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The Red Daughter: A Novel
Running from her father’s brutal legacy, Joseph Stalin’s daughter defects to the United States during the turbulence of the 1960s. For fans of We Were the Lucky Ones and A Gentleman in Moscow, this sweeping historical novel and unexpected love story is inspired by the remarkable life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.
“ The Red Daughter does exactly what good historical fiction should It sends you down the rabbit hole to read and learn more.” — The New York Times Book Review
In one of the most momentous events of the Cold War, Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of the Soviet despot Joseph Stalin, abruptly abandoned her life in Moscow in 1967, arriving in New York to throngs of reporters and a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side is Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle Svetlana into America.
She is a contradictory charismatic and headstrong, lonely and haunted, excited and alienated by her adopted country’s radically different society. Persuading herself that all she yearns for is a simple American life, she attempts to settle into a suburban existence in Princeton, New Jersey. But one day an invitation from the widow of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright arrives, and Svetlana impulsively joins her cultlike community at Taliesin West. When this dream ends in disillusionment, Svetlana reaches out to Peter, the one person who understands how the chains of her past still hold her prisoner. Their relationship changes and deepens, moving from America to England to the Soviet Union and back again, unfolding under the eyes of her CIA minders, and Svetlana’s and Peter’s private lives are no longer their own.
Novelist John Burnham Schwartz’s father was in fact the young lawyer who escorted Svetlana Alliluyeva to the United States. Drawing upon private papers and years of extensive research, Schwartz imaginatively re-creates the story of an extraordinary, troubled woman’s search for a new life and a place to belong, in the powerful, evocative prose that has made him an acclaimed author of literary and historical fiction.
Praise for The Red Daughter
“Svetlana Alliluyeva’s life was endlessly fascinating, often heartbreaking, and ultimately heroic. I don’t think any writer alive could have told her story more beautifully than John Burnham Schwartz.” —David Benioff, co-creator of HBO’s Game of Thrones and author of City of Thieves
“ The Red Daughter is an intimate, intricate look at the collision of geopolitics with a private surprising and engaging from beginning to end.” —Jennifer Egan
“ The Red Daughter does exactly what good historical fiction should It sends you down the rabbit hole to read and learn more.” — The New York Times Book Review
In one of the most momentous events of the Cold War, Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of the Soviet despot Joseph Stalin, abruptly abandoned her life in Moscow in 1967, arriving in New York to throngs of reporters and a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side is Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle Svetlana into America.
She is a contradictory charismatic and headstrong, lonely and haunted, excited and alienated by her adopted country’s radically different society. Persuading herself that all she yearns for is a simple American life, she attempts to settle into a suburban existence in Princeton, New Jersey. But one day an invitation from the widow of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright arrives, and Svetlana impulsively joins her cultlike community at Taliesin West. When this dream ends in disillusionment, Svetlana reaches out to Peter, the one person who understands how the chains of her past still hold her prisoner. Their relationship changes and deepens, moving from America to England to the Soviet Union and back again, unfolding under the eyes of her CIA minders, and Svetlana’s and Peter’s private lives are no longer their own.
Novelist John Burnham Schwartz’s father was in fact the young lawyer who escorted Svetlana Alliluyeva to the United States. Drawing upon private papers and years of extensive research, Schwartz imaginatively re-creates the story of an extraordinary, troubled woman’s search for a new life and a place to belong, in the powerful, evocative prose that has made him an acclaimed author of literary and historical fiction.
Praise for The Red Daughter
“Svetlana Alliluyeva’s life was endlessly fascinating, often heartbreaking, and ultimately heroic. I don’t think any writer alive could have told her story more beautifully than John Burnham Schwartz.” —David Benioff, co-creator of HBO’s Game of Thrones and author of City of Thieves
“ The Red Daughter is an intimate, intricate look at the collision of geopolitics with a private surprising and engaging from beginning to end.” —Jennifer Egan
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2019
About the author
John Burnham Schwartz
24 books128 followersJohn Burnham Schwartz grew up in New York City. At Harvard College, he majored in Japanese studies, and upon graduation accepted a position with a prominent Wall Street investment bank, before finally turning the position down after selling his first novel. Schwartz has taught fiction writing at Harvard, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Sarah Lawrence College, and he is the literary director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, one of the leading literary festivals in the United States.
He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, screenwriter and food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, and their son.
http://www.johnburnhamschwartz.com/
He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, screenwriter and food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, and their son.
http://www.johnburnhamschwartz.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews
April 6, 2019
I am a huge fan of historical fiction, especially when it’s about a time, place or person I know little to nothing about. The Red Daughter covers Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, so it fit the bill.
The book purports to be a collection of excerpts from her private journals, letters and Editor’s Notes, written by Peter Horvath, the lawyer who helped her reach the US.
The chapters acting as her journal entries look back at her life starting with her memories of her mother’s suicide and the difficult relationship she had with her father. But I had to question if this were truly a journal, would the conversations have been recorded in detail? The book rings more true when Svetlana is just sharing her thoughts, whether about her father, Mother Russia, communism, her new adoptive country, living in exile or her children.
It’s hard to know what to make of Svetlana. She leaves Russia, her children ages 16 and 21, behind, with no warning. She thinks it’s for their own good. But what would they feel or believe? And her willingness to rush into a marriage after only a few weeks. This isn’t a woman I could really relate to or feel sympathy for.
Peter, as the editor, brings his side of the story to light. He and Svetlana had a complicated relationship starting when they presented themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Staehelin to get her to the States.
The writing is lush. “There is a kind of drunkenness one finds only in Russia. The Irish don’t know it, the French, the Greeks. An ecstasy of melancholy. The oldest lament in the world. A sadness that has no limits and somis very close to joy, but never reaches it. Joy’s dark cousin.”
Unfortunately, the pace of the book is not consistent and there are times it positively drags. I just was not interested in her affair. And again, if this book was based on her journals, shouldn’t there have at least been more of her thoughts on the affair? Instead, we just get where they met up and how fast the clothes came off.
In an interesting aside, the author’s father was the lawyer who actually accompanied Svetlana to America and was the one who actually gave her away at her marriage to Sid Evans. But there was no affair between them. And there were no journals.
This book had a strong premise and started off on a promising note. It just didn’t live up to its potential. And I was upset to learn from the Author’s Note how much of the book was entirely made up. Not what I expect from something calling itself historical fiction.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
The book purports to be a collection of excerpts from her private journals, letters and Editor’s Notes, written by Peter Horvath, the lawyer who helped her reach the US.
