Ekaterina (Harvest American Writing) (Paperback)

by Donald Harington (Author) "EKATERINA YOU WERE, and you were not at all..." (more)
Key Phrases: chess nook, cat arena, fresh card, Knox Ogden, Georgie Boy, Arcata Springs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
An exiled Georgian princess explores her passion for writing and pre-adolescent boys in this novel by the author of The Choiring of Trees .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
If, as a main character in this playfully intelligent novel about writing novels professes, "The art of fiction lies in wandering beyond the conventional into the original and outrageous." Harington's novel succeeds admirably. This despite the fact the book could aptly be subtitled "variation on a theme (and the life) of Nabokov." Both allusionary and illusionary, it centers around a Georgian (as in the former USSR) princess/mycologist/dissident who arrives in the United States with a rudimentary knowledge of English, a passion for pubescent boys, and a deep-seated fear that her Russian psychiatrist tormentor, Bolshakov, is still on her trail. With the help of a ghost and an alcoholic art historian cum novelist, she discovers her own talent for fiction and makes enough money to take over a suite of rooms in an old mountain resort hotel (a la Nabokov). Eventually, however, both Bolshakov and her taste for 12-year-olds catch up with her and her world comes crashing down. Or does it? For, after all, "Ekaterina you were, and you were not at all." There will be some outraged objectors to the book's sexual scenes, but most will find this novel enjoyable and worthwhile reading. Like its precursor, Lolita , it belongs in most academic and public libraries.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (June 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156000474
• ISBN-13: 978-0156000475
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,160,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful evocation of an immigrant in a rural tourist town, August 9, 2000

By	"bookloversince1956" (Dallas, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ekaterina (Hardcover)

Donald Harington remains the best uncelebrated author in America. "Ekaterina," set in a thinly disguised Eureka Springs, Arkansas, at a majestic old hotel (with a creepy history), is story telling at its best. The details are perfect; if you've read any of Harington's previous novels, you are richly rewarded. If you haven't, you are not harmed in the telling of the story but you will want to read the others when you've finished. This will be a book you not only enjoy but you will want to turn others onto. I once collected an autograph from a favorite famous author, William Styron, who told me, in our too-brief conversation, that Harington is one of his favorite authors. Read "Ekaterina" and you will see why.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous book, July 1, 2001

By	"joneslawrence" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

I only came across this book after reading Nabakov's 'Lolita'. And I have to say that if any of you are contemplating reading 'Ekaterina' you'd be rewarded if you read 'Lolita' first (preferably the 'Annotated Lolita' edited by Alfred Appel Jr).

One similarity between 'Lolita' and 'Ekaterina' is obvious - the disturbing theme of pedophilia. But there are so many other parallels. One in particular is the examination of authorial intrusion. In 'Lolita', Nabakov allows himself surreptitious peeps and circumlocutions as if from behind the stage of a puppet theater. And to the intelligent reader he lets it be known that he is the puppet master and that his novel is not a slice of "reality" but a work of fiction.

Similarly (but, it must be said, less subtly) Harington's manipulation of his characters implies an authorial presence at all times. Harington examines the roll of the artist as God right from the start by using the second person narrative technique. This is a technique that I have rarely come across but Harington uses it expertly.

For those of you who like reading complex novels filled with self-reflexion, intertextuality, and jokes aimed at publishers then this is a novel for you!

Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel by a great author, November 8, 2008

By	Laura Best (Rolla, MO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ekaterina (Paperback)

I love Donald Harington! He is a great writer. He can make even a ghost seem sad and funny and full of life (ha ha). Seriously, this story mixes a sketchy heroine, a sketchy innocent young boy, and one of my favorite epic journeys home to Stay More. Almost every Harington novel has one, a journey home, a long description of the town and the mountains and what makes even a ghost-town feel like where you belong. That the heroine feels this way having never been before makes it all the more magical and inspiring. I think this is a redemptive tale, it's just hard to see at times. In his beautiful way, he makes even the worst offenders at home in his magical redneck world. There are characters like these in my small town, and I think underneath the "Lolita" homage is a real look at this part of small-town life in the Ozarks.