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Rus Kışı
Aşk ve sanata, ihanet ve telafiye dair bu nefes kesici öyküde gizemli bir mücevher hayat değiştiren bir sırra ışık tutuyor.
Olağanüstü mücevher koleksiyonunu açık artırmayla satmaya karar veren, bir zamanlar Bolşoy Balesi'nde büyük bir yıldız olan Nina Revskaya, nihayet geçmişine bir perde çekebileceğine inanır. Ancak, eski balerin hiç tahmin etmediği bir şekilde kendini vatanının ve yarım asır önce hayatını değiştiren hem ihtişamlı hem de üzücü olayların hatıraları altında ezilirken bulur.
Nina Rusya'da genç bir kızken tiyatronun büyüsüne kapılır; şair Viktor Elsin'e âşık olur ve en sonunda sevgili arkadaşları (muhteşem bir besteci olan Gersh ve en yakın arkadaşı zarif Vera) ile birlikte Stalinist saldırganlığın kurbanı olur. Yine Rusya'dayken korkunç bir keşif, büyük bir ihanetin ve ustaca bir planın kıvılcımını ateşleyerek Nina'nın Batı'ya kaçmasını ve en sonunda Boston'a yerleşmesini beraberinde getirir.
Nina ömrünün yarısını sırlarını saklayarak geçirir. Ama iki kişi geçmişin karanlıklar içinde kalmasına izin vermeyecektir: Boston'daki bir müzayede evinin genç ve meraklı çalışanı Drew Brooks ve nadir bulunan bir mücevher setinin, kendi belirsiz geçmişini aydınlatabileceğine inanan Rusça profesörü Grigori Solodin. Bu alışılmadık ikili beraberce bir aşk mektubu, bir şiir ve kaynağı belli olmayan bir kolyenin etrafındaki esrarı çözmeye uğraşırken, karşılaştıkları bir dizi gerçek hepsinin hayatlarını değiştirir.
Geçmiş ile şimdiki zamanı, Moskova ve New England'ı, dans dünyasının sahne arkasındaki heyecanı ile sanatın dönüştürücü gücünü iç içe geçiren Daphne Kalotay'ın zekice kaleme alınmış bu ilk romanı, tarihin gücü karşısında çaresiz kalan bireylerin yaşadığı belirsizlikleri ve korkuları ele alırken, büyük sıkıntıların yaşandığı dönemlerde bile insan ruhunun güzelliğe ve zarafete, bağışlamaya ve aşkınlığa ulaşmak istediğini doğruluyor.
Olağanüstü mücevher koleksiyonunu açık artırmayla satmaya karar veren, bir zamanlar Bolşoy Balesi'nde büyük bir yıldız olan Nina Revskaya, nihayet geçmişine bir perde çekebileceğine inanır. Ancak, eski balerin hiç tahmin etmediği bir şekilde kendini vatanının ve yarım asır önce hayatını değiştiren hem ihtişamlı hem de üzücü olayların hatıraları altında ezilirken bulur.
Nina Rusya'da genç bir kızken tiyatronun büyüsüne kapılır; şair Viktor Elsin'e âşık olur ve en sonunda sevgili arkadaşları (muhteşem bir besteci olan Gersh ve en yakın arkadaşı zarif Vera) ile birlikte Stalinist saldırganlığın kurbanı olur. Yine Rusya'dayken korkunç bir keşif, büyük bir ihanetin ve ustaca bir planın kıvılcımını ateşleyerek Nina'nın Batı'ya kaçmasını ve en sonunda Boston'a yerleşmesini beraberinde getirir.
Nina ömrünün yarısını sırlarını saklayarak geçirir. Ama iki kişi geçmişin karanlıklar içinde kalmasına izin vermeyecektir: Boston'daki bir müzayede evinin genç ve meraklı çalışanı Drew Brooks ve nadir bulunan bir mücevher setinin, kendi belirsiz geçmişini aydınlatabileceğine inanan Rusça profesörü Grigori Solodin. Bu alışılmadık ikili beraberce bir aşk mektubu, bir şiir ve kaynağı belli olmayan bir kolyenin etrafındaki esrarı çözmeye uğraşırken, karşılaştıkları bir dizi gerçek hepsinin hayatlarını değiştirir.
Geçmiş ile şimdiki zamanı, Moskova ve New England'ı, dans dünyasının sahne arkasındaki heyecanı ile sanatın dönüştürücü gücünü iç içe geçiren Daphne Kalotay'ın zekice kaleme alınmış bu ilk romanı, tarihin gücü karşısında çaresiz kalan bireylerin yaşadığı belirsizlikleri ve korkuları ele alırken, büyük sıkıntıların yaşandığı dönemlerde bile insan ruhunun güzelliğe ve zarafete, bağışlamaya ve aşkınlığa ulaşmak istediğini doğruluyor.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
542 people are currently reading
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About the author
Daphne Kalotay
8 books248 followersDaphne Kalotay grew up in New Jersey, where her parents had relocated from Ontario; her mother is Canadian, while her father came from Hungary to Canada as a teen. Daphne attended Vassar College, majoring in psychology, before moving to Boston to attend Boston University's graduate program in fiction writing. She stayed on to earn a PhD in Modern and Contemporary literature, writing her dissertation on one of her favorite writers, Mavis Gallant. Her interview with Mavis Gallant can be found in the Paris Review's Writers-at-work series. At Boston University, Daphne's stories won the school's Florence Engell Randall Fiction Prize and a Henfield Foundation Award. Her first book, the fiction collection Calamity and Other Stories, was short-listed for the Story Prize and includes work first published in Agni, Good Housekeeping, The Literary Review, Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her debut novel, the international bestseller Russian Winter, won the 2011 Writers' League of Texas Award in Fiction. Her second novel, the Boston Globe bestseller Sight Reading, won the New England Society Book Award in Fiction, and her third novel, Blue Hours, was a Massachusetts Book Awards "Must Read." Her new collection, The Archivists, is the winner of the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. Daphne has taught literature and creative writing at Boston University, University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, Skidmore College, Middlebury College, and Princeton University. She lives in the Boston area.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,390 reviews
March 28, 2021
One of my ALL TIME favorite historical fiction books!
July 13, 2013
Unknown to most Americans, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin caused the great famine of the early 1930's resulting in the death of millions of his own people. By "liquidating the Kulaks as a class" Stalin may have eliminated the more prosperous and conservative farmers in the Ukraine, and it led to the establishment of collective farms and chaos in the countryside. The loss of over twenty million Soviet citizens during the "Great Patriotic War" combined with the massive physical destruction of the nation formed the backdrop for one of the finest depictions of the cultural life of the Russian people I have yet come across in historical fiction.
Nina's frustrating refusal to let down her guard is remarkably true to life as she and millions of her countrymen experienced life in their homeland where a simple uttered comment could lead to a long prison sentence. And Grigori's reluctance to share the truth about a "family connection" when referring to his own amber piece is simply more evidence that those raised in the Soviet Union had to be careful not to do or say anything that might bring the authorities to your home.
Russian Winter's superb blending of Nina's life in post-war Russia and her excruciatingly painful existence in modern-day Boston held my attention from the opening scene where we are introduced to Drew Brooks and Nina Revskaya to the final,and hopeful meeting at the auction house.
Though Grigori left the Soviet Union at age eleven, he would remain a nomad; first in Norway, then in France, and finally, at age sixteen, in New Jersey. Like many orphans, he longed to discover his biological heritage without upsetting his adoptive parents who regarded him as a jewel, a gift from above. his secretiveness led him to keep people from getting too close to him. He felt he could not even share personal concerns with the one man whom he considered his closest friend and colleague, Zoltan, the great Hungarian poet.
Drew is a fully formed, three dimensional character about whom we glean a great deal. Is her life story not compulsively interesting in a manner that evokes the finest of Woody Allen's female characters? And she is a person, like Grigori, of great gravitas leading a full, rich life, but feeling the influence of her beloved grandmother Riita, who she believed to be the only person who really understood her as a person.
I may be in the minority, but Russian Winter, in my opinion, is one of the finest works of historical fiction I have read in the past decade or so.
Nina's frustrating refusal to let down her guard is remarkably true to life as she and millions of her countrymen experienced life in their homeland where a simple uttered comment could lead to a long prison sentence. And Grigori's reluctance to share the truth about a "family connection" when referring to his own amber piece is simply more evidence that those raised in the Soviet Union had to be careful not to do or say anything that might bring the authorities to your home.
Russian Winter's superb blending of Nina's life in post-war Russia and her excruciatingly painful existence in modern-day Boston held my attention from the opening scene where we are introduced to Drew Brooks and Nina Revskaya to the final,and hopeful meeting at the auction house.
Though Grigori left the Soviet Union at age eleven, he would remain a nomad; first in Norway, then in France, and finally, at age sixteen, in New Jersey. Like many orphans, he longed to discover his biological heritage without upsetting his adoptive parents who regarded him as a jewel, a gift from above. his secretiveness led him to keep people from getting too close to him. He felt he could not even share personal concerns with the one man whom he considered his closest friend and colleague, Zoltan, the great Hungarian poet.
Drew is a fully formed, three dimensional character about whom we glean a great deal. Is her life story not compulsively interesting in a manner that evokes the finest of Woody Allen's female characters? And she is a person, like Grigori, of great gravitas leading a full, rich life, but feeling the influence of her beloved grandmother Riita, who she believed to be the only person who really understood her as a person.
I may be in the minority, but Russian Winter, in my opinion, is one of the finest works of historical fiction I have read in the past decade or so.
March 9, 2011
Our faculty had an interesting discussion about Russian Winter last week. All enjoyed it very much, some were disappointed in the end (no spoiler) just thought it ended too abruptly. Characters were well drawn and there was an interesting mix of types, all unique and human. One gets a real sense of the lack of privacy and constant prying of Soviet eyes on its citizens in the era of the late 40's and early 50's. Nina, Paulina and Vera also take us into the grueling and competitive world of the Bolshoi Ballet of the time. There is history, love, romance, suspense, betrayal and descriptions of a variety of precious jewels that ultimately make it to the Boston auction house. What value do these gems hold for the owners and why are they selling them??
January 29, 2022
Ideja mi se svidjela. Priča u prošlosti i sadašnjosti koja se (naravno) veže, Rusija, balerine, nakit star više od pedeset godina koji dobija svoj izgubljen dio... Što tu ima ne biti dobro? Način na koji smo priču dobili!
Doooosaaaadddnoooooo! Pogotovo priča u prošlosti koja se (imala sam osjećaj) samo ponavljala i ništa novo nije otkrivala. Knjigu sam čitala 11 dana i na kraju me samo nervirala koliko je duga. U pola manje teksta bila bi zanimljiva, napeta i ništa se ne bi izgubilo. Iskreno, ni priča u sadašnjosti me nije previše zaokupila. Blah!
Priznajem, da nije bila zadatak za čitateljski klub, ne bih pročitala dalje od pola. Prvi put, nakon ne znam ni ja koliko godina i različitih naslova s kojima sam se družila... Ovako sam samo ponosna što sam ipak ja pobijedila i došla do kraja.
„Kad ne bih pisao zbog sebe samoga, ne bih se uopće trudio pisati.“
„Smiješno kako možeš stvari vidjeti u drugom svjetlu, ovisno o tome što tražiš.“
„Nedostajao mu je Christinein književni klub, kad bi žene sjedile u dnevnoj sobi, razgovarale i smijale se tako da bi im on uvijek zavidio, a izmjenjivale bi i privatne informacije što bi njega katkad šokiralo; činilo se da niijedna tema nije bila previše intimna da se ne bi mogla spomenuti uz pladanj sira i bocu hladnog bijelog vina.“ - podsjetilo me na moj tročlani čitateljski kružok <3
„Isto se znalo događati kad bi ponekad čitao dobru poeziju ili bilo koju dobru knjigu: istina bi ga dotaknula do srži i ne bi ga htjela pustiti.“
„Ali također je bila istina da je unutarnji svijet vrlo velik, uvijek raste, pun je mogućnosti koje stvarni svijet nužno ne nudi.“
Doooosaaaadddnoooooo! Pogotovo priča u prošlosti koja se (imala sam osjećaj) samo ponavljala i ništa novo nije otkrivala. Knjigu sam čitala 11 dana i na kraju me samo nervirala koliko je duga. U pola manje teksta bila bi zanimljiva, napeta i ništa se ne bi izgubilo. Iskreno, ni priča u sadašnjosti me nije previše zaokupila. Blah!
Priznajem, da nije bila zadatak za čitateljski klub, ne bih pročitala dalje od pola. Prvi put, nakon ne znam ni ja koliko godina i različitih naslova s kojima sam se družila... Ovako sam samo ponosna što sam ipak ja pobijedila i došla do kraja.
„Kad ne bih pisao zbog sebe samoga, ne bih se uopće trudio pisati.“
„Smiješno kako možeš stvari vidjeti u drugom svjetlu, ovisno o tome što tražiš.“
„Nedostajao mu je Christinein književni klub, kad bi žene sjedile u dnevnoj sobi, razgovarale i smijale se tako da bi im on uvijek zavidio, a izmjenjivale bi i privatne informacije što bi njega katkad šokiralo; činilo se da niijedna tema nije bila previše intimna da se ne bi mogla spomenuti uz pladanj sira i bocu hladnog bijelog vina.“ - podsjetilo me na moj tročlani čitateljski kružok <3
„Isto se znalo događati kad bi ponekad čitao dobru poeziju ili bilo koju dobru knjigu: istina bi ga dotaknula do srži i ne bi ga htjela pustiti.“
„Ali također je bila istina da je unutarnji svijet vrlo velik, uvijek raste, pun je mogućnosti koje stvarni svijet nužno ne nudi.“
December 14, 2010
I love novels that unfold the way Russian Winter by Daphne Kolatay did - shrouded in a mystery that's slowly, tantalizingly revealed through multiple narratives and flashbacks.
The story starts out simply enough: Nina, a former Bolshoi ballerina is putting up her jewels for auction. As Nina inventories her jewels, she also reluctantly inventories her life - setting in motion a painful remembrance of her past in communist Russia and who she left when she defected: her husband, the handsome poet; and their friends, Gersh and Vera.
The focus of the story quickly centers around a pair of amber earrings and bracelet, as a Russian professor, Grigori Solodin, mysteriously donates an amber pendant which he insists belongs to the same set. Who is Grigori and how is he related to Nina?
There were many times when I thought I knew where Russian Winter was going only to be surprised with the twists and turns. On the way to finding the true significance of the amber jewels and the circumstances of Nina's defection, Kolatay immersed me in the vividly rendered life of a ballerina in communist Russia, as well as the dangerous political climate for artists of that time and era.
Russian Winter is an engrossing, captivating novel of love and loss.
The story starts out simply enough: Nina, a former Bolshoi ballerina is putting up her jewels for auction. As Nina inventories her jewels, she also reluctantly inventories her life - setting in motion a painful remembrance of her past in communist Russia and who she left when she defected: her husband, the handsome poet; and their friends, Gersh and Vera.
The focus of the story quickly centers around a pair of amber earrings and bracelet, as a Russian professor, Grigori Solodin, mysteriously donates an amber pendant which he insists belongs to the same set. Who is Grigori and how is he related to Nina?
There were many times when I thought I knew where Russian Winter was going only to be surprised with the twists and turns. On the way to finding the true significance of the amber jewels and the circumstances of Nina's defection, Kolatay immersed me in the vividly rendered life of a ballerina in communist Russia, as well as the dangerous political climate for artists of that time and era.
Russian Winter is an engrossing, captivating novel of love and loss.
January 15, 2013
Well it seems I may be in the minority here but I did not love this book. It had so much potential! I appreciate that the author tried to tie the 2 stories together but the Boston bits ruined the rest of it.
In fairness much of what I didn’t like is personal preference. I hate the formula used here. Tell a little bit, just when it gets interesting, switch to something else. To me it feels like someone taunting ‘I know something you don’t know’, and all I can think is ‘fine if you don’t want to tell me – don’t’! The Nina, Viktor, Vera, Gersh storyline was strong enough on its own – it did not need the teasing and heavy foreshadowing to make me want to keep reading. I found the constant interruption of the current day storyline to be very frustrating. Maybe if the Drew, Cynthia and even modern day Nina characters been more developed it would have added to the overall book for me – instead it just detracted from it.
Also, had the whole book focused on the historical storyline it could have been much more developed. I would love to read more about Russia during Stalin’s reign as this one seemed to barely skim the surface.
It is her first book though – I would still read another as she will likely only get better.
In fairness much of what I didn’t like is personal preference. I hate the formula used here. Tell a little bit, just when it gets interesting, switch to something else. To me it feels like someone taunting ‘I know something you don’t know’, and all I can think is ‘fine if you don’t want to tell me – don’t’! The Nina, Viktor, Vera, Gersh storyline was strong enough on its own – it did not need the teasing and heavy foreshadowing to make me want to keep reading. I found the constant interruption of the current day storyline to be very frustrating. Maybe if the Drew, Cynthia and even modern day Nina characters been more developed it would have added to the overall book for me – instead it just detracted from it.
Also, had the whole book focused on the historical storyline it could have been much more developed. I would love to read more about Russia during Stalin’s reign as this one seemed to barely skim the surface.
It is her first book though – I would still read another as she will likely only get better.
January 22, 2014
Daphne Kalotay's novel RUSSIAN WINTER is a masterfully crafted novel of loss and redemption, set in an unusual historical time period and interweaving two connected stories. In present day Boston, famous Russian ballerina, Nina Revskaya, who defected from the Soviet Union at the height of her fame, is preparing to auction off her dazzling jewelry collection, including three beautiful amber pieces set in gold. Nina is now a recluse, crippled by arthritis and the weight of her mysterious past - a past that could be revealed by an ambitious young representative of the auction house, who begins to investigate the provenance of the amber jewelry, spurred in part by the donation of an apparently matching necklace from a grieving widower. The widower, Gregori, is the academic translator of poetry by Nina's husband, the famed Viktor Elsin, one of the many who disappeared during Stalin's terrifying regime.
