The Crime of Olga Arbyrlina

Rating:
Summary: Madness, Madness!!!
Review: Excellent. What else can I write. Andrei Makine is one of the great writers of our time. As a reader you will descend into madness with the princess and feel as if you are holding her hand and can do nothing to stop it. An excellent addition to an already outstanding body of work. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Crime of Olga Arbyelina
Review: Makine is an extraordinary writer with many wonderful gifts and great accomplishments. In this book, however, the gifts seem to be wasted--or at least used for dubious effect. The tale of Olga Arbyelina is beautifully crafted and presented, but the actions which give impetus to the story are repulsive--incest with her son, initially done while she was drugged and unconscious, but eventually continued, justified to herself, and even welcomed. Olga is only marginally a sympathetic character. She seems so sick and seems to learn so little that one wonders why this book was written. The universal themes one would expect to see used to try to justify the subject matter seem missing here, though Pauline Melville uses similar subject matter in The Ventriloquist's Tale to great and even positive effect. The denouement and Olga's madness seemed to me neither sad nor unexpected. Ultimately, I found myself wondering why the author chose to write this story, a romanticized, melodramatic, and unsatisfying journey into darkness.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing.
Review: Makine is an extraordinary writer with many wonderful gifts and great accomplishments. In this book, however, the gifts seem to be wasted--or at least used for dubious effect. The tale of Olga Arbyelina is beautifully crafted and presented, but the actions which give impetus to the story are repulsive--incest with her son, initially done while she was drugged and unconscious, but eventually continued, justified to herself, and even welcomed. Olga is only marginally a sympathetic character. She seems so sick and seems to learn so little that one wonders why this book was written. The universal themes one would expect to see used to try to justify the subject matter seem missing here, though Pauline Melville uses similar subject matter in The Ventriloquist's Tale to great and even positive effect. The denouement and Olga's madness seemed to me neither sad nor unexpected. Ultimately, I found myself wondering why the author chose to write this story, a romanticized, melodramatic, and unsatisfying journey into darkness.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing
Review: There is absolutely nothing to recommend in this book to other readers. The only reason I finished the work was that I had no other reading alternative one evening, and I will not comment on a book I have not finished.

A Russian Princess refugee circa the 1940's is the center of this poorly conceived yarn. As a theme Russian Princesses both real and imagined, has been used as repetitiously as any other that readily comes to mind. Readers have been offered not only novels, but have also been presented with a variety of works that promoted pretenders to the Romanov Family. So what is an Author to do when faced with an overly worn theme? Make the son a hemophiliac so that anyone that knows a bit of History would think this was yet another fictional tale of the lost Romanovs.

Now that a familiar theme is established, a well-worn format follows. The tale opens with the end, and then we are subjected to a book filled with repetitive prose until we are rewarded with a vacuous ending. Prior to the story being mercifully brought to a conclusion, the reader is faced with page after page, and chapter after chapter of descriptions of various levels of incest that are so alike, you may wonder if you have read the same passage more than once.

I understand that the book was translated from French into English. This cannot mitigate any of this books deficiencies. French is not a long lost language. Had the original been an ancient language, which was subject to widely differing interpretations, this could have been a difficulty. However this is not the case.

The weakest part of this collection of words is the Author's attempt to rationalize the incestuous relationship. Once the Author chose such a volatile topic, that many consider well beyond the prurient, he set himself a great task. Since I do not believe his goal was to create just another controversial take on incest, the other alternative was to persuade the reader with circumstances that could mitigate the issue.

The Author did not succeed in telling an interesting story, nor was he able to cleverly rethink a human relationship that most would condemn.

This is not worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: The Crime of Olga Arbyelina
Review: This is a beautifully written book. Makine truly has a talent with language -- some passages are so poetic, it's hard to believe that one is reading prose. You have to read the book in increments and savor the scenes. The writing is often very challenging and the whole plot is intellectually stimulating. This is definitely not a book where the plot moves quickly and everything is apparent from the beginning. Although the novel contains several taboo topics (incest, abortion, politics), it is possible to identify oneself with Olga. Makine's meticulous descriptions and his ability to communicate Olga's feelings has made this book a joy to read.