A Hero's Daughter - Andrei Makine

Before reading this book, I had read 5 other books of Andrei Makine. This was the first published book of Andrei Makine, luckily not the first to get translated to English. Interestingly, when he submitted the manuscript to publishers, it was rejected, for being written in French. It was told that, he resubmitted the same as a translated work from Russian, for it to be accepted, and the rest is history.

Having said that, to me this book wasn't all that impressive. It does have the mark of Andrei Makine, its vivid description, the nostalgic feeling of the past, the exotic landscapes and all that. But on the whole it had a lot short comings despite attempting a theme of interest.

Andrei Makine presents two lives to us. One Ivan Demidov, who saves Moscow from falling into the control of the advancing Germans during the World War II, almost alone. He was awarded the "Gold Star" and was the official "Hero of the Soviet Union". 40 years thence, we see his daughter working for the KGB , working at the International Trade Center, as an interpreter for the visiting delegates and businessmen, sneaking out their documents to the waiting officials, by compromising her personal integrity.

The book started with the battle scene where the dead and injured soldiers were removed from the battlefield after an ambush, where Ivan was rescued by the military nurses. Observed as dead, Ivan was lucky to have the nurse Tatanya taking notice of him. Recuperated at the hospital , he leaves again to the front, leaving behind his love for Tanya. He return to the hospital looking for his love, despite the physical and medical issues Tanya had to suffer due to an explosion, he decided to marry her. The couple goes back to his village in the outskirts of Moscow. Olys Demidov was born to the couple who survived famine which took the life of their first son, and the death of Stalin.

Life is changed again in the eighties with the death of 3 leaders in a row. Breshnev, Chernenko and Andropv ( the dreaded ex-KGB chief). Gorbachev has sworn in with some internal political maneuvering. The new changes in the political and social structure. Peristroika and Glastnost aren't gone well with the old, who are now settled to a routine living. The disturbances are in the raise, Ivan looses his wife in one of the revolt by the frustrated youth. He take solace in drinking from grief. Once a hero of the Soviet Union is now a piece of ridicule to the public and to the authorities, selling every piece of his belongings, drinking all the way, Ivan'c contempt to the new ways were reached the peak after he witnessed his daughter, in her current job.

Andrei Makine attempts to bring the two poles together. Two generations one still cherish the memories of survival , of war and of survival from the iron fisted rule. The new generations do not have the same values and virtues. There seems to be a new hope of something changing. While the iron fist continue to govern, there are dreams of a better life. They dream about the western way of living. For them war is a learning through text books. Germany is not an enemy, but a world of glorious possibilities and freedom. The old heroes of war is replaced by the newer ones, fighting in Afganistan. It is this duality that Andrei Makine trying to attempt to capture in his first attempt. I wouldn't say he failed in it, but having read other books from this brilliant writer, I am a bit disappointed at the outcome.

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A Hero's Daughter ( 1990 )

Andrei Makine ( Translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan 2004)

Sceptre Paperback

163 Pages
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The Publishers Weekly

The Woman Who Waited - Andrei Makine

What was the longest wait for the love in the literary world ? Marquez made his hero wait for "53 year, 7 months and 11 days" in Love in the Time of Cholera for his love.

Boris Koptev 19, left to the froniters during the last days of WW II. He was part of the troops that went for the final rituals of defeat of Berlin. However, he was reported missing in action from the frontiers, As a truthful fiancee, Vera 16 year old, is waiting for his return. The narration is in the mid 70s, and the wait is 30 years long. Living in Mirnoe, a hamlet of old widows ( mostly of the soldiers of WW II), Vera lives her life taking care of them and teaches few students left in the village at the nearby school. "That blessed Vera ! she is still waiting ! still waiting ! She will wait forever"

Our nameless narrator, an artist from Leningrad, to study and record the local customs and folklore ( and to gather material for anti-soviet satire as advised by his friend), comes to this place up-north in Russian wilderness near the white sea. 26 year old, counter revolutionary, active with the Leningrad clandestine group, in Breshnev's Russia known for their disdain for the leadership. His initial curiosity towards this mysterious lady ( now in her mid forties) moved way to awe and admiration for her selfless work in this village. The meeting and acquaintance and his attempt to learn more about this lady gets more intriguing and complicated. Drawn to her ways of life, and not able to get into her mind, frustrates and challenges the young man.

"She is a woman so intensely destined for happiness and yet she has chosen, almost casually, it seems, solitude, loyalty to an absent one, a refusal to love.." begins the novel, as noted by the narrator.