The chapters acting as her journal entries look back at her life starting with her memories of her mother’s suicide and the difficult relationship she had with her father. But I had to question if this were truly a journal, would the conversations have been recorded in detail? The book rings more true when Svetlana is just sharing her thoughts, whether about her father, Mother Russia, communism, her new adoptive country, living in exile or her children.
It’s hard to know what to make of Svetlana. She leaves Russia, her children ages 16 and 21, behind, with no warning. She thinks it’s for their own good. But what would they feel or believe? And her willingness to rush into a marriage after only a few weeks. This isn’t a woman I could really relate to or feel sympathy for.
Peter, as the editor, brings his side of the story to light. He and Svetlana had a complicated relationship starting when they presented themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Staehelin to get her to the States.
The writing is lush. “There is a kind of drunkenness one finds only in Russia. The Irish don’t know it, the French, the Greeks. An ecstasy of melancholy. The oldest lament in the world. A sadness that has no limits and somis very close to joy, but never reaches it. Joy’s dark cousin.”
Unfortunately, the pace of the book is not consistent and there are times it positively drags. I just was not interested in her affair. And again, if this book was based on her journals, shouldn’t there have at least been more of her thoughts on the affair? Instead, we just get where they met up and how fast the clothes came off.
In an interesting aside, the author’s father was the lawyer who actually accompanied Svetlana to America and was the one who actually gave her away at her marriage to Sid Evans. But there was no affair between them. And there were no journals.
This book had a strong premise and started off on a promising note. It just didn’t live up to its potential. And I was upset to learn from the Author’s Note how much of the book was entirely made up. Not what I expect from something calling itself historical fiction.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
January 24, 2019
A cold historical novel about a very unhappy woman, The Red Daughter didn’t work for me. I can barely muster up the energy to review it. I realize that authors of historical fiction play fast and loose with the facts for the sake of narrative, but this author’s monkeying around with the facts was too fast and too loose and didn’t enhance the narrative in the least. The most jarring example is a concocted love affair which presumably was created to add interest to Svetlana’s (or Lana Peters if you prefer) story. The most successful part of this novel revolves around her time spent as a guest at Taliesin West the Fellowship controlled by Frank Lloyd Wright’s widow who required subservience by all. As you may imagine she walks away disillusioned and yet again married which occurred three weeks after her arrival at Taliesin. I think I would have been better off reading a biography or Svetlana’s own work. Live and learn.
March 25, 2019
3.25 stars
I tend to find anything to do with the history of the Cold War era and Eastern Europe interesting – fiction and non-fiction. The Red Daughter is an odd mixture of both. I read it with interest but I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. The book is described as a novel, but it is about Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was Joseph Stalin’s daughter, focusing on the time in her life after she immigrated to the United States. In real life, the author’s father was an American lawyer who accompanied Alliluyeva as she went to the US. The novel includes a central character who was a lawyer who played such a role in Alliluyeva’s life. But the author proclaims in the afterword that the relationship between Alliluyeva and the lawyer in the novel is entirely fictional, and does not reflect the real relationship between his father and Stalin’s daughter. The book also purports to be based on Alliluyeva’s journal as it was delivered to her lawyer after her death, but it turns out there was no such journal or delivery. Weird, I know. Much of the book portrays Alliluyeva as a difficult person who led a difficult life. If there was no such historical figure as Svetlana Alliluyeva, I’m not sure there would be any reason to read this novel. Given the admission that much of this book was made up, it’s not to be read for the purpose of understanding Alliluyeva. So why read it? I’m not sure, but I did read it with some interest. I guess I’m still feeling a bit perplexed about this one. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an adance copy.
I tend to find anything to do with the history of the Cold War era and Eastern Europe interesting – fiction and non-fiction. The Red Daughter is an odd mixture of both. I read it with interest but I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. The book is described as a novel, but it is about Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was Joseph Stalin’s daughter, focusing on the time in her life after she immigrated to the United States. In real life, the author’s father was an American lawyer who accompanied Alliluyeva as she went to the US. The novel includes a central character who was a lawyer who played such a role in Alliluyeva’s life. But the author proclaims in the afterword that the relationship between Alliluyeva and the lawyer in the novel is entirely fictional, and does not reflect the real relationship between his father and Stalin’s daughter. The book also purports to be based on Alliluyeva’s journal as it was delivered to her lawyer after her death, but it turns out there was no such journal or delivery. Weird, I know. Much of the book portrays Alliluyeva as a difficult person who led a difficult life. If there was no such historical figure as Svetlana Alliluyeva, I’m not sure there would be any reason to read this novel. Given the admission that much of this book was made up, it’s not to be read for the purpose of understanding Alliluyeva. So why read it? I’m not sure, but I did read it with some interest. I guess I’m still feeling a bit perplexed about this one. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an adance copy.
May 6, 2019
The Red Daughter was a disappointment. I love Schwartz's previous novels (especially The Commoner) so I was really excited to read his take on the life of Joseph Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, who left the USSR in the late 1960s, "defecting" to the United States. Svetlana was a fascinating (and extremely complicated) woman so historical fiction about her? Yes, please! But it's not historical fiction if you basically toss out all of the history--it's just fiction. And while there's nothing wrong with fiction, saying that it's rooted in history because the author's father was Svetlana's lawyer when she came to America doesn't make it historical fiction. I don't mind a few liberties--they are necessary, usually--but this is fiction with Svetlana's name stapled to it. I finished this wishing it had lived up to the blurb--and it's a shame because I feel like The Red Daughter would have been amazing if it did.
April 14, 2019
THE RED DAUGHTER, by John Burnham Schwartz, is the historical fiction account of Stalin’s daughter and her defection to the United States.
Svetlana Alliluyeva’s story is told, primarily, in the format of her journal and accompanying “Editor’s Note”s from the perspective of attorney Peter Horvath who brings Alliluyeva to America at the instruction of the CIA.
Svetlana is a woman whose personality is as sharp and as fractured as the shards in a kaleidoscope. This, supposedly, a result of growing up with the brutal USSR dictator Joseph Stalin as her parent. Once in the States, Alliluyeva is free of Stalin’s restriction and is faced with a multitude of choices. Her mind can change quickly and without reflection on possible results. We are left with a character often in a manic state.
Will Svetlana find her happiness and all of her dreams fulfilled by her defection? Can one ever make life-changing decisions without suffering any consequences?
