Rating: - One of the best historical novels I've read
I can't disagree more with the Washington Post review. I started reading it because I had nothing else better to do and then suddenly I was transported into Stalinist era of the 1930s. I feel I need to find out what I can about this author who has achieved something close to witchcraft by re-creating the psychological (un)reality of that era. I almost laughed when I read the reviewer's complaints about how the details don't add to the intrigue/suspense. There is NO suspense; only the utter illogic of possible imminent violent end to one's life for no reason which IS the definition of the Stalinist era. How this guy called Jerome Charyn about whom I know nothing accomplish this in a rather slim book much better than all the volumes of Solzhenitsyn who was actually there, I have no idea.
Fatma Isikdag
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