In taut, elegant prose, Ms Kalotay conjures the life which Nina is now forced to recall - her precipitous rise to celebrity within the Bolshoi dance company, her lifelong but difficult friendship with a fellow ballerina, the haunting Vera, and her headlong plunge into romantic entanglement with handsome, debonair Viktor, who introduces Nina to a literati circle slowly and relentlessly threatened by Stalinist mandates. The novel shines at its brightest in those pages where we see Nina's ascent to prima ballerina, driven by her innate perfectionism and myopic dedication to her dance, even as the world she thinks she knows crumbles apart to reveal a sordid underside of fear, compliance, and mysterious deportations to dreaded gulags. Nina's narcissism is cleverly played against her growing awareness that her own delusions have ensnared her, yet she cannot face the truth until it is too late.
Frequent switches in the narrative to the academic Gregori and his hunt for clues to his own past, embodied by the necklace left to him by his adoptive parents, are equally well drawn, if somewhat less compelling. It doesn't require much deduction on the part of the reader to ascertain the secret that awaits Gregori, but his journey is well written and interesting as he strives to discover who he is.
Nevertheless, it is Nina's story which most captivates, for it is the universal struggle of artists living under oppression everywhere; of innocence beguiled by duty; and of sacrifices made for art that can, in time, return to assert their toll. The contrast offered in the novel between Nina's cantankerous older self and the naive ingenue of the Bolshoi who dances her way into tragedy is wonderfully played out, as are descriptions of the grey-hued existence endured under Stalin.
Highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction and for those of us who to this day remain entranced by the rigors and ethereal beauty of ballet.
In taut, elegant prose, Ms Kalotay conjures the life which Nina is now forced to recall - her precipitous rise to celebrity within the Bolshoi dance company, her lifelong but difficult friendship with a fellow ballerina, the haunting Vera, and her headlong plunge into romantic entanglement with handsome, debonair Viktor, who introduces Nina to a literati circle slowly and relentlessly threatened by Stalinist mandates. The novel shines at its brightest in those pages where we see Nina's ascent to prima ballerina, driven by her innate perfectionism and myopic dedication to her dance, even as the world she thinks she knows crumbles apart to reveal a sordid underside of fear, compliance, and mysterious deportations to dreaded gulags. Nina's narcissism is cleverly played against her growing awareness that her own delusions have ensnared her, yet she cannot face the truth until it is too late.
Frequent switches in the narrative to the academic Gregori and his hunt for clues to his own past, embodied by the necklace left to him by his adoptive parents, are equally well drawn, if somewhat less compelling. It doesn't require much deduction on the part of the reader to ascertain the secret that awaits Gregori, but his journey is well written and interesting as he strives to discover who he is.
Nevertheless, it is Nina's story which most captivates, for it is the universal struggle of artists living under oppression everywhere; of innocence beguiled by duty; and of sacrifices made for art that can, in time, return to assert their toll. The contrast offered in the novel between Nina's cantankerous older self and the naive ingenue of the Bolshoi who dances her way into tragedy is wonderfully played out, as are descriptions of the grey-hued existence endured under Stalin.
Highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction and for those of us who to this day remain entranced by the rigors and ethereal beauty of ballet.
August 6, 2016
Dosadna i neinspirativna knjiga, sa Danijela Stil atmosferom, koja iskače iz šablona sa delovima o Staljinovoj Rusiji i baletu, šteta što se autorka nije na tome fokusirala.
Recenzija je na blogu.
http://thestuffdreamsaremadeof21.blog...
Recenzija je na blogu.
http://thestuffdreamsaremadeof21.blog...
February 23, 2011
This book is a magnificent historical fiction novel set in Russia. I didn't want to put this book down. I was really drawn in by the histroy and glamor, the characters were very real and I found the writing clear, concise and easy to follow, I really recommend this book, its a real page turner.
June 20, 2020
Es la historia de Nina, que llegó a ser Prima Ballerina en el ballet de Moscú en una época convulsa. Nina, cuya gran pasión es el ballet y cuya ambición por triunfar le lleva a desafiar a la autoridad que la encadena a una vida de mediocridad.
Reconozco que iba esperando otra cosa lo que me dificultó un poco la lectura. Tiene un ritmo lento aunque la historia abarca la vida de Nina desde la infancia hasta parte de su edad adulta con saltos en el tiempo que a veces engloban varios años sin que de la sensación de que te estás perdiendo nada. Por otro lado, la historia del presente es muy secundaria.
Nina desprende una frialdad propia del carácter de una mujer que nació en un país y una época que daba poco margen para las esperanzas, los sueños y la ambición. El problema es que, si ya de por sí alcanzar un sueño como ese supone un gran tesón y trabajo duro, en el caso de Nina supuso mucho más y las decisiones que tomó hace que sea difícil querer a esa abuelita algo gruñona del presente que se sienta en una silla de ruedas dispuesta a desprenderse de unas joyas que cuentan parte de su historia.
Reconozco que iba esperando otra cosa lo que me dificultó un poco la lectura. Tiene un ritmo lento aunque la historia abarca la vida de Nina desde la infancia hasta parte de su edad adulta con saltos en el tiempo que a veces engloban varios años sin que de la sensación de que te estás perdiendo nada. Por otro lado, la historia del presente es muy secundaria.
Nina desprende una frialdad propia del carácter de una mujer que nació en un país y una época que daba poco margen para las esperanzas, los sueños y la ambición. El problema es que, si ya de por sí alcanzar un sueño como ese supone un gran tesón y trabajo duro, en el caso de Nina supuso mucho más y las decisiones que tomó hace que sea difícil querer a esa abuelita algo gruñona del presente que se sienta en una silla de ruedas dispuesta a desprenderse de unas joyas que cuentan parte de su historia.
June 8, 2011
I enjoyed this story, the way the author was able to weave at least two of the main characters' stories together so artfully--Drew is more tangential to my mind, though I was gunning for her (and her intended) from early on. Her story, though, isn't as compelling by far as Grigori's and Nina's. However, a good story, and I learned a vast amount about Soviet Russia, jewels, and the ballet. I watched Black Swan during the reading of this novel, and the two worked strangely well together.
October 8, 2012
I was hooked on this book by page 80. If you like the arts, ballet, Russian history or all three you will love this book. The book takes place in post-war Russia but the narration switches between history and modern day as the author weaves three main characters' lives together. I found this book to be profound and, while a work of fiction, is probably very close to lives other post-war Soviets lived. I loved the little nuggets of ballet terminology and I thought the lot descriptions in between chapters made this book near-perfect. Highly recommended.
September 12, 2010
The cover got me. I had to stop and look. It's pretty isn't it? Even though there is nothing at all original about the art. The cover beckons but alas it does not fulfill. It's unfinished. It's the start of a beautiful cover and yet it's oddly blank. The flat clarity of the figure verses the worn depth of the background surface don't mesh. They fight each other instead of complimenting each other. Sadly that turned out to be a prophecy for the novel.
Russian Winter is a cradle to grave story of Nina Revekaya a once great ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet now living out her remaining days in Boston with only her maid for company. Her past comes to light when she decides to auction her jewels for the benefit of the Boston Ballet Foundation. Her secrets are pursued by a young associate from the auction house and a professor of Russian who believes that Nina can explain the mysteries from his own past.
The sections of the novel about life in Stalinist Russia and those regarding everything to do with ballet, both the work and the rewards, were very interesting. Author Daphne Kalotay has done her research. The lives of the artists, the fearful politics, the efforts of creativity under a repressive regime, Kalotay successfully builds a you-are-there world for all of that and love affairs, betrayals and heartbreak. However as often happens with stories that straddle the past and the present none of the contemporary elements of the novel come close to capturing your attention and involvement to the same degree as the historic elements do.
You won't be reading Russian Winter for the plot. It's old fashioned, picaresque and all ready to be Audrey Hepburn's greatest screen triumph of 1958. It's also entertaining but if you haven't figured out what will happen by page 62 you need to hang up your toe shoes. You will be reading Russian Winter to be enveloped in a specific moment in history in a fascinating backstage environment.
Russian Winter is a cradle to grave story of Nina Revekaya a once great ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet now living out her remaining days in Boston with only her maid for company. Her past comes to light when she decides to auction her jewels for the benefit of the Boston Ballet Foundation. Her secrets are pursued by a young associate from the auction house and a professor of Russian who believes that Nina can explain the mysteries from his own past.
The sections of the novel about life in Stalinist Russia and those regarding everything to do with ballet, both the work and the rewards, were very interesting. Author Daphne Kalotay has done her research. The lives of the artists, the fearful politics, the efforts of creativity under a repressive regime, Kalotay successfully builds a you-are-there world for all of that and love affairs, betrayals and heartbreak. However as often happens with stories that straddle the past and the present none of the contemporary elements of the novel come close to capturing your attention and involvement to the same degree as the historic elements do.