THE RED DAUGHTER is not a book that I enjoyed. I found its organization left the story shallow in some respects. Since I love history and historical fiction I was very enthusiastic about reading THE RED DAUGHTER prior to receipt. However, I think I will need to read another of Mr. Schwartz books to discover his voice as an author.
I thank Random House Publishing for this gift in exchange for an impartial review.
Svetlana Alliluyeva’s story is told, primarily, in the format of her journal and accompanying “Editor’s Note”s from the perspective of attorney Peter Horvath who brings Alliluyeva to America at the instruction of the CIA.
Svetlana is a woman whose personality is as sharp and as fractured as the shards in a kaleidoscope. This, supposedly, a result of growing up with the brutal USSR dictator Joseph Stalin as her parent. Once in the States, Alliluyeva is free of Stalin’s restriction and is faced with a multitude of choices. Her mind can change quickly and without reflection on possible results. We are left with a character often in a manic state.
Will Svetlana find her happiness and all of her dreams fulfilled by her defection? Can one ever make life-changing decisions without suffering any consequences?
THE RED DAUGHTER is not a book that I enjoyed. I found its organization left the story shallow in some respects. Since I love history and historical fiction I was very enthusiastic about reading THE RED DAUGHTER prior to receipt. However, I think I will need to read another of Mr. Schwartz books to discover his voice as an author.
I thank Random House Publishing for this gift in exchange for an impartial review.
April 15, 2019
Svetlana Alliluyeva is the only daughter of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was a brutal leader and millions of his own people died during his horrific reign. He was a cold, insensitive man. But he loved his little girl and called her “my little housekeeper”. Then Svetlana grew up and fell in love with a young man who her father didn’t like. He cruelly had the man arrested and deported to Siberia. Thus began the estrangement between Svetlana and her father.
In 1967, Svetlana decided to defect to the United States. She left behind her two children, I believe the daughter was 16 and the son was 22, if I remember correctly. The CIA sent a young lawyer, Peter Horvath, to smuggle her out of Russia. This was a huge and stressful decision on her part and led to much publicity here in the US and complete alienation by her children. All Svetlana wants is a peaceful American life away from her father’s evil name. She attempt to find that life in Princeton, NJ. When an invitation by the widow of architect Frank Lloyd Wright comes, she decides to see what Taliesin West is all about. She’s pulled into the cultist community there and exchanges one dictator in her life to another, the controlling Olgivana Lloyd Wright, who believes Svetlana has money that the community could use.
The book slightly covers Svetlana’s younger years but mostly concentrates on the time after her defection to America. Interestingly, the author’s father is the young lawyer who accompanied Svetlana to America. The author is given his father’s private papers to use so there are parts of actual letters in this book. However, the author departs from accurate history in several respects. I find it very odd that he chooses to invent a romantic interest between Svetlana and her lawyer, especially since that lawyer was Schwartz’s own father and the love triangle would have involved his mother. I can see that from a literary sense it was a good choice but I much prefer a historical novel more based on fact than fiction; otherwise, I would have given this sensitive novel 5 stars. It does seem that most of the book is factual, other than the change of some names and the switching of the sex of some children mentioned and of course the romantic relationship between Svetlana and Peter.
Svetlana’s life was certainly a tragic one and she’s a very sympathetic character. She struggles for so many years with her abandonment of her two oldest children. She’s a broken woman in many ways and my heart bled for her situation and her confusion. It’s a heart breaking, engrossing story and this author, being a very talented one, brings Svetlana back to life. I’ve always been very interested in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and found that part of the book fascinating. Based on what I know of how Taliesin West was run after his death, I found all of that to be very believable. This historical novel has inspired me to read Svetlana’s own memoirs that have been published or possibly some biographies on her fascinating life.
Recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
In 1967, Svetlana decided to defect to the United States. She left behind her two children, I believe the daughter was 16 and the son was 22, if I remember correctly. The CIA sent a young lawyer, Peter Horvath, to smuggle her out of Russia. This was a huge and stressful decision on her part and led to much publicity here in the US and complete alienation by her children. All Svetlana wants is a peaceful American life away from her father’s evil name. She attempt to find that life in Princeton, NJ. When an invitation by the widow of architect Frank Lloyd Wright comes, she decides to see what Taliesin West is all about. She’s pulled into the cultist community there and exchanges one dictator in her life to another, the controlling Olgivana Lloyd Wright, who believes Svetlana has money that the community could use.
The book slightly covers Svetlana’s younger years but mostly concentrates on the time after her defection to America. Interestingly, the author’s father is the young lawyer who accompanied Svetlana to America. The author is given his father’s private papers to use so there are parts of actual letters in this book. However, the author departs from accurate history in several respects. I find it very odd that he chooses to invent a romantic interest between Svetlana and her lawyer, especially since that lawyer was Schwartz’s own father and the love triangle would have involved his mother. I can see that from a literary sense it was a good choice but I much prefer a historical novel more based on fact than fiction; otherwise, I would have given this sensitive novel 5 stars. It does seem that most of the book is factual, other than the change of some names and the switching of the sex of some children mentioned and of course the romantic relationship between Svetlana and Peter.
Svetlana’s life was certainly a tragic one and she’s a very sympathetic character. She struggles for so many years with her abandonment of her two oldest children. She’s a broken woman in many ways and my heart bled for her situation and her confusion. It’s a heart breaking, engrossing story and this author, being a very talented one, brings Svetlana back to life. I’ve always been very interested in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and found that part of the book fascinating. Based on what I know of how Taliesin West was run after his death, I found all of that to be very believable. This historical novel has inspired me to read Svetlana’s own memoirs that have been published or possibly some biographies on her fascinating life.
Recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
July 21, 2021
The style of writing is very dry. Also it seems as the plot is missing.
August 1, 2019
The Red Daughter has no doubt been a huge labour of love for the author, and it really shows in this exceptional hybrid biography/fiction. It is primarily a cleverly disguised account of one fearless woman and the life and times in which she lived. Svetlana Alliluyeva, notorious tyrannical leader Joseph Stalin's only daughter, managed to embarrass the Soviet Union by defecting in 1967 and becoming a naturalised citizen of their sworn enemy: the United States. This book mainly follows the defection and the time afterwards as she tries to settle and effectively start her life anew. It proves a difficult task with the struggles laid bare throughout the text.
Of course, Washington jumped at the chance to take her in most likely due to the invaluable information she may be willing to provide about the regime back in her homeland and the propaganda it would create. But it was also possible that she could be an agent of Moscow; a member of the KGB spying and feeding information back to help her father, but it appears they were willing to take that risk. Because this is primarily based in fact I found it incredibly fascinating; it's easy to see that Svetlana had courage and passion for what she believed in and the was a truly inspirational figure who was ahead of her time and burdened by her tricky heritage.
