![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Two Cousins of Azov, by Andrea Bennett
This was a random find at the work book sale; again, not the sort of thing I would have sought out, but something that sounded interesting enough to take a punt on. Set in post-Soviet 1990s Russia, it shares some common ground with Death and the Penguin, when themes such as corruption arise; but the story is more widely human, and dips into Soviet history as well. I admit I had to look up Azov on the map; the mentions of Siberia had made me think it was further towards central Asia, but it turns out to be an offshoot of the Black Sea.
Gor is a retired bank manager, grumpy old man, and occasional magician in Azov. Odd things have been happening around him, and his new assistant Sveta wants to help him to sort them out. Meanwhile, Tolya has found himself in a hospital bed in Rostov, unable to remember how he got there, but with a kindly young student doctor who seems prepared to listen to his stories from his childhood of the 1930s under Stalin. The story evolves with various other characters, and it is plain that not everyone is being honest, though it is not entirely clear in what whey they are being dishonest.
I found this a little difficult to get into; the characters didn't immediately appeal, but it was worth pursuing, and by the end I found I had rather enjoyed the book. The English author has, it seems to me, successfully appropriated the absurdist spirit of Russian literature into the book on occasion, and it seems like the sort of story that would adapt itself well to film.
This was a random find at the work book sale; again, not the sort of thing I would have sought out, but something that sounded interesting enough to take a punt on. Set in post-Soviet 1990s Russia, it shares some common ground with Death and the Penguin, when themes such as corruption arise; but the story is more widely human, and dips into Soviet history as well. I admit I had to look up Azov on the map; the mentions of Siberia had made me think it was further towards central Asia, but it turns out to be an offshoot of the Black Sea.
Gor is a retired bank manager, grumpy old man, and occasional magician in Azov. Odd things have been happening around him, and his new assistant Sveta wants to help him to sort them out. Meanwhile, Tolya has found himself in a hospital bed in Rostov, unable to remember how he got there, but with a kindly young student doctor who seems prepared to listen to his stories from his childhood of the 1930s under Stalin. The story evolves with various other characters, and it is plain that not everyone is being honest, though it is not entirely clear in what whey they are being dishonest.
I found this a little difficult to get into; the characters didn't immediately appeal, but it was worth pursuing, and by the end I found I had rather enjoyed the book. The English author has, it seems to me, successfully appropriated the absurdist spirit of Russian literature into the book on occasion, and it seems like the sort of story that would adapt itself well to film.