You won't be reading Russian Winter for the plot. It's old fashioned, picaresque and all ready to be Audrey Hepburn's greatest screen triumph of 1958. It's also entertaining but if you haven't figured out what will happen by page 62 you need to hang up your toe shoes. You will be reading Russian Winter to be enveloped in a specific moment in history in a fascinating backstage environment.
March 13, 2016
2016 is the year where I decided to get back to historical fiction. I picked Russian Winter because a couple of my friends gave it 5 stars and I like to read books set in Russia.
Likes:
+ Mystery behind Nina's weird behavior and the missing pendant kept me reading.
Dislikes:
- Descriptions were functional and usually character related. I was missing the descriptions that add feeling and depth to the atmosphere.
- Story-line was not what I expected. I thought it would tell us how Nina became a prima-ballerina. I love hard-work pays off stories. Instead Russian Winter focuses solely on mystery in Nina's past.
- I felt disconnected from characters.
- There are descriptions of jewelry before chapters. I expected chapters will somehow be related to them: what they represented in Nina's past or how she got them... But that was not the case.
The story about Nina could have been inspirational, but it didn't touch me. I blame it on the writing style which didn't suit me. Read an excerpt before buying to judge if you will enjoy it more.
Likes:
+ Mystery behind Nina's weird behavior and the missing pendant kept me reading.
Dislikes:
- Descriptions were functional and usually character related. I was missing the descriptions that add feeling and depth to the atmosphere.
- Story-line was not what I expected. I thought it would tell us how Nina became a prima-ballerina. I love hard-work pays off stories. Instead Russian Winter focuses solely on mystery in Nina's past.
- I felt disconnected from characters.
- There are descriptions of jewelry before chapters. I expected chapters will somehow be related to them: what they represented in Nina's past or how she got them... But that was not the case.
The story about Nina could have been inspirational, but it didn't touch me. I blame it on the writing style which didn't suit me. Read an excerpt before buying to judge if you will enjoy it more.
October 3, 2012
This book took me a long time to read. About half way through I kept asking myself why do I continue reading when I'm not particularly enjoying the story that much. I think because a friend loaned it to me, and she really enjoyed this book that I wanted to give it an honest to goodness effort, and be able to talk with her about it. Well, I plodded through, and now I am happy to say that I am finished and can move on to something I enjoy a little more.
The story goes back and forth between time periods 1950's Russia, and present day. The Russian history was fascinating, but the story itself was dull and mundane. One of the main characters is a prima ballerina, and I'm not kidding there are pages just describing her performance on stage (cue for me to take a nap, and I love ballet). There is a mystery to be solved in this story, an "Are You My Mother?" kind of mystery. I kept waiting for the "Is she?", or "Isn't She?" to be solved, and when it finally sort of is, it's rather disappointing, and anti-climatic in how it's done, and quite tragic too. Needless to say that I kind of hated the main character by the end.
If you enjoy Russian history, jewelry, and descriptive ballet scenes then this book is for you.
The story goes back and forth between time periods 1950's Russia, and present day. The Russian history was fascinating, but the story itself was dull and mundane. One of the main characters is a prima ballerina, and I'm not kidding there are pages just describing her performance on stage (cue for me to take a nap, and I love ballet). There is a mystery to be solved in this story, an "Are You My Mother?" kind of mystery. I kept waiting for the "Is she?", or "Isn't She?" to be solved, and when it finally sort of is, it's rather disappointing, and anti-climatic in how it's done, and quite tragic too. Needless to say that I kind of hated the main character by the end.
If you enjoy Russian history, jewelry, and descriptive ballet scenes then this book is for you.
October 7, 2019
Тази книга почна много мудно и хаотично. Така продължи почти до последните стотина страници, когато всичките МИ съмнения за какво е тази история, се оказаха верни, но с такъв обрат, че от камък да си направен, пак ще ти стане тъжно и мъчно.
Имаше нещо много драматично руско в историята като при любимите ми руски класици, които не се свенят да те унищожават със злощастни и безнадеждни краища на историите си, така както е в реалността.
Тримата главни герои много трудно добиха кръв и плът в главата ми и до края така не успях да се привържа към тях, но въпреки това... краят успя да ме накара да чувствам, да се потопя и с нетърпение да прелиствам следващата страница, за да видя какво ще се случи...
Историята ме остави с едно меланхолично и носталгично усещане за всички хора, които си отиват с гласове, завинаги изчезнали, и истории, чиито краища никога няма да знаем, колкото и да искаме да научим... точно като в истинския живот...
Имаше нещо много драматично руско в историята като при любимите ми руски класици, които не се свенят да те унищожават със злощастни и безнадеждни краища на историите си, така както е в реалността.
Тримата главни герои много трудно добиха кръв и плът в главата ми и до края така не успях да се привържа към тях, но въпреки това... краят успя да ме накара да чувствам, да се потопя и с нетърпение да прелиствам следващата страница, за да видя какво ще се случи...
Историята ме остави с едно меланхолично и носталгично усещане за всички хора, които си отиват с гласове, завинаги изчезнали, и истории, чиито краища никога няма да знаем, колкото и да искаме да научим... точно като в истинския живот...
January 8, 2021
"when she has worked her muscles too hard, her entire body feels as if it is trembling inside. knots in her legs, hips, feet. stockings bloody at the toes. some days everything comes together beautifully, her body obeys and even surprises her with its achievements. other days it disappoints her. she is forever cleaning her toe shoes and ironing her costumes, stitching elastics and ribbons onto her slippers. listening to notes after rehearsal, shedding occasional tears. the frustration of unattainable perfection… she kisses her mother’s cheeks and steps out into the twilight, past children playing hockey in the alley, their bright voices like chimes in the cut-glass air. in the street overstuffed trams roll slowly by, passengers clinging to the sides, as nina heads to her world of tights and tutus, of makeup rubbed on and then off, of the bolshoi curtains drawn apart and then together again, their gold tassels swinging."
mid-december, i started dreaming about ballet again; it's a form of art that has a very particular place in a child's imagination, and in a woman's, i think. when i was very young, i dreamt of being so graceful that my feet would barely touch the ground, that i would no longer felt the weight of my head on my neck, that my arms would be like slender white parentheses that swept and arced and never strained; it was a dream of grace, but it was also about lightness, smallness, an insubstantiality that was both spiritual and disciplined. when i returned to it, a lumpen earthy body with none of the elasticity of a child, it was as a voyeur: it was something i had wanted, once, and would now never be mine.
there are different threads, i think, that form the knot that is dancer, prima ballerina particularly, as feminine ideal; part is desirability, dance as stylised sexuality, part is self-sacrifice, the body so thoroughly worked towards destruction, part is discipline, the mind and the art transcending the pain and weakness of the matter, part is unattainability, both body and person untouchable, elegant but inward-facing. when tied together, these strange, often contradictory impulses form what is often conceived of as idealised womanhood, a woman who is a vessel both for a higher art and for the desires and demands that are projected onto her, a woman whose body is so closely controlled and yet performs such natural, such effortless grace, a woman who is both a an object of desire, who performs romance and sometimes eroticism on stage, and yet who is immaculate in her purity, her transcendence of the low and the vulgar functions of the body.
i suppose what i'm trying to get at is that kalotay's project in russian winter is a sort of double demystification, the small-scale unmaking of two myths; she is engaging with the ongoing historical attempt to understand life in soviet russia and with the cultural allure, the individual enigma of the prima ballerina. i can't argue for her success or failure in the former, it's a moment in history that i'm sketchily familiar with but have done very little careful research into; in the latter, i'm critical.
kalotay's main character, nina revskaya, is an archetype of the ballerina myth. she is aloof, inscrutable, poised, timelessly beautiful, held in almost-perfect emotional and physical control - now something so written into her arthritic body that she can barely move. kalotay draws around her some of the implications of this myth; she has few meaningful connections, she has been selfish and at times blind, she is troublingly preoccupied with jealousy that is, if only partly, to do with competition, she is now trapped in a body too worn by constant strenuous movement and injury to function. and so we must reckon with the imperfections that attend the ideal.
but the other side to demystification is just as important as showing the failures of the myth, or the pains it carries in its shadow: it is to offer a substitute, in this case, to take away the myth of the prima ballerina/ideal femininity and offer instead humanisation, a character with substance and a rich inner life and an existence within a network of other, equally substantial characters. it is in this that i think kalotay stumbles; russian winter is a book that, despite questioning the role of image and myth, is so concerned with its own structure, bringing together a handful of disparate narratives artfully, impressing the reader with its own emotional and historical scope, that it ends up feeling entirely flat.
mid-december, i started dreaming about ballet again; it's a form of art that has a very particular place in a child's imagination, and in a woman's, i think. when i was very young, i dreamt of being so graceful that my feet would barely touch the ground, that i would no longer felt the weight of my head on my neck, that my arms would be like slender white parentheses that swept and arced and never strained; it was a dream of grace, but it was also about lightness, smallness, an insubstantiality that was both spiritual and disciplined. when i returned to it, a lumpen earthy body with none of the elasticity of a child, it was as a voyeur: it was something i had wanted, once, and would now never be mine.