He was ready to leave and return to Leningrad, but some charm hold him back to the place. He build stories in his own mind, creates possible plots and try finding a reason by himself ( and for himself), but not able to break the code into her thinking. All he manages to get was few glimpses of her past life, only to reaffirm the ever growing stature of the lady. As Otar the driver puts it,"You know, may be she is right, after all, that Vera.. in any case it's not for me, or you for that matter, to judge her",

Andrei Makine writing has the wonderful feeling of being so close to real time experience, while keeping a safe distance from the plot. The descriptions are vivid and unhurried. The plots are not in big canvas , neither it is studded with characters. Even here, apart from the protagonist and the lady in discussion, there are only a couple of characters worth attention. like the other works of this writer, Very moving without being overtly sentimental or emotive , he bring about an extremely poignant story of love , loss and longing.

A rather simple story line is transformed into a rich, lyrical and beautiful work of art by this fantastic writer.

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The Woman Who Waited ( 2004)

Andrei Makine ( Translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan in 2006)

Arcade Publishing

182 Pages
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Other Review : Telegraph , Washington Post, Guardian

The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme - Andrei Makine

This book, the third of the famous Russian Trilogy ( Dreams of My Russian Summers; Requiem for a Lost Empire) is again set in the WW II Russia. The war is at the decisive phase, with Stalingrad was under siege and the out come of this war decide the future of World War II ( as we all understand later). The trains carrying soldiers - singing and playing accordions- are moving towards the western front, while those injured with broken limbs and broken spirits are returning eastwards in the silent slow trains. Alexandra, a nurse,is helping the injured soldiers arriving in these trains in the outskirts of Stalingrad.

Jacques Dorme, a pilot with French Troupe in the WW , was arrested after a heroics in which he shot down an important German Flight in one of the calculative and intelligent maneuver. He managed to escape the German Cap with two of his fellow Polish prisoners. Wandering through the battlefields of Poland and Ukraine he ended up in the Soviet Camp, wanting to fight the Germans. It was during this journey, he came to the place Alexandra. The encounter too was dramatic, shouting and pushing among the burning trains. The initial interaction gradually moved to admiration and love, though it lasted only a week. Jacques was posted tothe Eastern Siberia and was entrusted to fly aircrafts in the Alaska-Siberia route, transporting the US aircrafts to the use of Soviet military. It is among these vast snow clad mountains , he met his death.

Alexandra, a French by birth, came to Russia marrying a Russian Soldier, whose husband was killed by the authorities, in one of the trials as traitor and was now helping the young children in an orphanage, where the narrator spends his childhood during the early 60s. Young boy, whose father was killed by the authorities as a traitor, slowly acquaint Alexandra, and spend his vacation in her library, learning French and reading books. It was then, he came to know about the story of Jacques Dorme, which he investigates and write about years later.

The novel is set in three time zones. The WW II era of Jacques Dorme and Alexandra, the early 60s with the protagonist in the school where he is aquainted with Alexandra and the writer ( now grown up and is settled in Paris) who is attempting to recreate the life of Jacques Dorme. In the very moving end chapter, he meets the brother of Jacques Dorme , after making a trip to the mountains in search of the wreckage of the flight that made the last trip of Dorme.

This is my third read of Andrei Makine.I am as impressed as I was with the first book. The language is poetic, very picturesque and very moving especially while the writings are on Alexandra or Jacques Dorme. Beautifully written.

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The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme (2003)

Andrei Makine ( translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan 2005)

Arcade Publishing

206 Pages

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Othe Reviews : The Age , Guardian

Dreams of my Russian Summers - Andrei Makine

"it was not just a radio station that was disappearing but our era itself. All that we had said, written, thought, fought against, defended, all that we had loved, detested, feared - all those things belonged to that era."

Images from your visits to your grand parents and their stories remain with you forever. Some of them will remain as clear as viewing a movie, however insignificant it is. Andrei Makine, one of my relatively late discovery takes us through another fantastic journey of reminiscence of his childhood. This book, received tremendous acclaim and was a huge success, winning two prestigious awards in French upon its publication.

The narrator, recounts his summer holidays, in the house of his grand mother, in the distant town of Sarenza, in the vast Siberian steppe, along with his sister. His grand mother, Charlotte, a French descendant, lived through the eventful history of Russia, takes the children through her stories and the French classics. Supported with the 'old paper cuts' and greying photos from her ' Siberian suitcase', the young boy and his sister pester her to narrate the stories over and over again.

Charlotte is born in 1903 and have witnessed two great wars, the revolution, the rise and fall of Stalin. She was trapped in Russia, during one of her visit to their earlier residence in Siberia and was living in Russia ever since physically, managing to retain her french-ness. We get the story of her life as a young nurse post the revolution, and her marriage to a soldier ( who according to the authorities was killed in the war -twice the letter reached her announcing his death - only to return after the war. The day she was assaulted and raped by a group of turban heads in the deserts, the way she and the kids escaped the frontiers while the Germans advanced, and their miraculous escape, her job as a nurse during the WW2 tending the physically and mentally battered soldiers coming in large numbers by bogies. The images of St.Petersburg where the 'samovars', survived soldiers post the war who have lost their limbs, now begging in the streets... continue to fill in the minds of growing up young kids..

