, flamboyant third novel from Ian Fleming's nephew (Thomas Gage), Charlie Doig is the unlikely product of a Scots-Russian union, who lives in his ancestral Smolensk "Pink House" in Russia as the Romanov dynasty wanes. Under the tutelage of German naturalist Hartwig Goetz, Charlie pursues the "holy cause" of Darwinism and captures a rare "bronzy blue-shouldered" bore beetle—an omen of an even rarer apprehension, his oft-delayed marriage to comely Cousin Elizaveta. Amid a parade of hilarious secondary characters (including the Mongolian manservant Kobi and the potentate Count Igor Rykov), Charlie wrests Elizaveta from a rival, and the passion of the newlyweds is finally consummated at the novel's climactic midpoint. The appearance, in the winter of 1917, of the cunning Prokhor Glebov, a Bolshevik and the novel's avenging angel, sets up the book's lingering final turn. Charlie recognizes that Marxist rule in Russia will be a bitter corrective interval at best: "Civilization," says Charlie, "... cannot be restored until the possibilities of barbarism have been displayed in their full bestiality." In the book's wintry denouement, Charlie's narration pulls slowly back on events—the revolution's settling of scores and literal severing of ties with the czarists—and then freezes. It's funny, sad and magical. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

The nephew of the author of the James Bond novels preserves the family legacy in this suspenseful novel, though he trades in cold-war espionage for the prerevolutionary fervor of Russia in 1914. Strapping naturalist Charlie Doig battles primitive jungle conditions and temperatures in pursuit of rare birds and insects. The virile scientist, who boasts that his "proper Russian balls swing like the planets," also pursues exotic sexual adventures, most notably with four prostitutes and a bucket of eels. When war breaks out in Europe, he returns to his Russian homestead near Smolensk and to the charms of his cousin Elizaveta. But the old aristocracy is under siege, and two soldiers, one of whom may be a Bolshevik, move into the family manse during a blizzard, stirring up the household with veiled insults. Fleming crafts his richly told novel in three parts, moving from the wildly entertaining travelogue that opens the tale to the cat-and-mouse game among the snowbound to an out-and-out thriller as Charlie witnesses firsthand the horror of Bolsheviks "forging a new kind of hell." Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Atria (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743299388
• ISBN-13: 978-0743299381
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,246,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME, January 15, 2007

By 

Ian Charles Scott "Scotty" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Blood (Hardcover)

Remarkable! why have we not heard more about this author? I literally could not put the book down,I read with the open mouthed awe that I can only say
returned me to the joys of great fiction. The language is original and beautifully textured , rewarding. The novel was so gripping at time's that my heart was pounding out of my rib-cage! yes it was that good! Plenty of historical detail,extraordinaly complex sex and the most terrifying violence ever put onto paper. He writes like a horny Dylan Thomas with his sabre dipped in blood. This is entirely new in the history of fiction. This man will be hailed as the 21st century's greatest writer.
I immediatly went out and bought his other books to continue the fix.
Long may he write and all power to those brilliant digits.
WRITE WRITE WRITE MR FLEMING your FANS DEMAND MORE

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous, April 13, 2007

By 

adam "frequent flier" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Blood (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book with a great story that is beautifully told. Flemming's use of language is delicious and his descriptions are highly evocative. It also contains one of the raciest sex scenes I have ever read. I loved it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Parts are very good, March 24, 2008

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Blood (Hardcover)

"White Blood" is the story of a Russian naturalist/adventurer in the early 20th century. As he is not a very well developed character, the book takes on the tone of the secondary characters who are on stage at a particular time in his life. My favorite character is Misha, a rural Russian aristocrat, and the tone set reminds one of Chekov; then the Russian revolution reaches even into the rural backwater, and for one wonderful scene various characters including Misha are discussing political philosophy in a scene reminiscent of Shaw at his best.

What really saves this book is that the prose is colorful without being overwrought, and at times is simply very good. "Going to America was completely submerged by the effort of steering these very different engagements upon which I balanced precariously, like a logger keeping his raft of timber in one pack". "The sewage of the past will burst out and sweep across the plains and choke us to death".

I gave "White Blood" 3 stars based on the adventure story aspect. The specimen collecting was dull, and the bloody denouement seems written for effect only.