there are different threads, i think, that form the knot that is dancer, prima ballerina particularly, as feminine ideal; part is desirability, dance as stylised sexuality, part is self-sacrifice, the body so thoroughly worked towards destruction, part is discipline, the mind and the art transcending the pain and weakness of the matter, part is unattainability, both body and person untouchable, elegant but inward-facing. when tied together, these strange, often contradictory impulses form what is often conceived of as idealised womanhood, a woman who is a vessel both for a higher art and for the desires and demands that are projected onto her, a woman whose body is so closely controlled and yet performs such natural, such effortless grace, a woman who is both a an object of desire, who performs romance and sometimes eroticism on stage, and yet who is immaculate in her purity, her transcendence of the low and the vulgar functions of the body.
i suppose what i'm trying to get at is that kalotay's project in russian winter is a sort of double demystification, the small-scale unmaking of two myths; she is engaging with the ongoing historical attempt to understand life in soviet russia and with the cultural allure, the individual enigma of the prima ballerina. i can't argue for her success or failure in the former, it's a moment in history that i'm sketchily familiar with but have done very little careful research into; in the latter, i'm critical.
kalotay's main character, nina revskaya, is an archetype of the ballerina myth. she is aloof, inscrutable, poised, timelessly beautiful, held in almost-perfect emotional and physical control - now something so written into her arthritic body that she can barely move. kalotay draws around her some of the implications of this myth; she has few meaningful connections, she has been selfish and at times blind, she is troublingly preoccupied with jealousy that is, if only partly, to do with competition, she is now trapped in a body too worn by constant strenuous movement and injury to function. and so we must reckon with the imperfections that attend the ideal.
but the other side to demystification is just as important as showing the failures of the myth, or the pains it carries in its shadow: it is to offer a substitute, in this case, to take away the myth of the prima ballerina/ideal femininity and offer instead humanisation, a character with substance and a rich inner life and an existence within a network of other, equally substantial characters. it is in this that i think kalotay stumbles; russian winter is a book that, despite questioning the role of image and myth, is so concerned with its own structure, bringing together a handful of disparate narratives artfully, impressing the reader with its own emotional and historical scope, that it ends up feeling entirely flat.
January 22, 2011
Daphne Kalotay knows ballet - not just the stage lights and glitter but the aching muscles and the powdery resin boxes to give grip to the toe shoes and the sweaty tights hanging on the dressing room hooks. Add in the fascination of the Soviet Union and their attitude to the arts, plus a lot of great jewelry, and you have a fiercely interesting setting for a story. "Russian Winter" begins with Nina, a ballerina in her eighties who is auctioning off her famous jewelry collection and in the process remembering her start as a dancer in Soviet Russia, her marriage to a young composer, and her eventual flight to the West. Working the other end of the story is a pair of American scholars with their own interest in Nina's secrets: what happened to her husband, why she defected, and where exactly some of her jewels came from. The modern couple and their story is not quite as riveting as Nina's: her tale as a young dancer clawing her way up the ladder despite romantic entanglements, professional rivals, and KGB persecution is fascinating.
January 21, 2024
Svjedoci smo zločestih klimatskih promjena koje, iz godine u godinu, smanjuju količinu zimskih padalina na Kvarneru (čitaj: nema snijega, uopće) pa je pala odluka da se barem knjigom preselimo tamo gdje ih ima u izobilju... skroz do Rusije.
I tako su Nedopričljivi zaronili u svijet Staljinove Rusije, isprepleten s američkim prikazima u današnje doba kada bivša baletna zvijezda Boljšoja, Nina Revskaja, odluči prodati svoju impresivnu zbirku nakita, na dražbi. Nina se nada da će tako konačno raskrstiti sa svojom prošlošću, međutim postići će upravo suprotno – u poznim godinama probudit će se sjećanja na rodnu Rusiju i događaje koji su joj, u potpunosti, promijenili život.
Ako vas zanima kako je naš čitateljski klub doživio ovu zimsku priču, osvrt je na linku:
https://gkr.hr/magazin/citateljski-os...
I tako su Nedopričljivi zaronili u svijet Staljinove Rusije, isprepleten s američkim prikazima u današnje doba kada bivša baletna zvijezda Boljšoja, Nina Revskaja, odluči prodati svoju impresivnu zbirku nakita, na dražbi. Nina se nada da će tako konačno raskrstiti sa svojom prošlošću, međutim postići će upravo suprotno – u poznim godinama probudit će se sjećanja na rodnu Rusiju i događaje koji su joj, u potpunosti, promijenili život.
Ako vas zanima kako je naš čitateljski klub doživio ovu zimsku priču, osvrt je na linku:
https://gkr.hr/magazin/citateljski-os...
April 1, 2012
2.5 stars
I was all set to love this book as it had a lovely cover, an intriguing title, perfect setting and history but boy did it disappoint! Failed completely in the character department. I despised every relationship in this novel except maybe that of Nina and her caregiver Cynthia. I hate it when the whole crux of a book relies on minor characters who suddenly become very important at the end when you never even cared about them much anyway. Also, Nina was just SO oblivious and stupid that I could not feel anything for her. I kept hoping it would improve but I found myself skimming and bored instead of actually engaged and reading. The ending was only slightly satisfying and mostly for the mere fact that it was over!
I was all set to love this book as it had a lovely cover, an intriguing title, perfect setting and history but boy did it disappoint! Failed completely in the character department. I despised every relationship in this novel except maybe that of Nina and her caregiver Cynthia. I hate it when the whole crux of a book relies on minor characters who suddenly become very important at the end when you never even cared about them much anyway. Also, Nina was just SO oblivious and stupid that I could not feel anything for her. I kept hoping it would improve but I found myself skimming and bored instead of actually engaged and reading. The ending was only slightly satisfying and mostly for the mere fact that it was over!
October 29, 2016
I enjoyed both the present and past time scales of this story and loved the insight into the world of ballet, and of life in Russia in the years after the Second World War.
There was also an intriguing mystery, and some excellent characters, so all in all, a very enjoyable read.
There was also an intriguing mystery, and some excellent characters, so all in all, a very enjoyable read.
September 5, 2010
Daphne Kalotay’s richly narrated debut novel, RUSSIAN WINTER, weaves a multi-layered tale that creatively transports readers from Moscow to Boston, and from past to present. Filled with mystery, conspiracy, and romance, RUSSIAN WINTER gives one a look at the events that fashioned the life of a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet and ultimately determined her fate. From the moment readers meet Nina Revskaya, now in her 80’s, they are whisked away by her story which combines characters and settings that keep the best of us captivated by every word.
Nina has contacted an auction house because she has made the decision to sell her incredible collection of jewelry with proceeds to benefit the Boston Ballet. Going through the pieces brings back memories both painful and sweet, reminding Nina of her past and how she was able to defect to the West. As the once lively and gracefully moving legs had carried her across many a famous stage, they now held her hostage in a wheelchair.
The associate director of the auction house, an American named Drew, is fascinated reading through the research on these jewels. Drew tries to trace the history and location of each of the items in the collection but is having trouble with some pieces of an amber colored jewelry. The more Drew tries to get information from Nina, the more she withdraws and becomes upset.
Kalotay takes the story back seventy years to Moscow when a young Nina and best friend, Vera, are first taken to the Bolshoi in order to audition for the school for future ballerinas. This flashback is beautifully written and I felt like I was in Moscow with the young children. At the end of this part, upon returning home, they find that Vera’s parents are gone and no explanation is given to young Nina. She wonders if they were forced to go, or had they left voluntarily to find a better place to live?
It was in Russia that Nina experienced the joy of the theater. It was also where she fell in love with Viktor Elsin, a poet, and conversely where she and her friends Vera and Gersh became victims of the Stalin regime. Nina also made a terrible discovery that provoked an extreme act of infidelity and finally, resulted in providing a chance for Nina to escape to the West which eventually led her to Boston.
As the story returns readers back to Boston, Drew meets Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian language whose past is linked to some jewelry that just happens to match one of Nina’s pieces. Solodin feels that this piece might be the answer to his background and many questions about his life. Of course, when presented to Nina, she denies having anything to do with it.
The climax that Daphne Kalotay created is shocking while also being sheer magic. I read with fear I would find out something I didn’t want to know as I came to care so much for the characters. Yet, also because of that, I HAD to know what all this meant. Reading RUSSIAN WINTER was magical, poignant, spell-binding, and fascinating. I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen but in turn, also hated to keep reading as I knew it would eventually result in finishing the book. RUSSIAN WINTER was a trip I would take again and hope that many more readers will get the chance. Daphne Kalotay is a force that the literary world had best be prepared for. I know I will be waiting eagerly for her next work.
Nina has contacted an auction house because she has made the decision to sell her incredible collection of jewelry with proceeds to benefit the Boston Ballet. Going through the pieces brings back memories both painful and sweet, reminding Nina of her past and how she was able to defect to the West. As the once lively and gracefully moving legs had carried her across many a famous stage, they now held her hostage in a wheelchair.
The associate director of the auction house, an American named Drew, is fascinated reading through the research on these jewels. Drew tries to trace the history and location of each of the items in the collection but is having trouble with some pieces of an amber colored jewelry. The more Drew tries to get information from Nina, the more she withdraws and becomes upset.