What makes John Burnham Schwartz an authority on Svetlana you ask? Well, when travelling from Russia to the US in secret she needed an escort, and that escort came in the form of CIA agent, Peter Horvath; the author's father, who became a very close and loyal confidant of Ms Alliluyeva. Based on his father's reminiscences as well as his own extensive research into Svetlana's life, John Burnham Schwartz recreates this dramatic story of a woman's search for a new life and a place to belong. Schwartz paints a compelling and eminently readable biography with evocative and imaginative prose that makes this both moving and absorbing. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Corsair for an ARC.
Of course, Washington jumped at the chance to take her in most likely due to the invaluable information she may be willing to provide about the regime back in her homeland and the propaganda it would create. But it was also possible that she could be an agent of Moscow; a member of the KGB spying and feeding information back to help her father, but it appears they were willing to take that risk. Because this is primarily based in fact I found it incredibly fascinating; it's easy to see that Svetlana had courage and passion for what she believed in and the was a truly inspirational figure who was ahead of her time and burdened by her tricky heritage.
What makes John Burnham Schwartz an authority on Svetlana you ask? Well, when travelling from Russia to the US in secret she needed an escort, and that escort came in the form of CIA agent, Peter Horvath; the author's father, who became a very close and loyal confidant of Ms Alliluyeva. Based on his father's reminiscences as well as his own extensive research into Svetlana's life, John Burnham Schwartz recreates this dramatic story of a woman's search for a new life and a place to belong. Schwartz paints a compelling and eminently readable biography with evocative and imaginative prose that makes this both moving and absorbing. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Corsair for an ARC.
July 20, 2019
This historical novel looks at the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin. The author uses an unpublished memoir as the device to tell her story, which is really a loosely disguised biography. This memoir is left to Peter Horvath, who was sent to Switzerland to escort Svetlana to the United States, when she defected.
Although Stalin is, obviously, the reason why Svetlana is of historical interest, the character herself remembers her mother as central to her childhood. She was, of course, the most famous Cold War defector and it is interesting to read of the horror of the airline pilot when he discovers she is aboard, for fear that the Russians will do something to prevent them arriving in the US.
However, arrive in America, Svetlana does; albeit without her two children, who she leaves behind. This is not only her story, but that of Peter’s and of the relationship that he shares with her. This is a very moving, and interesting account, of an amazing life, with much of the emphasis on the time following her defection to the US; although her early life is covered. Svetlana seems quite lost at times and you do feel a huge amount of sympathy for her and the burden of her heritage. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
Although Stalin is, obviously, the reason why Svetlana is of historical interest, the character herself remembers her mother as central to her childhood. She was, of course, the most famous Cold War defector and it is interesting to read of the horror of the airline pilot when he discovers she is aboard, for fear that the Russians will do something to prevent them arriving in the US.
However, arrive in America, Svetlana does; albeit without her two children, who she leaves behind. This is not only her story, but that of Peter’s and of the relationship that he shares with her. This is a very moving, and interesting account, of an amazing life, with much of the emphasis on the time following her defection to the US; although her early life is covered. Svetlana seems quite lost at times and you do feel a huge amount of sympathy for her and the burden of her heritage. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
March 18, 2019
I struggle with this review simply because I fear my words won’t adequately capture the beauty of this book. I found “The Red Daughter” to be an incredible portrayal of the historical figure, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin’s daughter. For me, the beauty of this book came through the author’s ability to capture the pain, oppressiveness, and violence of Russia through his rich but somewhat stark writing. The author is not writing a novel strictly about a time in history but rather focusing on a specific character and through this character the reader begins to understand the complexity and horror of that time. It is a somewhat challenging book to read simply because often, and most recently, historical fiction is written to comfortably take the reader on a journey back in time. Unfortunately, there is nothing comfortable about Stalin’s Russia and any journey that is to truly evoke a sense of that time necessarily enters territory that is complex, unsettling and harsh. For me however whether comfortable or not, this is what literature at its finest does, takes the reader on a journey to a time that they can sense and feel emotionally as well as intellectually. And it is exactly such journey the author, John Burnham Schwartz is taking the reader on in “The Red Daughter”. For this reason, it is “must read”, and not to be missed! I was privileged to receive a free advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the Publisher, Random House Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.
April 9, 2023
I was really excited to read this book, only to discover that it is not a biography, but a novel! Of course I realized my mistake after purchasing the book, but instead of returning it I decided to give it a try anyway...the Lord hates a quitter!
The Red Daughter if a fictional retelling of the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin. Being born to one of the world's most known and brutal dictators certainly leads one to an interesting life, and the author's clearly a gifted prose stylist - so, where exactly lies the problem? For me, the entire enterprise of writing a novel featuring a real, historical character is almost always inherently exploitative: the author of said work cannot help but insert their own imagination, their own vision of the person they are describing, and having them speak with their own voice. In doing so, in my opinion, the real person disappears behind the facade set up by someone else; instead of being preserved and honored, their unique personalities dissolve in the currents of fiction.
Although this book is presented as a sequence of journals and letters kept and sent by Svetlana, it is clear that it's not her writing them, but the author; he also has her form a completely fictional relationship with a made-up character, which overshadows all other relationships that she had in real life - including, I dare to say, the one with her own father. What is the point of doing that, exactly? It does not reflect on her actual character, as it is not something that she has actually done. How does a fictionalized relationship help us understand a person that actually lived? In my opinion, it doesn't, and I fail to see the point of such endeavors.
As I mentioned, the author's prose is very readable and it is clear that he has talent - I am willing to read more of his work, proving they are entirely fictional. As for those wanting to understand and learn more about Svetlana Alliluyeva, I recommend reading an actual biography, and skipping this book alltogether.
The Red Daughter if a fictional retelling of the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin. Being born to one of the world's most known and brutal dictators certainly leads one to an interesting life, and the author's clearly a gifted prose stylist - so, where exactly lies the problem? For me, the entire enterprise of writing a novel featuring a real, historical character is almost always inherently exploitative: the author of said work cannot help but insert their own imagination, their own vision of the person they are describing, and having them speak with their own voice. In doing so, in my opinion, the real person disappears behind the facade set up by someone else; instead of being preserved and honored, their unique personalities dissolve in the currents of fiction.
