Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten

 

In Tsarina, Ellen Alpsten imagines the life of a peasant widowed soon after her marriage, claimed as a war prize and handed up the ranks until she catches the eye of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. 

Marta may be illiterate, but she uses her wiles, wit, and physical attractiveness to become Peter's favorite bed partner. She becomes necessary to his happiness as a man and as a ruler. Renamed Catherine, Peter marries her and then crowns her his equal-- Tsarina.

The novel follows Marta/Catherine's life, taking readers into the peasant villages and the brutal life of serfs, into war, the building of St. Petersburg, and the decadent royal courts with all its intrigue and shifting alliances. 

Since the novel is written from the viewpoint of Catherine, we can't expect to understand much about Peter's inner life. Which is too bad, since he was a complicated man who pushed Russia to Westernize and modernize but still employed brutality and ruled with a heavy hand. His excesses resulted in terrible health problems. His volatile temper and complete power resulted in the torture and murder of his enemies. It appears that Catherine was able to calm his temper, and minister to him when he suffered seizures.

I did expect to understand more about Catherine's inner thoughts. Did she truly love Peter, or, as a powerless female, was she merely using her wit to survive? Late in their story, she fears Peter and has doubts.

That Peter loved Catherine appears to be true if we believe the love letters he sent her. 

Catherine's twelve pregnancies resulted in only two surviving children, but not the sons Peter so desperately desired to keep his dynasty intact. Upon Peter's death, Catherine had to quickly react to maintain control of the government.

The violence of the age comes through, the court entertainment revolving around mistreatment of jesters and anyone the royals decided to force into humiliating situations, including physical abuse, the torturing of political or romantic rivals, real or perceived, to downright murder.

Readers will gain insight into the development of Russia. Peter envisioned a modern Russia, emulating France and European civilization. It required the heavy taxation of serfs, forced labor to build St. Petersburg which would protect Russia's western border and access to the North Sea for trading. Meanwhile, he fought endless wars  with Sweden, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire.

Alpsten's debut novel has its drawbacks, and yet still was compelling; Catherine's story is at once that of a fairy-tale princess and of a powerless pawn struggling to survive. My Goodreads friends highly rated Tsarina, swept away. 

I did not appreciate the frequent, descriptive sex scenes of rape or lovemaking, which to me were not well written and took up too much space. I really don't need to know about parting thighs, etc., when knowing feelings and thoughts in response could add depth to a character. The writing is at times awkward. But I have to admit, I did not walk away from the story. 

I received a free book through the Book Club Cook Book. My review is fair and unbiased

Catherine I By Jean-Marc Nattier - http://www.barmin-ekb.ru/?page=katalog&id=100065, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2074479

TSARINA: A Novel
Ellen Alpsten
St. Martin's Press
On Sale: 11/10/2020
ISBN: 9781250214430
hardcover $27.99

from the publisher

St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless and passionate as Peter himself.

Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life—the lavish feasts, glittering jewels, and candle-lit hours in Peter’s bedchamber—she knows the peril of her position. Peter’s attentions are fickle and his rages powerful; his first wife is condemned to a prison cell, her lover impaled alive in Red Square. And now Catherine faces the ultimate test: can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself?

From the sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy, to the incense-filled rites of the Orthodox Church and the terror of Peter’s torture chambers, the intoxicating and dangerous world of Imperial Russia is brought to vivid life. Tsarina is the story of one remarkable woman whose bid for power would transform the Russian Empire.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts

I knew the entire endeavour had been inflected with a measure of madness.~from The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts

I was intrigued. Pianos and Siberia--what a strange combination.

I love piano music. I have played (poorly) since I was eight years old. I love the piano music of Rubinstein and Rachmaninoff. I love Russian composers, from Tchaikovsky to Rimsky-Korsakov to Stravinsky to Prokofiev to Shostakovich.

But--Pianos in Siberia? The far land of exile and punishment for millions known as The Prison Without a Roof?

Just the kind of book for me.

Sophy Roberts spent several years traveling across the breadth of Siberia tracing an unlikely, but rich, musical heritage. Her book The Lost Pianos of Siberia is part travelogue and part Russian history, filtered through the impact of music.

Franz Liszt's Russian tour "turned the Russian love of the instrument into a fever in the 1840s," Roberts writes.

The diversity of Siberia's people, from the indigenous people who underwent repression, to prisoners including serfs and the Romanov family, fill the pages as Roberts sought the rumored, legendary pianos, including the piano Empress Alexandra played while held prisoner.

The book is also a compressed Russian history, especially of the 20th c. revolutions, and a history of the piano, including the rise of Russian factories.

