Book Review-Blood Red, Snow White.
Blood Red, Snow White is a wonderfully written and beautifully formulated novel of the Russian Revolution, and an English author's (Arthur Ransome) part in it. Blood Red Snow White's writer, Marcus Sedgwick, skillfully weaves three separate genres, fairy-tale, spy/thriller, and love story, into an engrossing and deeply rewarding read.
The novel starts out as a fairy-tale, chronicling the events leading up to the Revolution. To comply with the fairy-tale genre, the people of Russia are depicted as a sleeping bear, waiting to pounce and claim their freedom from the harsh rule of Tsar Nicholas. Woodcutters, princes and princesses are also evident, to help convey the fairy-tale mood. By writing in the style of a fairy-tale, Sedgwick masterly evokes the feelings of those involved in the Revolution, including Rasputin, Lenin,Trotsky and, of course, the Tsars themselves. The use of similes and metaphors makes understanding the Revolution simple; Sedgwick makes a potentially monotonous part of the book into an original and involving read.
The second part of the book, the spy/thriller, focuses on Ransome's part in the Revolution. Having left his wife and daughter, whom he occasionally re-visits throughout the book, Ransome goes to Russia primarily to collect folk-tales, but ends up as a war correspondent. Once there, he falls in love with Evgenia, the secretary of one of the main revolutionaries, a man named Trotsky. Through Evgenia, Ransome becomes embroiled in the plots and ideals of the Bolsheviks, and must decide where his loyalties lie, with the Bolsheviks(the revolutionaries) or with the British?
The third part of the book, the love story, depicts Ransome's attempts to escape, with Evgenia, safely from Russia. Whilst he is trying to escape, an attempt is made to convert Ransome into a British spy, and although Ransome accepts, nothing really comes of it, as he is too caught in the middle to commit himself to either side; either to the British or the warring parties in the Russian Civil War( After the revolutionaries had over-thrown the Tsar, the Tsar's forces began to fight back, culminating in a civil war). The ending sees Ransome safely leave Russia with Evgenia, who eventually becomes his second wife.
Blood Red, Snow White, is an unforgettable account of the Russian Revolution and one man's part in it. Superbly crafted, well-written, a must read.
I know I should probably have written a bit about myself, as opposed to a review, but hey. =]
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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