Although this book is presented as a sequence of journals and letters kept and sent by Svetlana, it is clear that it's not her writing them, but the author; he also has her form a completely fictional relationship with a made-up character, which overshadows all other relationships that she had in real life - including, I dare to say, the one with her own father. What is the point of doing that, exactly? It does not reflect on her actual character, as it is not something that she has actually done. How does a fictionalized relationship help us understand a person that actually lived? In my opinion, it doesn't, and I fail to see the point of such endeavors.
As I mentioned, the author's prose is very readable and it is clear that he has talent - I am willing to read more of his work, proving they are entirely fictional. As for those wanting to understand and learn more about Svetlana Alliluyeva, I recommend reading an actual biography, and skipping this book alltogether.
February 18, 2019
I doubt the name Svetlana Alliluyeva means anything to most of us today, but Joseph Stalin’s daughter was a political hot potato when she defected from Mother Russia during the Cold War. Whether you know of her, and regardless of your knowledge of the Cold War and Russian history, you will tear through this novelization of Svetlana’s life. Mr. Schwartz writes of her confusing and privileged young life and provides the background to her defection, but the story is primarily that of her life after arriving in the U.S., and it is totally engrossing.
Intelligent, guarded and seemingly hard, Svetlana hides her vulnerability and her past, to the extent that she can or is allowed to; but her life as her father’s child and as an adult under the rigid control of Soviet society leaves her unprepared for Western life and choices. She is haunted by the two nearly adult children she left behind; the U.S.S.R. tantalizes her with them, and U.S. authorities fear her children will be used to lure or harm her. There is a brief remarriage, and a baby boy born late in Svetlana’s life. She adores this child, hides his grandfather’s identity from him until he is a young teenager, and there are traumatic consequences. You will swear that what you have before you is non-fiction reading as fiction, but, no. The strength of this work is the story - fiction reading as blisteringly masterful fiction.
Available to everyone on April 30.
Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Random House Publishing Group / Random House via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.
Intelligent, guarded and seemingly hard, Svetlana hides her vulnerability and her past, to the extent that she can or is allowed to; but her life as her father’s child and as an adult under the rigid control of Soviet society leaves her unprepared for Western life and choices. She is haunted by the two nearly adult children she left behind; the U.S.S.R. tantalizes her with them, and U.S. authorities fear her children will be used to lure or harm her. There is a brief remarriage, and a baby boy born late in Svetlana’s life. She adores this child, hides his grandfather’s identity from him until he is a young teenager, and there are traumatic consequences. You will swear that what you have before you is non-fiction reading as fiction, but, no. The strength of this work is the story - fiction reading as blisteringly masterful fiction.
Available to everyone on April 30.
Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Random House Publishing Group / Random House via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.
March 6, 2022
In 1967, Stalin’s only daughter Svetlana, defected to the United States. On her journey here from Switzerland, she was accompanied by a young lawyer, who maintained a friendship with her throughout her long life. That lawyer was the father of the author of this book. This book is fiction, but it is a sad story of a woman tortured by her past and her inability to find home.
April 9, 2019
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'She survived her life, which maybe under the circumstances is maybe sort of heroic.'
John Burnham Schwartz takes liberty with his fictions, imagining the life of Josef Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, as she defects from the communist state to America in 1967, leaving behind her son and daughter, carrying with her the stain of her father’s infamy. Always thereafter to be ‘a foreigner in every sense of the word’ having left her homeland, a terrible mother to the two children she abandoned, that even Americanizing herself through marriage, now Lana Peters can never remove the blood that runs through her veins. Though there is an electric current that runs between Svetlana and her young lawyer Peter, loosely based on the author’s own father, the meat of the novel is in the tragedy of being Stalin’s daughter, it is a poisonous legacy. The cruel truth behind her mother’s erasure, the rest of her people ‘exiled or in prison by her father’s decree’, aunts and uncles arrested and executed, even her own brother Yakov captured by the Nazis wasn’t worth a prisoner trade. Her father controlled her life, who she was permitted to fall in love with, the state too ever a watchful eye reporting back to Stalin, there wasn’t an emotion felt, a movement made that wasn’t under scrutiny. A caged child, fed a diet of lies, not even knowing the truth behind her mother’s death. Daring to fall in love with a Jewish filmmaker, which her father forbid it seems no shock he was sent to labor camps. There was an arranged marriage, producing her daughter Katya. There was a deep love for an ill Indian man, whom she met while in hospital for her own treatment, of course she wasn’t allowed to marry him. Within the novel as in life, she journeys to India to scatter his ashes upon his passing. With her father’s death, the only release was to make a new home, to become someone else and remaining in her homeland was an impossibility.
“Svetlana’s entry into our marital orbit was something neither Martha nor I ever recovered from. Our own personal Cold War, you might say…” of course the story fictionalized a romance between Peter and Svetlana, their intimacy a window into her unsettling life in America. It would be a spot of happiness were it true too. Here, she will never escape being her father’s daughter, not even by marrying Sid and giving birth to an American son. We follow her tortured path, living with rumors about her Russian children, Katya and Josef who have forsaken their mother (were barred really from speaking to her, as she was a traitor to the Motherland) and wonder will they ever reunite but knowing that if the ‘future has defected’, then the past keeps its grave hands upon her feet. We suffer with Peter, who can’t help but wonder at the woman behind the eyes and fall in love with her. A love cultivated in letters and visits. In 1984, Svetlana appears as a star of the international press conference at the Moscow offices of the Soviet Woman’s National Committee. With her son Yasha, she shockingly renounces her American citizenship. She was ready to unite her family at last, return to her now grown children, who needed her. It wasn’t to last, tumultuous winds were always blowing through her life and again she leaves her homeland.
It would do one good to research the real story behind Svetlana, but this was a fascinating novel regardless of how true to facts the author leaned. She did seek political asylum and she was invited by Frank Lloyd Wright’s widow to visit the studio in Scotsdale, she did marry an architect and have a child with him, but it was a daughter named Olga not a son. Looking her up, she seems like a very fascinating woman too. John Burnham Schwartz tells us in his author’s note that he used his father’s ‘expansive Svetlana file’ with original material as his father ( lawyer Alan U. Schwartz) did travel under CIA cover to escort Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Josef Stalin into the United States. She was a part of his family, that much is fact, but it is a fictional novel and his father did not have a love affair with her. Living in the shadow of such a father as Stalin (undeniable monstrous) , one can only wonder at what went on inside of her, stuck between cultures, unable to shed the horrors of her father, removed from her children… it’s a hell of a life.
