Cheap Russka : The Novel of Russia (Book) (EDWARD RUTHERFURD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Russka : The Novel of Russia

A bold effort to tame the wild history of the Russian bear
Rutherfurd has done an amazing thing here in that he has written a comprehensive novel that encompasses 1800 years of history of an exotic, enigmatic land shrouded in mystery and secrecy. We all still know so little about Russia. An enormous amount of research must have gone into this book, and he definitely has outdone his previous works because understanding Russian history is like trying to find the light switch in a dark room after spinning around 25 times. One has to start from the very beginning and inch forward or one would get lost, and all the time you have dizziness and vertigo! This is made even more harrowing because finding a starting point is virtually impossible. I like the way he describes this in the opening pages by drawing attention to the fact Russia was still a dark, backward land where people marked the days by what village elder had recently died or what harvest was good or bad, while the rest of the world was watching the Roman empire reach its apex and Christianity was blooming and gaining firm footholds in the ancient pagan world. This theme continues throughout as he informs us that Russia lagged nearly two weeks behind the rest of the world on the calendar all the way up to modern times, until it finally adopted the standard calendar. One gets the feeling that for much of its life, Russia has been an enormous and powerful yet feeble-minded child. Russian potential for greatness is omnipresent but it has been hindered by bewildering customs and backward outlooks on life and the world. Just looking at a globe, it seems nearly impossible to tell which way is north, east, south, or west. Is it a European nation? Is it Asian? Is it both, or neither? Rutherfurd points out that in Russia, the rules are different. The laws of physics work differently, and any attempt by the Russians to reverse this actually seems to get them into bigger trouble. Its a very painful process for the country to move against the grain of its own nature. Over time, Russia is tediously drug kicking and screaming into maturity, and he perfectly captures this journey and its effects on fictional but all too real Russian citizens.

I was very impressed with the job Rutherfurd did. Russka is indeed a worthy epi. I leave the "c" off because I feel he came up just short. It's as if he became exhausted while flailing around in the massive quagmire into which he heroically threw himself. An enormous chapter on the revolutionary period leads into a tiny mention of World War II (literally half a page). I found a problem with this in that 20 million Russians, both soldiers and civilians, died during this war, more casualties than any other nation suffered by a longshot. So how can one try to grasp what Russia is all about by skimming over so traumatic a national experience? Also absent are vivid descriptions of the effects on the Russian people of farm collectivization and the Cold War. Perhaps this is unfair to Rutherfurd in that he has chosen to teach us something we didn't already know. Many Americans alive today fought in World War II, or took part in subsequent conflicts in which we went head to head with Soviet-sponsored communist forces. We lived in fear of nuclear annihilation while hiding under our school desks during armageddon drills, and we watched Russians steal our thunder as they rocketed into space just ahead of us. So maybe the author let the middle and latter stages of the 20th century speak for themselves. But it seemed like just as Rutherfurd was in the last mile of the marathon and it was time to sprint, he decided to ride to the finish line in a golf cart. His saving grace, however, is that he finished strong in the last few pages. The epilogue was one of the best chapters and answered, for me, many questions that had accumulated during my progress through the previous episodes. Through 945 pages, I came to see these people as afraid and confused, yet vaguely aware of their largely untapped power and what they could continue to offer the world.

Rutherfurd doesn't shy away from a challenge, that much can be said, and the reward is an ardent attention to detail and color that I guarantee will be hard to find elsewhere in regards to this subject matter. Overall, I think this novel is a new standard by which other writers should gauge their own efforts to make some sense out of the chaos that is the history of Russia.

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Brilliant historical epic ruined by abrupt end
One of the richest historical tapestries written in the 20th century bringing Russian pre-revolutionary history to life like nothing since Tolstoy.I loved every minute of it and lived with the figures in the novel-wept ,rejoiced and feared for them.Saw the barbarism of the first settlements by nomadic people,the cruelty of Ivan the Terrible,the pompous hypocricy of the court of Catherine The Great and the confusion and despair of the 19th century and the excitement and fear of the pre-revolutionary era.But I was bitterly disapointed that Rutherford did not document the horrors of the Stalin period in more detail and did not cover the years of Russian history after World II.How wonderful an acount of the stalled reforms of Kruschev,the stagnation of the later Kruschev years and of the Brezhnev years.The Cold war and the invasions of Poland,Hungary,Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan ,the indocrination by the Communist party and the valour of the persecuted dissidents,through the eys of different Russian people would have been.The collapse of the Soviet union and the heroic stand by the people of Moscow against the failed 1991 Stalinist coup would have enriched and completed the account.Because this was abruptly ommited I will give the novel four instead of five stars

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Fine Weave of Storytelling and HIstory
Like his English history novels Sarum and London, Rutherfurd puts people into history in a way that leaves you feeling as though you've lived in their time and place. These are real characters you care about and whose cultural roots and outlook you feel you understand, and that is the best beginning to education in history. Russka is only slightly diminished by a bit much overt quizzing amongst the novel's characters to explain the history. Overall I really liked how well history and storyline are woven together. Educational, engaging and, at times, riveting. Rutherfurd knows how to tell a good tale.