It felt about as far from home as I could get while remaining on this planet. ~from The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts

In the far-flung communities of Siberia, Roberts discovers the universal love of music. It is incredible to read about herders gathering to hear a brilliant pianist play a baby grand in a Mongolian gert.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia is a unique and mesmerizing read.

The publisher gave me a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher

From acclaimed journalist Sophy Roberts, a journey through one of the harshest landscapes on earth—where music reveals the deep humanity and the rich history of Siberia

Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.

Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos—grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood.

How these pianos traveled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia is largely a story of music in this fascinating place, following Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of different instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful—and peppered with pianos.

About the author

Sophy Roberts is a British writer whose work focuses on remote travel. She began her career assisting the writer Jessica Mitford, was an English scholar at Oxford University, and trained in journalism at Columbia University. She regularly contributes to the Financial Times and Condé Nast Traveler. The Lost Pianos of Siberia is her first book.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia
by Sophy Roberts
Grove Atlantic
Pub Date August 4, 2020
ISBN: 9780802149282
PRICE $40.50 (CAD)

Blowout Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russian, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow

I thought I should read Blowout by Rachel Maddow. Should being the giveaway word to my motivation. Instead of a dose of medicine that's good for me but hard to swallow, it was a terrifying funhouse ride that totally engaged my attention! Maddow weaves together a narrative of how we 'got to here' that illumines the present.

Maddow lays out the oil industry's history from Standard Oil to fracking to Putin's dream of Russia becoming the world's fuel provider to trolls on Facebook disseminating discord.

The oil industry has always been too big and wealthy and powerful to control, starting with John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil which drove out or took over the competition. The values have not changed; anything goes in the pursuit of increased production and mindboggling wealth. And power. Don't forget the obscene power.

The oil industry has always looked for better ways to get to the oil, using nuclear bombs and ocean drilling and fracking. Sure, messes happen. The best clean up tool they have developed is a big stick of paper towels.

Fracking was going to save the day! Years worth of 'clean' gas. So what if Oklahoma suffered 900 earthquakes in 2017?

I didn't know how Putin had gambled everything on the fossil fuel industry bringing Russia money and power across the globe. But they needed the technology to make it happen. And Rex Tillerson and Exxon/Mobile were planning to help him. Those pesky sanctions got in their way.

Business and capitalism is amoral; politics and justice and fairness are irrelevant. The prime directive is making money. You lobby for the best tax deals, pay workers the lowest wages possible, make deals with the Devil--if you are killing people, or the entire planet, cover it up and carry on making the big bucks.

The damage fossil fuels are doing to the planet is happening NOW, has been happening for a long time before we wised up to it. It isn't just when we take a jet or when we eat a half-pound burger or drive the kids to school. Getting that gas out of the ground it escapes. Lots of it. From the get-go, fossil fuels damage our world.

Maddow writes, Coal is done, and so is gas and oil but they don't know it yet.

Oh, the last desperate gasps of the old world struggling to hold on.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

"...the oil and gas industry is essentially a big casino that can produce both power and triumphant great gobs of cash, often with little regard for merit. That equation invites gangsterism, extortion, thuggery, and the sorts of folks who enjoy these hobbies. Its practitioners have been lumbering across the globe of late, causing mindless damage and laying the groundwork for the global catastrophe that is the climate crisis but also reordering short-term geopolitics in a strong-but-dumb survival contest that renders everything we think of as politics as just theater. It's worth understanding why. And why now."~from Blowout by Rachel Maddow

from the publisher:

Rachel Maddow’s Blowout offers a dark, serpentine, riveting tour of the unimaginably lucrative and corrupt oil-and-gas industry. With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe—from Oklahoma City to Siberia to Equatorial Guinea—exposing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas. She shows how Russia’s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia’s rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the United States, and the West’s most important alliances. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, but ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson emerge as two of the past century’s most consequential corporate villains.

The oil-and-gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, “like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can’t really blame the lion. It’s in her nature.”

This book is a clarion call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest industry on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of predatory oil executives and their enablers. The stakes have never been higher. As Maddow writes, “Democracy either wins this one or disappears.”

Blowout
Rachel Maddow
Crown
Published Oct 01, 2019
Hardcover $30.00
ISBN 9780525575474

The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

In a time long ago and a world far away, one girl dares to claim the right to make her own fate. Against her family's desires, the demands of society and church, she resists the life laid out for her. Even the pagan gods, whose power is slowly fading, tries to harness her for their good but she will not be chattel to anyone. Vasilisa, the wild child of the woods, who can talk to horses and the household spirits, only seeks one thing: the freedom of self determination.

All my Goodreads friends had raved about The Bear and the Nightingale. I felt like I had badly missed out. I purchased a Kindle copy but had not read it...then I won a copy of the second volume in the Winternight Trilogy, The Girl in the Tower, through Bookish. I immediately started reading the first book before the ARC of the second volume arrived.

I am not a huge fantasy fan. So take that into consideration when I say I loved this book. I loved the setting in old Rus', a time when paganism had not yet been driven out by Christianity. I loved the Russian fairy tales that inform the novel. Vasilisa, with her wide mouth and large green eyes, is a manifestation of a traditional Russian folk tale of a frog who turns into a princess.

The story opens on a late winter night in Rus', with children demanding a story. And they hear about the frost-demon, the winter king Morozko, also known as the death-god who froze bad children in the night. In the fairy tale, a step-mother sends her step-daughter into the winter forest to marry Morozko. The girl was nonplussed by the demon and he sent her home with dowry gifts. The step-mother was jealous of her good fortune and sends her own daughter to the Frost-King, expecting her to return with riches. But her spoiled daughter was ungrateful and complained. Morozko did not save her.

One of the children listening, Vasilisa, has inherited her mother's and grandmother's gift of recognizing the spirit world. Vasya is happier in the stable or the woods than she is in the house, and bristles against the limited life laid out for a girl child. She understands that the spirits are languishing, which means they cannot protect the hearth, home, or stable, and she befriends them in secret. Else, she would be called a witch or a mad woman.

In an interview with Book Page, Arden describes these household spirits of protection:

There is a guardian spirit for everything in Russian folklore. The domovoi guards the house; the dvorovoi guards the dooryard. The bannik guards the bathhouse, the ovinnik, the threshing-­house. Their areas of influence are almost absurdly specific. And each creature has a certain appearance and personality, and people must do certain things to placate them.

Vasya's father goes to Moscow to seek a bride, and a bridegroom for his eldest daughter. His son Sasha stays to study for the priesthood. The Rus' ruler takes advantage, offering his 'mad' daughter as wife-- Anna, a pious Christian who sees the spirits and, believing they are demons, shrieks in despair.

Also sent back to the deep woods is the priest Konstantin, a man who seeks holy glory and preaches against the old ways. When voices talk to him he believes it is God who directs him to instill fear to drive the people to God. Vasya disturbs him, in more ways than one.

Vasya strives to maintain the old ways, fighting the evil spirits that threaten her family, and finding protection from Morozko. When the spirit of Death in the form of a monstrous bear attacks their community, Vasya is blamed. Rather than being forced to marry or enter a convent, or be killed as a witch, Vasya dresses as a boy and goes out into the world with a horse from Morozko, the unworldly stead Solovey, or Nightingale.

The novel is otherworldly and enchanting. It is a delight to read a female hero's journey.

*****

In the early 1970s I audited a course in which I read Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Morphology of the Folktale by V. Propp. Reading Arden's story brought back things I had learned at that time.

The Hero's Journey as set out in Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces is found universally in folk lore, fairy tales, religions, and in literature. The journey includes separation, or leaving home and childhood; initiation and trials; symbolic death, a journey to the underworld or being 'in the belly of a whale'; meeting with a god; apotheosis; return, rescue, and freedom. There are magical agents or helpers along the way to ad the hero.

Propp breaks down the structure of folk tales. The villain threatening harm to the family, an object is sought to solve a problem, the hero is pursued and rescued, the hero is given difficult task, the false hero or villain is exposed,the villain is punished, and the hero is married.

The journey of a female hero is slightly different. First, the female hero must escape domestic imprisonment as a child. She is called to adventure, refusing supernatural aid. She may have to chose between a light and a dark man, searches for a father, and encounters an alternative mother figure.The female hero rejects her inferiority as a woman, and after trials and tests, succeeds in her quest.

Vasya is truly a female hero on a journey, born of the traditional Russian folk tale.

*****

The Girl in the Tower continues Vasya's story from The Bear and the Nightingale.

In the cruel winter, Vasya flees her home where she was driven out as a witch. Alone in the frozen winter woods with Solovey, Morozko must save her life once again. She will not heed his advice to take on the life of a wife and mother. She will not be constrained to such a limited world.

Vasya encounters burned villages and hears of raiders who take girl children. She follows the marauders and, using trickery, saves the the girls. But the leader of the marauders sees her and pursues them. Vasya comes to walled village and they are taken in. There she meets her brother Sasha, the valiant priest and childhood friend of the ruling prince. Her exploits impress the prince, and she leads his band to track down the marauders. Vasya accompanies the retinue to Moscow and is reunited with her sister. Also in Moscow is the tormented Konstintine, the priest whose misguided faith drove him to persecute Vasya in her hometown.