Kalotay takes the story back seventy years to Moscow when a young Nina and best friend, Vera, are first taken to the Bolshoi in order to audition for the school for future ballerinas. This flashback is beautifully written and I felt like I was in Moscow with the young children. At the end of this part, upon returning home, they find that Vera’s parents are gone and no explanation is given to young Nina. She wonders if they were forced to go, or had they left voluntarily to find a better place to live?
It was in Russia that Nina experienced the joy of the theater. It was also where she fell in love with Viktor Elsin, a poet, and conversely where she and her friends Vera and Gersh became victims of the Stalin regime. Nina also made a terrible discovery that provoked an extreme act of infidelity and finally, resulted in providing a chance for Nina to escape to the West which eventually led her to Boston.
As the story returns readers back to Boston, Drew meets Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian language whose past is linked to some jewelry that just happens to match one of Nina’s pieces. Solodin feels that this piece might be the answer to his background and many questions about his life. Of course, when presented to Nina, she denies having anything to do with it.
The climax that Daphne Kalotay created is shocking while also being sheer magic. I read with fear I would find out something I didn’t want to know as I came to care so much for the characters. Yet, also because of that, I HAD to know what all this meant. Reading RUSSIAN WINTER was magical, poignant, spell-binding, and fascinating. I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen but in turn, also hated to keep reading as I knew it would eventually result in finishing the book. RUSSIAN WINTER was a trip I would take again and hope that many more readers will get the chance. Daphne Kalotay is a force that the literary world had best be prepared for. I know I will be waiting eagerly for her next work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2012
A famous ballerina is selling her jewelry to benefit the Boston ballet. Nina Revskya is ill, in pain, and confined to a wheelchair. However, her decision to auction her jewels opens past memories that she would prefer to forget. The novel moves back and forth between her past and the present. The present is likewise divided between Nina's thoughts and emotions and that of the young woman, Drew Brooks, who is researching and evaluating the collection plus the reactions of a professor, Grigori Solodin, who believes that he is related to Nina.
Nina recalls her experiences as a child, later as an aspiring ballerina, and finally as a an accomplished and well revered ballerina. Even at this point she is poor, hungry and always repairing costumes, tights and ballet shoes. When she falls in love with the wealthy poet, Viktor Elsin, the two marry but they still must live with his mother, who dislikes and ridicules her.
As Nina's story unfolds, Viktor's best friend is arrested and sent away. Nina's friend, Vera, is devastated as she is in love with the friend. Nina becomes more and more distrustful of those around her and focuses primarily on dance. Viktor wants to have a child but Nina is afraid to bring one into this world. She and Vera quarrel and avoid each other. However, there is so much to the relationships and her marriage than one can share in a few lines.
Back in the present, Grigori Solonin owns an amber necklace that he believes belongs with a set that Nina has listed for sale. In his attempt to discover if it is and if he is related to Nina he finds himself attracted to Drew Brooks and another story line evolves.
I loved the novel and the bouncing back and forth between characters and time frames only seemed to me to enhance the story. It's a wonderful read well documented by the author's research. While these comments may seem disconnected it is difficult to share impressions about this read without giving away too much. Suffice it to say that this is a most enjoyable novel that I highly recommend.
Nina recalls her experiences as a child, later as an aspiring ballerina, and finally as a an accomplished and well revered ballerina. Even at this point she is poor, hungry and always repairing costumes, tights and ballet shoes. When she falls in love with the wealthy poet, Viktor Elsin, the two marry but they still must live with his mother, who dislikes and ridicules her.
As Nina's story unfolds, Viktor's best friend is arrested and sent away. Nina's friend, Vera, is devastated as she is in love with the friend. Nina becomes more and more distrustful of those around her and focuses primarily on dance. Viktor wants to have a child but Nina is afraid to bring one into this world. She and Vera quarrel and avoid each other. However, there is so much to the relationships and her marriage than one can share in a few lines.
Back in the present, Grigori Solonin owns an amber necklace that he believes belongs with a set that Nina has listed for sale. In his attempt to discover if it is and if he is related to Nina he finds himself attracted to Drew Brooks and another story line evolves.
I loved the novel and the bouncing back and forth between characters and time frames only seemed to me to enhance the story. It's a wonderful read well documented by the author's research. While these comments may seem disconnected it is difficult to share impressions about this read without giving away too much. Suffice it to say that this is a most enjoyable novel that I highly recommend.
September 12, 2010
Why is the pendant worn backwards...and which woman wears it?
The cover of Russian Winter beguiled me, but did not answer the many questions that hammered at my brain as Nina’s story unfolded. I paid diligent attention to the carefully spun-out clues in the novel and was spellbound until the end. Sometimes we savor a book—read a bit, then put it away until tomorrow so that it may be pondered. Not so with Russian Winter. I was swept away and contentedly disconnected from the rest of my life for the hours I spent within its pages.
I reveled in author Daphne Kalotay’s use of language. She juxtaposes present day Boston with post WW II Soviet Union where artists struggle with their private turmoil and fears behind the iron curtain. Her flashbacks are expertly cast in the present tense. So much of what is beautiful in this world—ballet, poetry, music, love, creative expression, hope—is intertwined with betrayal, fear, loss, poor health. Detailed descriptions of the jewelry to be auctioned are uniquely placed between chapter headings. Kalotay has a way of bringing simple images to life with phrases like “a squadron of hairpins.”
“Dancers must remember everything.” Retired ballerina Nina Rebskaya, who has defected to the United States and seeks to sell her jewel collection to benefit the Boston ballet, suffers such a fate. Nina, who visualized the optimum performance of the next step in her choreography as she felt the floor beneath her feet, becomes the retired benefactress, body rigid and wheelchair-bound, tracing the lines of the past in her memories.
The career of a ballerina is ephemeral but the value of a gemstone endures. Intrigue seduces. Art is transforming. Ponder all of this in the captivating novel, Russian Winter.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of
Crestmont
The cover of Russian Winter beguiled me, but did not answer the many questions that hammered at my brain as Nina’s story unfolded. I paid diligent attention to the carefully spun-out clues in the novel and was spellbound until the end. Sometimes we savor a book—read a bit, then put it away until tomorrow so that it may be pondered. Not so with Russian Winter. I was swept away and contentedly disconnected from the rest of my life for the hours I spent within its pages.
I reveled in author Daphne Kalotay’s use of language. She juxtaposes present day Boston with post WW II Soviet Union where artists struggle with their private turmoil and fears behind the iron curtain. Her flashbacks are expertly cast in the present tense. So much of what is beautiful in this world—ballet, poetry, music, love, creative expression, hope—is intertwined with betrayal, fear, loss, poor health. Detailed descriptions of the jewelry to be auctioned are uniquely placed between chapter headings. Kalotay has a way of bringing simple images to life with phrases like “a squadron of hairpins.”
“Dancers must remember everything.” Retired ballerina Nina Rebskaya, who has defected to the United States and seeks to sell her jewel collection to benefit the Boston ballet, suffers such a fate. Nina, who visualized the optimum performance of the next step in her choreography as she felt the floor beneath her feet, becomes the retired benefactress, body rigid and wheelchair-bound, tracing the lines of the past in her memories.
The career of a ballerina is ephemeral but the value of a gemstone endures. Intrigue seduces. Art is transforming. Ponder all of this in the captivating novel, Russian Winter.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of
Crestmont
November 28, 2010
This is one of those sagas that starts at present and weaves back and forth so that the past recollections eventually give us the answers to the beginning of the story.
Part of the enjoyment in the present-day story is that it is set in the City of Boston, particularly in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Having lived in Boston, and since the author lives in that area, all of the writing was accurate and very easy for me to imagine.
Another draw for me is that it is a story of the ballet, which I love. I was completely engrossed reading about the Bolshoi dancers and particulary the primary characters, Nina, Vera and Polina.
The background for the past was most intriguing to me (especially after my partner gave me such insight into Communist Russia under the rule of Stalin). In addition to reading about what life was like during that time (unimaginable to me), we meet Nina and Vera as children and how their life in the ballet begins thanks to Nina's mother. The story that follows is a complexity of their lives and others, and how they all come together. And how misconclusions can be drawn and lives changed forever. So much secrecy and the inability to be free, people living in fear under their government's rule.
The author weaved a very compelling tale, and I did not expect the outcome at the end. At one part of the book just a little more than halfway through, I thought it lagged a bit; but then it picked up again and reached the point where I could not put it down when everything started to come together. Very glad I picked this one up.
Part of the enjoyment in the present-day story is that it is set in the City of Boston, particularly in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Having lived in Boston, and since the author lives in that area, all of the writing was accurate and very easy for me to imagine.
Another draw for me is that it is a story of the ballet, which I love. I was completely engrossed reading about the Bolshoi dancers and particulary the primary characters, Nina, Vera and Polina.
