Simon Seabag Montefiore - Sashenka

The pain and pleasure of belonging to a book group is encountering new books and authors that displease or delight, or even just pass you by. I have to say I was quite enthused when this book was chosen by a friend as our next read. We had recently read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles which I at first was doubtful about, but was entranced by it and would thoroughly recommend it.

Mr Montefiore tells a much darker tale, but it was not one that drew me in. There is no question of doubt that the author knows his history and has bound together elements of his knowledge to create this story. A tale of a young aristocrat, Sashenka, who becomes a revolutionary. Eventually falling foul of, and into, the self-consuming maw of the USSR's communist party. The novel contrasts well the Tsar's secret police and the party's similar agents or Checkists being much the same. There are a wealth of facts within the novel. For example I was not aware that the core of the parties revolutionary efforts were mostly Russian-based Georgian Bolsheviks.

The novel failed for me in several ways. I never became concerned with any of the characters. I felt they were very simple caricatures: too upstanding, too loyal, too cute, too horrible. The book was slow, meanders through some pointless scenes and a good third of the novel was just a repeat of what has gone before. Some of the descriptive language was just weird, for example: "Lala could savour the leather and cigars even in her tears". The final sin was Simon Montefiore's obsession with breasts, busts and bosoms. The first thing we learn about the protagonist is that she has the most prominent bust in here class at school. Similar references are made throughout the book. The most ludicrous being when Sashenka is being strip searched prior to a KGB interrogation and thinks what nice breasts she has!

Overall some great history, but frustrating and repetitive. Far too long but elements in here of a potentially good book. This is the first book in a trilogy, so perhaps better things follow.