Reader's Ink discussion

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE POINT-OF-VIEW?

WOULD THE STORY HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT OR BETTER TOLD BY SOMEONE ELSE? SOMEONE SUCH AS CATHERINE OR ELIZABETH?

I think getting into the head of Catherine would've been too daunting and inevitably come up short. Elizabeth would have been fun.

I kind of liked Varvara as our point-of-view. I didn't find her quite as one-dimensional as y'all, and I sensed her voice aging as the years passed, particularly as she became a mother.

Also, I liked the insider/outsider perspective. I'm a fan of Catherine the Great in general, and I thought a close but simultaneously distanced point of view showed her strength and power as well as her vulnerability.

The subtitle is a tad misleading, as Catherine is not the main character. Indeed, we don't even meet her for quite a while, and we end soon after she is crowned Empress. The writing is on par with Philippa Gregory's less sensationalistic pieces if slightly less such. Stachniak's work is a bit more stark and keeps the sexual content to bare minimums, which reflects the setting quite well.

I REALLY LIKE CATHERINE THE GREAT AS WELL SINCE I DID EXTENSIVE RESEARCH ON HER AND HER ERA WHEN IN GRAD SCHOOL. PERHAPS THAT'S WHY I WAS SO UNIMPRESSED WITH THIS BOOK. I REALLY EXPECTED A LOT MORE THAN I GOT.

Cheryl: any books about Catherine the Great you'd recommend?

I REALLY LIKED THE MEMOIRS OF CATHERINE THE GREAT TRANSLATED BY MARK CRUSE.