Book club selection (via Chris; session held (via Zoom) July 18, 2021).
Count is so slick, so perfect, so all-knowing. So a bit hard to relate to, at least through first half of the book.
(Though he does get educated occasionally - including by young version of Nina.)
Kind of reminds me of the lead character in "The Martian". Incredible equanimity in the face of whatever. No real suspense even in seemingly suspenseful situations - you know he's going to make it.
And while internal exile was awful - in so many ways I agree that he was lucky to have been exiled to the hotel. Access to finest food & booze when ordinary citizens lived in poverty. Free from military service (even at his age it likely would have been an issue). Leading actress immediately (and then constantly) undressing for him. It could have been Siberia or a firing squad. Etc.
Picking on Montaigne huh? Kind of unacceptable esp as author offers Montaigne-ish touches fairly regularly, musing on how one might live. Note to Count: don't read Montaigne straight through! 2010 halfway point. By coincidence, had just finished the remainder.
List of writers, poets seemed so odd given what happened to them . . . but later he does tell us how they went silent. Bulgakov, Mandelstam, Akhmatova. Kind of a greatest hits recitation, so many favorites. Chekhov. Chopin's E flat Nocturne! That's the one!
Nina to Siberia - long history of spouses following exiles east - going back to tsarist times. Incredible stories and yes many disappeared.
Long lines to view Stalin's body in '53. Stalin's refusal to leave Moscow did seem to matter during '41 German offensive. But is Stalin's legacy really so complicated? Constantly excusing butchery on the basis that Russia was a special case and Bolshevik's extreme measures were not optional - not buying it.
Perhaps just failing to align with my own views on the subject . . . I would have preferred for the author to be clearer about criticizing socialism in Russia (if that was his belief). He describes the NYT's slavish-inexcusable fawning over Soviet system (so little has changed!); but veers toward repeating it.
Though the Count's final moves are all about disenchantment with Soviet system - while remaining rooted in Russia.
A very good read.
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