Publication Date: April 30, 2019
Random House
'She survived her life, which maybe under the circumstances is maybe sort of heroic.'
John Burnham Schwartz takes liberty with his fictions, imagining the life of Josef Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, as she defects from the communist state to America in 1967, leaving behind her son and daughter, carrying with her the stain of her father’s infamy. Always thereafter to be ‘a foreigner in every sense of the word’ having left her homeland, a terrible mother to the two children she abandoned, that even Americanizing herself through marriage, now Lana Peters can never remove the blood that runs through her veins. Though there is an electric current that runs between Svetlana and her young lawyer Peter, loosely based on the author’s own father, the meat of the novel is in the tragedy of being Stalin’s daughter, it is a poisonous legacy. The cruel truth behind her mother’s erasure, the rest of her people ‘exiled or in prison by her father’s decree’, aunts and uncles arrested and executed, even her own brother Yakov captured by the Nazis wasn’t worth a prisoner trade. Her father controlled her life, who she was permitted to fall in love with, the state too ever a watchful eye reporting back to Stalin, there wasn’t an emotion felt, a movement made that wasn’t under scrutiny. A caged child, fed a diet of lies, not even knowing the truth behind her mother’s death. Daring to fall in love with a Jewish filmmaker, which her father forbid it seems no shock he was sent to labor camps. There was an arranged marriage, producing her daughter Katya. There was a deep love for an ill Indian man, whom she met while in hospital for her own treatment, of course she wasn’t allowed to marry him. Within the novel as in life, she journeys to India to scatter his ashes upon his passing. With her father’s death, the only release was to make a new home, to become someone else and remaining in her homeland was an impossibility.
“Svetlana’s entry into our marital orbit was something neither Martha nor I ever recovered from. Our own personal Cold War, you might say…” of course the story fictionalized a romance between Peter and Svetlana, their intimacy a window into her unsettling life in America. It would be a spot of happiness were it true too. Here, she will never escape being her father’s daughter, not even by marrying Sid and giving birth to an American son. We follow her tortured path, living with rumors about her Russian children, Katya and Josef who have forsaken their mother (were barred really from speaking to her, as she was a traitor to the Motherland) and wonder will they ever reunite but knowing that if the ‘future has defected’, then the past keeps its grave hands upon her feet. We suffer with Peter, who can’t help but wonder at the woman behind the eyes and fall in love with her. A love cultivated in letters and visits. In 1984, Svetlana appears as a star of the international press conference at the Moscow offices of the Soviet Woman’s National Committee. With her son Yasha, she shockingly renounces her American citizenship. She was ready to unite her family at last, return to her now grown children, who needed her. It wasn’t to last, tumultuous winds were always blowing through her life and again she leaves her homeland.
It would do one good to research the real story behind Svetlana, but this was a fascinating novel regardless of how true to facts the author leaned. She did seek political asylum and she was invited by Frank Lloyd Wright’s widow to visit the studio in Scotsdale, she did marry an architect and have a child with him, but it was a daughter named Olga not a son. Looking her up, she seems like a very fascinating woman too. John Burnham Schwartz tells us in his author’s note that he used his father’s ‘expansive Svetlana file’ with original material as his father ( lawyer Alan U. Schwartz) did travel under CIA cover to escort Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Josef Stalin into the United States. She was a part of his family, that much is fact, but it is a fictional novel and his father did not have a love affair with her. Living in the shadow of such a father as Stalin (undeniable monstrous) , one can only wonder at what went on inside of her, stuck between cultures, unable to shed the horrors of her father, removed from her children… it’s a hell of a life.
Publication Date: April 30, 2019
Random House
April 22, 2019
Written in the style of a memoir, this is a novel about Joseph Stalin's only daughter, who defected to the US.
Perhaps due to the memoir style, there is a lot of "telling" rather than "showing", and the narrative feels very disjointed, hopping from one thing to the next and only briefly detailing important events in Svetlana's life that could have been used to really flesh out the characters and story.
I was really hoping this novel would give me great insight into a historical figure and subject matter I don't know much about but I feel like it didn't tell me much more than I could have learned from reading Svetlana's Wikipedia page.
Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.
Historical Readings & Reviews
Perhaps due to the memoir style, there is a lot of "telling" rather than "showing", and the narrative feels very disjointed, hopping from one thing to the next and only briefly detailing important events in Svetlana's life that could have been used to really flesh out the characters and story.
I was really hoping this novel would give me great insight into a historical figure and subject matter I don't know much about but I feel like it didn't tell me much more than I could have learned from reading Svetlana's Wikipedia page.
Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.
Historical Readings & Reviews
Want to Read
March 11, 2019As a fan of historical fiction, I found The Red Daughter dull and academic. It's more like it's written for study instead of leisure reading. The narrative is too wordy and complicated. This woman has a great story, but it's not executed well here. It's a deep literature kind of read for the more studious readers. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
May 11, 2021
This was my final Willoughby book club selection and I thought it was a good choice for me. I know nothing about Stalin’s daughter and was keen to find out what happened to her. Really almost nothing did. She defected to the USA, made some bad relationship decisions both before and after that, defected back to the USSR and finally returned to USA where she died. She was not presented as a particularly likeable person. Her early life wasn’t explored enough although it clearly impacted on her middle and later life. I found the book very hard going, mainly because of its style - that remote first person musing with incomplete sentences and oddly detailed conversations for what is supposed to be a diary.
I was interested in the Frank Lloyd Wright commune and felt sympathy for Svetlana’s children, especially her youngest, born in America and dragged to Russia when he was 13 to meet his older siblings who didn’t really want him or their mother by then.
Less musing and more structured reflection would have made this a better read I think but maybe there really wasn’t much to tell.
I was interested in the Frank Lloyd Wright commune and felt sympathy for Svetlana’s children, especially her youngest, born in America and dragged to Russia when he was 13 to meet his older siblings who didn’t really want him or their mother by then.
Less musing and more structured reflection would have made this a better read I think but maybe there really wasn’t much to tell.
April 17, 2019
The best thing about this book for me was learning that Frank Lloyd Wright was Welsh [which, in all my research on the man, I somehow missed] and that knowledge further explained my draw to him [I am of Welsh descent]. The rest....OMG what a bunch of poorly written tripe.
