The Beginning of Spring

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and subtle writing
Review: A truly beautiful and moving book permeated with humor, insight and compassion. It describes an English family living amidst the overwhelming chaos of life in Moscow in the early nineteenth century. Penelope Fitzgerald reminds one of Jane Austen with her soft, ironic touches and delicately-drawn characters.

Rating:
Summary: A miniaturist once again shows her precision and craft.
Review: Fitzgerald, in this book as with another I've read, shows herself to be a precise and evocative miniaturist. The sweep of the events surrounding the main character, the English gentleman Frank, is brought into his small world, one of limited perceptions and a desperate need for equilibrium. A great deal of the novel is happening out of the range of Frank, and just as much is unperceived or misperceived by Frank. So that the ending is a series of shocks, some of which are not quite comprehensible.

Frank sees it all in domestic terms: his wife has left him, and left him with the chidlren; he is advised by his friend, the seemingly muddle-headed idealist Selwyn; visited by his brother-in-law, also seeming to be muddle-headed, Charlie. But the Russian Revolution is swirling around him, and encroaches upon that world, re-defining this crisis in Frank's small life.

Fitzgerald at once brings a wry humor to the novel, but it has an Austen edge to it, and is in an environment that adds a shadow of pervading seriousness. At the same time, we see more than Frank but less than many others, caught between the English humor and the socio-political storm.

It is a subtle and provocative book. And short.

Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: This book was really good. It showed Russia's personality beautifully. Although it was an intriguing story, it lacked a lot of action. If you're looking for a book with a somewhat non-existent plot, then this would be great for you. Just when you expect the story to get more interesting, it ends. There isn't much of a conclusion so the story doesn't really wrap itself up. I found it somewhat frustrating, how it just ended in a sentence. It is a very well written novel. It wasn't very long, which was nice. Fitzgerald does an excellent job describing Russia and the characters' feelings. Although it can be boring and dry at times, the reader truly becomes thrown into the lifestyle of a very interesting Russian family.