I am almost embarrassed to admit how much I enjoyed this book, with its overt, unabashed "chick book" premise and cover. I've recently reacquainted myself with ballet, to a slightly obsessive degree. When I was small, and very girly, I thought of myself as a cultured balletomane, in love with the only real ballet I'd seen-- The American Ballet's performance of the Nutcracker, choreographed by and starring Mikhail Baryshnikov (which I bought myself for Christmas this year). I wanted to be a ballerina, with a flowy tutu accentuating every poised leap and twirl... doesn't nearly every 5 year old though?
Russian Winter is a love story without all the roses and chocolate, and with enough regret and betrayal to make things interesting. It was a story about people living in the high society of Russia during Stalin's rule, a different perspective than most similar-period pieces. It was definitely a chick book, but literary enough to hold my attention, care about the characters, and want to figure out the whole story along with them. Plus, there was a bitchy old woman; and I LOVE old people, especially when they're feisty.
There are several storylines interwoven. The most important two being Nina Revskaya--ballet dancer, Soviet defector. We see her turn from a young, naive, loving corps member to a driven, hardened prima ballerina in the Bolshoi Ballet, to a hurt, scared, angry and embittered old woman. Then we have Grigori Solodin who is a middle-aged professor searching for his birth parents, hoping to find meaning within that knowledge.
I read Russian Winter on a plane on my way to my parents' house over Thanksgiving--a trip I was not planning to make until my grandfather died less than a week before. I suppose it stuck out on my shelf-o-ARCs because it seemed fluffy and girly and something that would take my mind off of things. Of course, the tutus, the love story, and the mystery of the necklace were the girliest, fluffiest parts about it--this was a novel rife with betrayal, heartbreak, and (again) Stalinism (I seem to read books in thematic pairs...*shrug*). Still, it provided the escapism I needed and I got sucked into the story.
Russian Winter is by Daphne Kalotay. It is available in hardcover now but comes out in paperback in May.