At the end of the book, the author makes it clear [three times in fact], that this is a work of fiction. That there is actually very little "historical" accuracy in it at all. He basically took a real life character, a story that his father was briefly involved in [his father did indeed escort Svetlana from Zurich to the US, but that is where all that ends for his Dad] and her marriage to the heir apparent of FLW and then made up ALL. THE. REST. For a book that is being touted at "Historical Fiction", that is a lot of fiction that is not really balanced with the brief bits of history that we are barely shown. It would have served me [and anyone else who is interested in this book {and can I just tell you to RUN AWAY now?}] to just read the several excellent nonfiction [and ACCURATE] book about Svetlana's life' both in Russia and in the USA.
This book is told in "journal" form, with an "editor's note" at the beginning of what I am assuming is chapters and it is tedious and jumps around a lot. There are moments when you think you are going to get more - a bigger insight to just who Svetlana is and what makes her tick and then WHAM, all you get is more of the spoiled, depressed, deeply unhappy woman that the author has created to further his story along [it is MUCH better for her to be sad and tortured as to further her illicitness and stupidness with Peter] and eventually you realize that it is not enhancing the story at all or that finishing the book will benefit anyone.
I DID finish this - part of me kept hoping that it would get better. It did not. And all I feel right now is the feeling that I wasted two days that I could have been reading something else that was way more spectacular and amazing than this was.
Thank you too NetGalley and Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
At the end of the book, the author makes it clear [three times in fact], that this is a work of fiction. That there is actually very little "historical" accuracy in it at all. He basically took a real life character, a story that his father was briefly involved in [his father did indeed escort Svetlana from Zurich to the US, but that is where all that ends for his Dad] and her marriage to the heir apparent of FLW and then made up ALL. THE. REST. For a book that is being touted at "Historical Fiction", that is a lot of fiction that is not really balanced with the brief bits of history that we are barely shown. It would have served me [and anyone else who is interested in this book {and can I just tell you to RUN AWAY now?}] to just read the several excellent nonfiction [and ACCURATE] book about Svetlana's life' both in Russia and in the USA.
This book is told in "journal" form, with an "editor's note" at the beginning of what I am assuming is chapters and it is tedious and jumps around a lot. There are moments when you think you are going to get more - a bigger insight to just who Svetlana is and what makes her tick and then WHAM, all you get is more of the spoiled, depressed, deeply unhappy woman that the author has created to further his story along [it is MUCH better for her to be sad and tortured as to further her illicitness and stupidness with Peter] and eventually you realize that it is not enhancing the story at all or that finishing the book will benefit anyone.
I DID finish this - part of me kept hoping that it would get better. It did not. And all I feel right now is the feeling that I wasted two days that I could have been reading something else that was way more spectacular and amazing than this was.
Thank you too NetGalley and Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 16, 2019
Beautiful, rich, elegant writing. Perhaps the most deeply intimate of all the literary historical novels I've read. A fascinating look, too, at the high-stakes chess game played by the (male, of course) leaders, who orchestrated the Cold War on both sides, and of a woman, buffeted by both, haunted by her legacy and yet determined to set her own course. Not since Tolstoy's Natasha (War & Peace) have I read a more vivid, fully realized portrait of a young woman coming of age against the backdrop of political turbulence. The spirited girl, we see in young Svetlana, refuses to be extinguished, even as she grows into a woman of complexity and contradictions, a woman who stubbornly insists on looking life square in the face, defiantly asking, again and again, for a new chapter and for deeper understanding from those who dare to judge her. Schwartz delivers with astonishing human insight.
March 10, 2019
A fictional account of the defection of Stalin's daughter to the U.S. Leaving her two almost grown children behind, Lana forges a life with a marriage and another child. Her relationship with her attorney is the focus here with an imaginative telling in a journal and letters format with Editor's notes from her attorney. Although not historically accurate, enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley
Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley
September 27, 2019
Interesting historical fiction. The writing coming from “Lana” was especially potent and beautifully written. I was disappointed that the author did not complete some of the story lines which I felt would have made the book more complete. However, there are sentences in the book that I will go back to again and again because they were so profound!
Read
October 24, 2019 I didn't actually get very far this one. It was kind of hard to get engaged in at the beginning, but the subject matter is of interest to me and I'm familiar with the writer ... so I will try again at another time.
August 11, 2020
Wow!! I thoroughly enjoyed this lively and quite engaging story about Svetlana. The detail that was put into this qork of art was truely fascinating even if the author does declare it a work of fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
April 25, 2019
I've loved all of Schwartz' books, but this may be his best and most ambitious yet. A must-read.
April 25, 2019
Couldn't put it down. Ordering copies for my book group next month.
April 29, 2019
This book has left me feeling sort of frustrated. I understand that it's historical fiction, but it would appear that there is a lot more emphasis on the "fiction" aspect rather than the "historical". I find this to be a strange choice for the author, considering that he is the son of the lawyer who brought Svetlana to the USA in the first place. He actually DID have inside knowledge on who she was and how her life was in the US, but instead chose to create this fictional version of the woman who had no respect for marriage vows and proceeded to have an affair with whomever she chose. The main one being Peter Horvath (the character who represented the author's own father). This made Svetlana look bad, it made the author's father look bad, and it ultimately makes the author's mother look bad too, even though they are fictionalized versions of these people. There never was a real affair between them, so why invent it? For the drama?
These highly fictionalized versions of real people, combined with changing the names and genders of people who existed in real life makes me not trust what I read at all. It's like a soap opera version of real events, when I was expecting more of a historical representation of Svetlana's life. The author openly admits to inventing a good amount of this tale in the afterword, but I wish he had mentioned it in the beginning of the book. About halfway through, something felt wrong about what I was being told in this story and after a little research of my own, it felt like the author was being purposefully misleading. It sort-of turns you against the book a little bit.
One of the other choices the author made that I felt was strange was to claim the book was translated from Russian from Svetlana's personal diaries. Ok, I can get on board with that because it was translated into equivalent English (even though now I understand there was never any translating to be had). However, there are a few letters from Stalin to his daughter in the beginning of the book, but those are "translated" literally instead of the implied English equivalent. I suspect the author was attempting to make Stalin appear as childish and unintelligent, but instead I'm left questioning the author's decision making skills when it comes to this book.
I truly wanted to enjoy this book. I knew she ended up in Wisconsin, and since I also live in Wisconsin it was an interesting topic to me. When you realize that most of the story is highly fictionalized, it takes away from it. I did find the sections about Frank Lloyd Wright's communes to be quite interesting and prompted further investigating on my part. Growing up here, we're only taught good things about FLW and he is more or less hailed as a Wisconsin hero, but he basically had a cult and that's extremely strange to learn about. So, I guess there is the one good aspect that this book caused me to further research not only Svetlana but also FLW, which was an interesting experience. Overall, I feel like I was more disappointed than entertained by the book as a whole.