The background for the past was most intriguing to me (especially after my partner gave me such insight into Communist Russia under the rule of Stalin). In addition to reading about what life was like during that time (unimaginable to me), we meet Nina and Vera as children and how their life in the ballet begins thanks to Nina's mother. The story that follows is a complexity of their lives and others, and how they all come together. And how misconclusions can be drawn and lives changed forever. So much secrecy and the inability to be free, people living in fear under their government's rule.
The author weaved a very compelling tale, and I did not expect the outcome at the end. At one part of the book just a little more than halfway through, I thought it lagged a bit; but then it picked up again and reached the point where I could not put it down when everything started to come together. Very glad I picked this one up.
October 3, 2015
Bueno, se me hace difícil hablar de esta novela. la trama es muy interesante y muy bien pensada, pero la forma de narrar es algo desquiciante, al menos para mi. Hay dos lineas de tiempo, el presente y el pasado.
Cuando se narra algo del pasado la autora lo escribe en presente.Cuando se narra algo del presente la autora lo escribe en pasado. Esta "genialidad" me ha sacado de mis casillas en más de una ocasión y con ganas de tirar el libro y no seguir hasta el final. Como dije, las ganas de saber cómo estaban relacionados esos tres personajes, pudo más conmigo y seguí.
Creo que al libro le sobran al menos 100 páginas que hacen que la lectura se torne tediosa en ciertos momentos.
Puede ser que algunos amen este libro, yo lo toleré, pero no ha resultado ser el amor de mi vida.
Cuando se narra algo del pasado la autora lo escribe en presente.Cuando se narra algo del presente la autora lo escribe en pasado. Esta "genialidad" me ha sacado de mis casillas en más de una ocasión y con ganas de tirar el libro y no seguir hasta el final. Como dije, las ganas de saber cómo estaban relacionados esos tres personajes, pudo más conmigo y seguí.
Creo que al libro le sobran al menos 100 páginas que hacen que la lectura se torne tediosa en ciertos momentos.
Puede ser que algunos amen este libro, yo lo toleré, pero no ha resultado ser el amor de mi vida.
will-not-finish
June 9, 2016I really love books about both Russia and ballet, but this book just didn't jive with me. I do not like books with multiple story-lines but for some reason I keep trying to read them. This book had other problems too: instalove, tense-switching, and dull characters to name a few. I gave up around a hundred pages.
April 7, 2011
Daphne Kalotay imbues the crowd-pleasing qualities of commercial fiction with a soft and sensuous literary touch in this novel of exile and family, love and betrayal. From the Stalinist aggression of Russia to the peaceful, snowy streets of Boston, the reader is taken on a page-turning journey of professional ballet, fancy jewels, and ethereal poetry. This is an historical romance written by a scholar to appeal to readers seeking a satisfying escape.
As the novel opens in contemporary Boston, Drew Brooks, an associate director at an esteemed auction house, is preparing for a daring, intrepid auction. The jewels of Soviet-defected and Russian ballerina Nina Revskaya are soon to be bid on, with proceeds going to the Boston Ballet. The now eighty-year-old former danseur is in possession of a most elegant collection, including part of an amber set with the once-popular and now priceless insect inclusions. As Drew and Nina size each other up, a thrill goes down the reader's spine. Nina has secrets she isn't sharing.
Russian professor, poetry scholar, and widower Grigori Solodin teaches in Boston. Grigori is in possession of an exquisite amber necklace, and he believes it is a key to his past. He carries a great sorrow, and an unrelieved burden that is about to unload in some penetrating and provocative ways. The mournful professor, now fifty, has not reconciled his past, and he feels he has no future to look forward to beyond academia.
Cut to fifty years ago, in post World War II Russia, as Nina Revskaya matures from new recruit to prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet House in Moscow. Her best friend and fellow ballerina, Vera, has equal but opposite qualities, and they complement each other as confidants and cohorts. Nina is a short, classic beauty with jewel-green eyes, while Vera is tall, willowy, and soulful-eyed. Vera lost her parents to the penal labor camps, but found a maternal comfort with Nina's mother. Nina fell in love with poet Viktor Elsin, while Vera's more complicated affair with Viktor's comrade, Jewish composer Gersh, is fraught with problems of safety and security.
To be paranoid in Soviet Russia was to be smart and sensible. Anything you say or whisper could be twisted and held against you. An equivocal or questionable comment against communist Russia had serious penalties. Many comrades were recruited by the Committee to secretly write reports on people close to them. Citizens often capitulated in order to be protected. Gersh is not a good communist, and thus is targeted as someone to be watched.
As the story moves back and forth from modern-day Boston to the oppression in Russia, the tension builds to a sweeping but predictable climax. Despite the red herrings and complex web of clues, I guessed the outcome early in the book. However, the joy of reading the novel resides in Kalotay's prose, polished as smooth stone and as variegated as fine agate. Her landscape scenes are cinematic and spectacular, from the white snowbanks of Moscow to the blizzards of Boston.
When you attend a performance of Swan Lake, you know how it evolves and how it ends. You listen for the mastery of Tchaikovsky's music, you gaze at the stunning sets and costumes, and you feel the visceral, emotional thrill of the dazzling dance. Kalotay's book stole me away from my everyday life with its balletic achievement of scenic beauty, lyrical writing, and universal themes. Wrap up in a warm blanket in the dead of winter and curl up by a window seat in the middle of the day, and get carried away for the rest of the night.
As the novel opens in contemporary Boston, Drew Brooks, an associate director at an esteemed auction house, is preparing for a daring, intrepid auction. The jewels of Soviet-defected and Russian ballerina Nina Revskaya are soon to be bid on, with proceeds going to the Boston Ballet. The now eighty-year-old former danseur is in possession of a most elegant collection, including part of an amber set with the once-popular and now priceless insect inclusions. As Drew and Nina size each other up, a thrill goes down the reader's spine. Nina has secrets she isn't sharing.
Russian professor, poetry scholar, and widower Grigori Solodin teaches in Boston. Grigori is in possession of an exquisite amber necklace, and he believes it is a key to his past. He carries a great sorrow, and an unrelieved burden that is about to unload in some penetrating and provocative ways. The mournful professor, now fifty, has not reconciled his past, and he feels he has no future to look forward to beyond academia.
Cut to fifty years ago, in post World War II Russia, as Nina Revskaya matures from new recruit to prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet House in Moscow. Her best friend and fellow ballerina, Vera, has equal but opposite qualities, and they complement each other as confidants and cohorts. Nina is a short, classic beauty with jewel-green eyes, while Vera is tall, willowy, and soulful-eyed. Vera lost her parents to the penal labor camps, but found a maternal comfort with Nina's mother. Nina fell in love with poet Viktor Elsin, while Vera's more complicated affair with Viktor's comrade, Jewish composer Gersh, is fraught with problems of safety and security.
To be paranoid in Soviet Russia was to be smart and sensible. Anything you say or whisper could be twisted and held against you. An equivocal or questionable comment against communist Russia had serious penalties. Many comrades were recruited by the Committee to secretly write reports on people close to them. Citizens often capitulated in order to be protected. Gersh is not a good communist, and thus is targeted as someone to be watched.
As the story moves back and forth from modern-day Boston to the oppression in Russia, the tension builds to a sweeping but predictable climax. Despite the red herrings and complex web of clues, I guessed the outcome early in the book. However, the joy of reading the novel resides in Kalotay's prose, polished as smooth stone and as variegated as fine agate. Her landscape scenes are cinematic and spectacular, from the white snowbanks of Moscow to the blizzards of Boston.
When you attend a performance of Swan Lake, you know how it evolves and how it ends. You listen for the mastery of Tchaikovsky's music, you gaze at the stunning sets and costumes, and you feel the visceral, emotional thrill of the dazzling dance. Kalotay's book stole me away from my everyday life with its balletic achievement of scenic beauty, lyrical writing, and universal themes. Wrap up in a warm blanket in the dead of winter and curl up by a window seat in the middle of the day, and get carried away for the rest of the night.
January 25, 2016
Este foi um daqueles livros que me chamaram a atenção pela capa, que acho belíssima. Juntando isso à sinopse, pareceu-me ter todos os ingredientes para se poder tornar uma boa leitura. Felizmente, o meu instinto estava certo.
Inverno Russo atravessa mais do que um tempo ou local. Inicia-se em Boston, já no século XXI, cidade onde Nina Revskaya passa os últimos anos da sua vida. Outrora uma bailarina russa muito famosa, Nina vive quase isolada do mundo, assolada pelas recordações. A decisão de leiloar as suas valiosas jóias para angariar fundos para a companhia de bailado local é o acontecimento que dá o mote que traz de volta as recordações do passado, mais vívidas do que nunca, fazendo com que o leitor viaje no tempo até à Rússia comunista pós-Guerra, com todas as suas repressões e vicissitudes.
Ao mesmo tempo que acompanhamos a vida passada e presente de Nina, outras personagens vão desfilando pelas páginas deste livro: Drew Brooks, encarregue da organização do evento onde as jóias de Nina serão leiloadas, ou Grigori Solodin, um homem de meia-idade, também ele russo de origem mas ainda à procura da sua verdadeira identidade, cuja vida adivinhamos estar entrelaçada com a de Nina. O passado da bailarina está também repleta de personagens ricas e interessantes, como o seu marido, o poeta Viktor Elsin, e os amigos de ambos, Gersh e Vera.