The book is of contrasts, French and Russian ( the boy starts identifying himself as Russian as he grows, against the dreamland France), Old and the new Russia ( his exile to Paris, naturally and his effort to reconcile with his past ), the young and old , the monstrous city and the vast silent steppes.

Images of Tsar and the queen on the Paris Streets, the death of French President in the arms of his mistress, Marcel Proust and other literary figures , the chief if secret police Beria, a serial rapist.. there are many images that remain in the mind of the boy and the reader. For him, escaping the rigid apartment complexes of the Russian life to the 'mysterious french experience' , to the stories of his family on either side of parents, those tales of survival ( against wars, against revolution and new regime, the unbearable Siberian winter, the famine) and hope and some sort of rebellion and reconciliation.

As I have seen in his other books, the imagery, the lyrical language, the eye catching descriptions of ever lasting memories are in abundance. The writing vivid without being flamboyant. This is not a typical coming of age story. The initial awe for every thing French to the later solid thought of Russian-ness and the much later realisation of what the elders have gone through , gives us a growing up of a matured , intelligent man.

Another fantastic book, an autobiographical coming of age tale of a young boy, living in revere of those great summers spent in the company of his grand mother and those memorable stories.

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Dreams of My Russian Summers ( 1995)

Andrei Makine ( translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan )

Arcade Publishing

242 Pages
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Other reviews : January Magazine, Wiki

A Life's Music - Andrei Makine

Scene one: You ( the narrator) are waiting in a railway station at a distant Siberian town, waiting for the train to Moscow. It is snowing heavily , in the vast expanse of Siberia including the station. There is an announcement that the train is delayed by 6 hrs. There is nothing to do, but watch the fellow citizens in the station , a cross section of Russian society, whom we call homo sovieticus , citing an exiled Sociologist Aleksandr Zinovyev.

Slowly, in the coldness and the wetness, while every thing else is at a standstill you hear a soft music through the air. There is something in this music, some melancholy , reminiscence something lost, which attracts you. You don't realise that your legs are already taking you towards the origin. You cross the platform stepping over those travellers sleeping crisscross on the platform, climb the wooden staircase, open the door silently as not to disturb the person and peep in. The place is dimly lit, all you can see is the silhouette of an old person against an old wooden piano. The light reflected off the snow is flashing on the old face. You move closure to the person producing this beautiful music. His fingers are thick and does not resemble to that of a musician. His movements are clumsy. He is so immersed in music and two streams of tears are rolling down his cheek. You don't want to disturb him ,and retract back to the door. But in the dark, you stumble upon something and the noise interrupts the flow. You are so embarrassed and apologetic, so is the old man. He too is waiting for the train.

Scene two : Young Alexei Berg is walking down the road of the mill, proudly looking at the poster of a young man in his twenties. The poster is announcing his piano concert in the same premises in a week. The poster is transparent, as it is wet by last nights rain, and he can see through, the previous poster. He remember the days when his parents at the same place with their theatre troupe.

Alexei and his parents have just come out of one of those terrible period of their life, which lasted 3 year. They had to endure the wrath of the authorities, for no apparent reasons, and was living an isolated life, fallen out of favour with all. The life is just coming back to normal and the untouchability is removed slowly and they have been accepted as regular citizens. However, it did not last long. On the eve of his maiden performance, as he returned from his rehearsal, one of his neighbour crossed his path and murmured to him, that 'they are already there' and don't go home.

Alexei flees to Ukraine to his uncle and lived hiding for some time before Russia was invaded and attacked by Germans. Leaving the hiding post, Alexei walk around the battlefield, and join the army using a false identity of a fallen soldier. Post the war, working as the driver of a wartime General, he was the attraction of the general's daughter, who wanted to teach him to play piano. On the engagement party, having introduced as a student learning from the would be bridegroom, he was asked to present what he had learnt from her. His better sense fail and the result was being caught and sent to Siberia.

His multiple attempts to sneak back to Moscow was a failure and was forced to live the majority of his life in a place "where 12 months are winter and the rest spring".

As the train reaches the city of Moscow, the story of an unusual endurance and un-fulfilled life's journey has been revealed to the narrator and to the reader. The novel ends with a music concert, with the readers 'camera' focused on Alexei, sitting in the last corner seat lost in music and in himself.

This is one of the best novels I have read this year. Spanning a mere 100 odd pages, it has magic of writing in every pages. Very poetic, very intense style of writing. Very rich in imagery and emotion. The writing and description is very picturesque as if we are watching a movie.

Gem of a novel. Highly recommended.
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A Life's Music
Andrei Makine ( Translated by Geoffrey Strachan)
Spectre Paperback
106 Pages
(bought in a sale)
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Further Read : The Guardian , The telegraph , Sydney Morning Herald , Andrei Makine