These highly fictionalized versions of real people, combined with changing the names and genders of people who existed in real life makes me not trust what I read at all. It's like a soap opera version of real events, when I was expecting more of a historical representation of Svetlana's life. The author openly admits to inventing a good amount of this tale in the afterword, but I wish he had mentioned it in the beginning of the book. About halfway through, something felt wrong about what I was being told in this story and after a little research of my own, it felt like the author was being purposefully misleading. It sort-of turns you against the book a little bit.
One of the other choices the author made that I felt was strange was to claim the book was translated from Russian from Svetlana's personal diaries. Ok, I can get on board with that because it was translated into equivalent English (even though now I understand there was never any translating to be had). However, there are a few letters from Stalin to his daughter in the beginning of the book, but those are "translated" literally instead of the implied English equivalent. I suspect the author was attempting to make Stalin appear as childish and unintelligent, but instead I'm left questioning the author's decision making skills when it comes to this book.
I truly wanted to enjoy this book. I knew she ended up in Wisconsin, and since I also live in Wisconsin it was an interesting topic to me. When you realize that most of the story is highly fictionalized, it takes away from it. I did find the sections about Frank Lloyd Wright's communes to be quite interesting and prompted further investigating on my part. Growing up here, we're only taught good things about FLW and he is more or less hailed as a Wisconsin hero, but he basically had a cult and that's extremely strange to learn about. So, I guess there is the one good aspect that this book caused me to further research not only Svetlana but also FLW, which was an interesting experience. Overall, I feel like I was more disappointed than entertained by the book as a whole.
April 1, 2020
Historical fiction written as though by the American attorney who facilitated Stalin's daughter's defection to the US in 1967 as he discovered her personal diary upon her death and recounts his perspective on her entries. The attorney in real life is the actual author John Burnham Schwartz's father. Thanks to David Robeson for the recommendation, I completely get why you made me aware of this. The story is fascinating, I will say I was hoping for a bit more of the macro intrigue about her defection from the USSR and the politics, propaganda, the discussions, noise and action around her actions vs her diary entries regarding relationships and parenting.......etc, especially given the leeway an historical fiction work could have provided. Instead we dug deeper into an individual woman's thoughts, feelings, challenges, joys.....who happened to be Stalin's daughter ..... I knew it was fiction in the beginning and had to remind myself it was fiction in the end. I am struck by why in real life the authors father did not have an affair with Stalin's daughter, but in his fictionalized version, he put his father into such a tryst with her, while not painting a very warm and fuzzy picture of his fictionalized mother. Well written, and I love historical fiction....will explore Schwartz further.
March 27, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz.
I am normally a fan of historical fiction BUT it has to have more history than fiction for me to enjoy it. The book is about Stalin's daughter. My favorite part of the book was her childhood in Russia and off and on the relationship with her father. He seemed cold and cruel to everyone around him except the daughter who he"lovingly" called "housekeeper." ( Go figure that one!) Once she had a boyfriend he turned the cruelty on her as well. Svetlana married and had two children. Nothing is mentioned of them---husbands and children until she defects via India and Switzerland. I found her as selfish and cold as her father for leaving the children behind because she was forced to live in poorer circumstances following her fathers' death.
She came to the US during the Cold War and tried to keep herself to herself. Sometimes she was able to and other times not. She married and had another son who she kept their history a secret from. The end of the book has her making another selfish decision, not seeming to care who was hurt by it.
The book had her with the lawyer who accompanied her to the US. It intimated that they had a longstanding love affair with writings and help when needed. Many secret meetings took place to the point that if it had been in the present I am sure his marriage would not have survived.
At the end of the book, the author let us in on his secret that the love affair (which was the longest and most real relationship she had ever had was "made up" to make the story more interesting. I almost found this a betrayal to the readers.
I found the writing rather scattered and the timeline hard to follow. The book was fine but I didn't think that it measured up to what it could have been.
I am normally a fan of historical fiction BUT it has to have more history than fiction for me to enjoy it. The book is about Stalin's daughter. My favorite part of the book was her childhood in Russia and off and on the relationship with her father. He seemed cold and cruel to everyone around him except the daughter who he"lovingly" called "housekeeper." ( Go figure that one!) Once she had a boyfriend he turned the cruelty on her as well. Svetlana married and had two children. Nothing is mentioned of them---husbands and children until she defects via India and Switzerland. I found her as selfish and cold as her father for leaving the children behind because she was forced to live in poorer circumstances following her fathers' death.
She came to the US during the Cold War and tried to keep herself to herself. Sometimes she was able to and other times not. She married and had another son who she kept their history a secret from. The end of the book has her making another selfish decision, not seeming to care who was hurt by it.
The book had her with the lawyer who accompanied her to the US. It intimated that they had a longstanding love affair with writings and help when needed. Many secret meetings took place to the point that if it had been in the present I am sure his marriage would not have survived.
At the end of the book, the author let us in on his secret that the love affair (which was the longest and most real relationship she had ever had was "made up" to make the story more interesting. I almost found this a betrayal to the readers.
I found the writing rather scattered and the timeline hard to follow. The book was fine but I didn't think that it measured up to what it could have been.
May 20, 2019
4.5 stars. This novel, which follows the life and defection to the U.S. of Joseph Stalin's only daughter in 1967 and the U.S. lawyer who helped her do it, really left a mark on me. Wow what a complex and conflicted woman and time in history! She was obviously not an easy person and made various disastrous decisions, which haunted her the rest of her life. But she was also bright and sympathetic -- a woman who wished to escape her father's legacy and past and lived in numerous places. You really get the emotional sense of her decisions on her, and her children, and those of Peter Horvath, the lawyer in the book who falls for her. Fact & fiction are intertwined in this story to a fascinating effect. I feel sliced open knowing what she struggled with. A mix of Russian and American who could not escape her family relations -- she was a witness to history.
May 2, 2019
The Red Daughter is a fictionalization of the life in America of Svetlana Alliluyeva, written by the son of the lawyer who accompanied her to the US when she defected. I really enjoyed the Cold War setting and the (fictional) glimpses of such figures as Stalin, George Kennan, and Alliluyeva herself. I’m left a bit unsure about the mix of fact and fiction that I’ve just read, and that is somewhat unsettling. Alliluyeva herself was a complicated character, self-absorbed and incredibly damaged by her upbringing, yet trying to live life as a normal western woman during the late stages of the Cold War.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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