A estrutura deste livro é bastante semelhante ao que encontrei nos livros da Kate Morton: sabemos que existe um segredo, um acontecimento que influenciou decisivamente a vida das personagens principais, e a história vai-se desenrolando alternadamente entre presente e passado, rumo à revelação final. Confesso que este método de contar histórias me agrada particularmente, em especial se for bem escrito e desenvolvido. Acho que a estreante Daphne Kalotay consegue fazê-lo com sucesso, num livro escrito de forma bastante elegante e adequada e que revela uma pesquisa muito bem feita no que concerne ao período histórico em que parte do enredo se desenvolve. O único senão foi que consegui descobrir demasiado cedo o segredo que referi, mas isso não impediu que fosse agradável vê-lo desvendado e conhecer os seus contornos.
Não me lembro se já tinha lido algum livro cujo cenário fosse a Rússia comunista do pós-Guerra, mas posso afirmar que a autora consegue aqui um retrato muito real deste país e época, tornando-se fácil perceber as dificuldades e a repressão a que o povo era sujeito. Muito interessantes também são os elementos que dizem respeito ao bailado propriamente dito; achei curiosa a coincidência de, pouco tempo depois de ter visto o filme Cisne Negro, ter pegado num livro onde a personagem principal também se chamasse Nina, fosse bailarina, e dançasse O Lago dos Cisnes. Percebo pouco de bailado, mas o livro consegue fazer-nos perceber o nível de esforço e dedicação necessários para se ser uma bailarina de topo.
É um livro que requer algum tempo e atenção, por exigir ser lido e absorvido lentamente e por ter um razoável manancial de informação interessante. Diria que esta escritora tem aqui uma estreia auspiciosa e fico, por isso, muito curiosa por ler futuros livros de sua autoria.
Inverno Russo atravessa mais do que um tempo ou local. Inicia-se em Boston, já no século XXI, cidade onde Nina Revskaya passa os últimos anos da sua vida. Outrora uma bailarina russa muito famosa, Nina vive quase isolada do mundo, assolada pelas recordações. A decisão de leiloar as suas valiosas jóias para angariar fundos para a companhia de bailado local é o acontecimento que dá o mote que traz de volta as recordações do passado, mais vívidas do que nunca, fazendo com que o leitor viaje no tempo até à Rússia comunista pós-Guerra, com todas as suas repressões e vicissitudes.
Ao mesmo tempo que acompanhamos a vida passada e presente de Nina, outras personagens vão desfilando pelas páginas deste livro: Drew Brooks, encarregue da organização do evento onde as jóias de Nina serão leiloadas, ou Grigori Solodin, um homem de meia-idade, também ele russo de origem mas ainda à procura da sua verdadeira identidade, cuja vida adivinhamos estar entrelaçada com a de Nina. O passado da bailarina está também repleta de personagens ricas e interessantes, como o seu marido, o poeta Viktor Elsin, e os amigos de ambos, Gersh e Vera.
A estrutura deste livro é bastante semelhante ao que encontrei nos livros da Kate Morton: sabemos que existe um segredo, um acontecimento que influenciou decisivamente a vida das personagens principais, e a história vai-se desenrolando alternadamente entre presente e passado, rumo à revelação final. Confesso que este método de contar histórias me agrada particularmente, em especial se for bem escrito e desenvolvido. Acho que a estreante Daphne Kalotay consegue fazê-lo com sucesso, num livro escrito de forma bastante elegante e adequada e que revela uma pesquisa muito bem feita no que concerne ao período histórico em que parte do enredo se desenvolve. O único senão foi que consegui descobrir demasiado cedo o segredo que referi, mas isso não impediu que fosse agradável vê-lo desvendado e conhecer os seus contornos.
Não me lembro se já tinha lido algum livro cujo cenário fosse a Rússia comunista do pós-Guerra, mas posso afirmar que a autora consegue aqui um retrato muito real deste país e época, tornando-se fácil perceber as dificuldades e a repressão a que o povo era sujeito. Muito interessantes também são os elementos que dizem respeito ao bailado propriamente dito; achei curiosa a coincidência de, pouco tempo depois de ter visto o filme Cisne Negro, ter pegado num livro onde a personagem principal também se chamasse Nina, fosse bailarina, e dançasse O Lago dos Cisnes. Percebo pouco de bailado, mas o livro consegue fazer-nos perceber o nível de esforço e dedicação necessários para se ser uma bailarina de topo.
É um livro que requer algum tempo e atenção, por exigir ser lido e absorvido lentamente e por ter um razoável manancial de informação interessante. Diria que esta escritora tem aqui uma estreia auspiciosa e fico, por isso, muito curiosa por ler futuros livros de sua autoria.
January 10, 2023
Once-famed Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya is now in her 80s and living in Boston, confined to a wheelchair by a debilitating illness. Russian Winter tells Nina’s story in alternating timelines between Stalinist Russian and her current life in Boston as she prepares to auction off the stunning jewels she amassed as a celebrated ballerina.
Nina rose to the highest level of the Bolshoi Ballet and yet she practically lived in squalor in cramped quarters with her husband and mother-in-law in Moscow. She collected quite a cache of jewels during her career as a prima ballerina, but we aren’t told who gave her the jewels, what relationships led to the jewels, nothing. Except the amber pendant. The story centers on how Nina came to possess the amber pendant and all the players who took part in its tenure with Nina. Only the amber pendant and its matching broach and earrings have any focus in the story.
I was looking forward to settling into an atmospheric winter tale. While some parts about winter landscape in Boston fit the bill, the Russian winter parts were brutal—way too cold, not enough to eat or wear, and certainly no sleigh rides while covered in furs, a la Doctor Zhivago. The few parts about living conditions in Stalinist Russia were bleak. A portrayal of Nina’s trip to West Berlin during a small ballet tour was poignant and made me angry. Other parts about Stalinist Russia were eye-opening; how people (especially Jews) were persecuted and how artists were also subjected to persecution. I always heard that ballet dancers were treated like royalty in Russia, as ballet is to Russia as football is to America. But not when Stalin was in power, apparently.
Overall, the story lacked the drama needed to propel it forward and much was left unrevealed. The scope of the novel was too grand in some ways, but other parts were too drawn out. Perhaps the 450+ pages could have focused on more reveals (like, why was Nina in a wheelchair? Who gave her the jewels? Why not cash them in for money to improve her living situation?). I couldn’t get past the obvious questions (to me, anyway) that were never answered.
The author got the ballet parts right, in my experience. Ballet To The Corps is currently sitting on my TBR. This memoir tells the story of one ballerina’s experience at Boston Ballet in the 1950s, which is when Nina would have danced. The author also credited I, Maya Plisetskaya, as a source for what ballet dancing was like in Russia during Stalin’s dictatorship.
I’m over the moon to have finally completed this book because it’s been on my TBR for over 10 years. A great way to start off the reading year. I think I’ll read Doctor Zhivago the next time I’m in a wintery mood.
Nina rose to the highest level of the Bolshoi Ballet and yet she practically lived in squalor in cramped quarters with her husband and mother-in-law in Moscow. She collected quite a cache of jewels during her career as a prima ballerina, but we aren’t told who gave her the jewels, what relationships led to the jewels, nothing. Except the amber pendant. The story centers on how Nina came to possess the amber pendant and all the players who took part in its tenure with Nina. Only the amber pendant and its matching broach and earrings have any focus in the story.
I was looking forward to settling into an atmospheric winter tale. While some parts about winter landscape in Boston fit the bill, the Russian winter parts were brutal—way too cold, not enough to eat or wear, and certainly no sleigh rides while covered in furs, a la Doctor Zhivago. The few parts about living conditions in Stalinist Russia were bleak. A portrayal of Nina’s trip to West Berlin during a small ballet tour was poignant and made me angry. Other parts about Stalinist Russia were eye-opening; how people (especially Jews) were persecuted and how artists were also subjected to persecution. I always heard that ballet dancers were treated like royalty in Russia, as ballet is to Russia as football is to America. But not when Stalin was in power, apparently.
Overall, the story lacked the drama needed to propel it forward and much was left unrevealed. The scope of the novel was too grand in some ways, but other parts were too drawn out. Perhaps the 450+ pages could have focused on more reveals (like, why was Nina in a wheelchair? Who gave her the jewels? Why not cash them in for money to improve her living situation?). I couldn’t get past the obvious questions (to me, anyway) that were never answered.
The author got the ballet parts right, in my experience. Ballet To The Corps is currently sitting on my TBR. This memoir tells the story of one ballerina’s experience at Boston Ballet in the 1950s, which is when Nina would have danced. The author also credited I, Maya Plisetskaya, as a source for what ballet dancing was like in Russia during Stalin’s dictatorship.
I’m over the moon to have finally completed this book because it’s been on my TBR for over 10 years. A great way to start off the reading year. I think I’ll read Doctor Zhivago the next time I’m in a wintery mood.
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