Vasya's identity as a boy forces her siblings to collude in her lie, a risky venture since they must deceive the prince. Also in Moscow is a foreign ruler who has a special interest in Vasya, and who also has a magical horse even more powerful than Solovey.

Morozko, the Frost King, reappears several times warning Vasya or saving her life. He needs her faith to live, but also is drawn to the girl. But to love her he must give up immortality. In any case, Vasya disdains his help and alienates him.

The story includes a twisted plot of false identities, a heritage of women who can communicate with the spirit world, and a riveting epic battle.

I can't wait for the third volume!

I received a free ARC through Bookish First in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

*****

In the story, Christianity vies with pagan beliefs. Konstantine represents the aggressive element which warns of witches and false worship, calling the spirits demons. Sasha has studied for the priesthood, but can not leave the world for the cloister. He is fights at the prince's side while also blessing the dying. He must reconcile his Christian belief with Vasya's shared wisdom of otherworldly forces.

In an interview with Book Page, Arden addresses this conflict:

BP: The conflict between Christianity and the old traditions is a big part of this book. What do readers need to know about this period in Russian history? 

KA: I think it’s important to realize that this period of Russian history doesn’t have a lot of primary sources...But what we do know: at this time period (mid fourteenth century) Muscovy was rising rapidly, buoyed by a long collaboration with the Golden Horde, which had taken power in Russia about two hundred years prior. At the time, the Horde was preoccupied by succession problems (Genghis Khan had a really absurd number of descendants), and the Grand Princes of Moscow were quietly expanding their territory and bringing lesser princes into the fold. 

During this period, much of Muscovy’s conflict was with other Russian city-­states (notably Tver), but Dmitrii Ivanovich (who is still a boy in The Bear and the Nightingale) is the first prince who will successfully oppose the Golden Horde and Mongol dominance in Russia.

Restoring a Sense of Order to the World: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I was eager to read Amor Towles novel A Gentleman in Moscow after reading rave reviews from my Goodread friends and enjoying the opening pages through the First Look Bookclub. I loved the writing and tone of those first pages. When I got my hands on a copy I read it in three days and was in happy tears at the end.

Count Alexander Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, Member of the Jockey club, and Master of the Hunt is a Former Person, a member of the aristocracy slated for execution but for having his name linked to a 1915 revolutionary poem. Count Rostov is instead placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in the heart of Moscow. It is June 21, 1922. The Count is 33 years old. It is his luckiest day.

He will not return to his luxury suite stocked with priceless heirlooms and beloved books; he is moved into an empty 100 square foot room, former servant quarters in the attic. The Count chooses a few items to take with him. And when I read these following lines, I knew their truth from having moved many times and carried 'things' that brought a sense of home with them:

"...we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience...allowing memories to invest the with greater and greater importance...Until we imagine that these carefully preserved possessions might give us genuine solace in the face of a lost companion. 

But of course, a thing is just a thing."

I found myself marking passage after lovely and insightful passage that elucidate the characters and our common experience.

The Count adapts to his new reality, mastering his circumstances. He takes a job as the head waiter in the hotel restaurant. He is befriended by Nina, a whimsical nine-year-old girl whose parting gift is a universal pass key to all the hotel rooms. Nina grows up, then leaves her daughter Sophia with the Count to follow her husband sent to the Gulag. The child is ignored by the police only because there was doubt about her patrimony. A Soviet official hires the Count to educate him in the culture of the West, and over fifteen years they develop a mutual respect. And Sophia grows to become an accomplished pianist. (Hear the music of the novel here.)

As the world the Count knew and loved is dismantled under the Bolsheviks, "who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased." The Count's university days friend Mishka has been struggling, asking, "What is it about a nation that would foster a willingness in its people to destroy their own artworks, ravage their own cities, and kill their own progeny without compunction? " Mishka answers his question with his realization that self-destruction was not an abomination, but Russia's greatest strength, "We are prepared to destroy that which we have created because we believe more than any of them [The British, French or Italians] in the power of the picture, the poem, the prayer, or the person."

Sophia asks the Count why he returned to Russia from Paris. His only answer is that, "Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol." And the last pages of the novel become comedy, a happy ending, a righting of things knocked over in the skirmish, "an essential faith that by the smallest of one's actions one can restore some sense of order to the world."

You may think a novel about thirty-two years living in the Metropol Hotel would be dull and without interest. The novel is episodic, skipping from one important time to another, but new people enter the hotel and affect the Count's life. Read the author's comment on the structure of the novel at http://www.amortowles.com/gentleman-moscow-amor-towles/gentleman-moscow-qa-amor-towles/

But I was mesmerized, charmed by the Count, drawn in by the slow revelation of his past and enticed by his plans for his future.