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The Girl From Junchow (2009)

by Kate Furnivall(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0425227642 (ISBN13: 9780425227640)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Berkley Trade

series

The Russian Concubine

review 1: The reason we read historical fiction is not for the history. It’s for the fiction. We fall in love with a character, and whether she lives in Mongolia or Austin, ancient Rome or modern India, we want to know what it’s like to be her, to know her, and to fall in love, just as she does.Luckily, historical fiction fans, we have Kate Furnivall. Because Ms. Furnivall’s writing is not just about the less-travelled destinations, the war-torn settings, the criminal underbellies of foreign cities: it’s about the people. And in Lydia Ivanova, we get the chance to fall in love, all over again. We first met Lydia in The Russian Concubine, and hat was the novel that sealed it for me: I had found a writer to follow across times and places that normally are of no interest to me ... more(namely: Mao’s China and Stalin’s Russia – including prison camps in Siberia.) But she writes with such grace, such depth, and such well-researched detail, that I forget that I don’t like those time periods. Unlike some historical fiction, though, she never lets the history or the research overwhelm the story. And the story here (I was getting to it!) is that Lydia has left China in search of her father, who she had once believed dead. Knowing he’s alive but in a Soviet prison camp, she sets off with her half-brother Dmitri to find him, and leaves her lover Chang An Lo behind. The harshness of Siberia and then, later, of Moscow’s back-stabbing, selling of secrets, and incredible sadness are the backdrop for what is still, essentially, a love story. When Chang is sent to China at the request of Mao, he finds Lydia, but there are many around them who do not want them together, not the least of whom is the Russian officer who seems to know all of Lydia’s secrets. Including, most importantly, where her father is being held. Ms. Furnivall manages to tie many (many!) separate story lines together, weaving them between the narrative like the intertwining threads of fate. Dmitiri’s story, especially, almost deserved its own book. I did think that Chang and Lydia’s story was not quite as strong as in the Russian Concubine, not quite as urgent, as if we already knew the ending, but in the end, we didn’t. The Girl From Junchow will tether you to its pages like a secret Soviet blimp to its mooring, and it is only with the closing that you will be allowed loose. If you have not already managed to lose yourself between the pages of one of her novels, do so now.
review 2: To me, this was a strange book. I did not really like it that much, but still i could not put it away. I really liked the atmosphere of communist threat all the time. As a historian, it is always nice to read and feel about the stuff i know a lot about in a more objective (scientific) way. The characters were not that interesting to me, however. Lydia just seemed like a teenager, on the rampage every now and then. Very determined but not really thinking things trough. The relationship with Dimitri Malofejev, for instance. Then her weird brother, Aleksei, who ends up with the wife of Dimitri. It all just sounds a bit twisted to me. The part with the vori kind of fell out of the sky to me. Later i understood the introduction of Maksim as a father to Aleksei but that only became clear at the end of the book. And the Dutch title (Russian Chamomile) is still a mystery to me. While writing and researching for this review, i found out that this book is a sequel. Perhaps that explains 'problems' with this book. Reading the other parts might solve some of my issues but i don't know if i'm really willing to solve the issues. less

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