It’s Saturday! Seems I Can’t Read to Please Someone Else

Most of the time I manage to be quite good at talking to people about books. Since I’m genuinely happy to hear about people reading, I like to believe that my sincerity comes across, even when they are reading books that don’t interest me in the slightest.

But this time I got carried away. Reading a book so I could talk about it and have it in common with my in-laws seemed such an easy thing to do. Especially as my library has it.

Actually, the recommendation was for three books by Paullina Simmons: “The Bronze Horseman”. “Tatiana and Alexander” and “The Summer Garden”. I didn’t really understand that the books were related, and on the covers of the edition in the library it doesn’t say so, so I took out “Tatiana and Alexander”. Even if that was a mistake, I do give full credit to the auth0r that the book stands very clearly on it own.

The book is told, in turns, by each of the main characters. I found Alexander’s story interesting. At times it reads like a “Die Hard” movie without Bruce Willis, and I kept wondering how the author was going to get Alexander out alive of each situation. Tatiana’s story was not my cup of tea quite quickly.

Although it is certainly an easy book to read, after 170 pages I simply got bored. I have no intention of reading any more of it (there are 550 pages!) to please anyone. Especially when they start mentioning promises to dead sisters of the bride…

So far have managed to steer away from the topic of books with my in-laws!

2 thoughts on “It’s Saturday! Seems I Can’t Read to Please Someone Else”

  1. Posted on behalf of Aileen Journo:

    Just a thought on your post about Tatiana and Alexander…

    I’m sorry that you didn’t start the trilogy with the first book. It is linear in structure and paints a great love story against the backdrop of Stalin’s Russia during World War 2. I, for one, couldn’t put it down. I felt very invested in the well developed characters and very concerned about their futures.
    As for the 2nd installment, the one you read. I am in the middle of it right now.
    It is totally non linear in structure and jumps from past to present and from character to character. I can’t imagine it “standing on its own” and how it would be possible to understand complexity of the story, the depth of the characters and the nature of their relationship without having read “The Bronze Horsemen”. It is not surprising that you found yourself bored. I think you are missing too many of the puzzle pieces .

  2. Aileen!
    Thank you so much for taking the time to write me such a thoughtful letter!
    At least in relation to Alexander, I feel the book stands alone as his story is very clear and you do have his childhood, even if they are flashbacks. I did find his story interesting at first as it is very true there were people who burned their bridges back at home and went to Russia at that time in history. Their belief was so strong they did not see what was happening around them.
    but at some point it seems that he’s the clever American outwitting those Russians time after time… While Tatiana is the clever Russian woman and the american doctor at ellis island doesn’t know what the connection between butter and milk is! really!

    You make a strong point about reading it as a trilogy. I can relate to that. Perhaps I’ll wait a year and then try the bronzehorseman. Its too soon for that now. I need to step back from the negative feelings first.
    Naomi

Leave a Reply to Naomi Epstein Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *