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Title: Rachel
Author: Andrei Gelasimov, Marian Schwartz (translator)
Narrator: Christopher Lane, Kate Rudd
Format: Unabridged
Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-08-14
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Humor
Publisher's Summary:
With icons like Chubby Checker and Yuri Gagarin, the Moscow that Svyatoslav Semyonovich inhabits at the onset of the Cold War brims with the flashy visual textures of capitalism. A Jewish teenager on the hunt for black-market tight pants and rock records, Svyatoslav somehow fails to develop his undying love for Lyuba into a happy ending. He finds work in a mental institution, runs off to Kiev with one of the patients, marries a few times, has a son, becomes a professor, and halfheartedly runs interference for the KGB. Always taking great pleasure in the experiences of others, including his patients and lovers, Svyatoslav flounders through his own life but never loses sight of Lyuba, his biblical Rachel, his great love. A professor and close reader of both Russian and American literature, Svyatoslav tries to interpret his eccentric life as if it were a text to be read, only to learn that life happens off the page.
Members Reviews:
Rachal by Andrei Gelasimov
I did not enjoy reading this book. I could not relate to the drama involved. The reactions of the characters seemed extreme.
Full of Epiphanies, Eccentric, and Modern Russian Literary Novel
Svyatoslav Semyonovich, an elderly and well-rounded professor of American and Russian literature, mulls over his life, which he feels he couldnât get it right somehow. During his present-day difficulties the only person he can really relate to is his pregnant daughter-in-law who is a kleptomaniac.
The professor has married three times and his first wife Lyuba, whom he calls Rachel for the Biblical Rachel, still has an emotional hold on him. His memories ebb and flow through his life, as a Jewish teen at the onset of the Cold War, through his marriages in which the three wives appear as if they are omnipresent, in a job as a workman in a psychiatric hospital because of his undying love for Lyuba who was hospitalized there, then running off to Kiev with a patient, and to protect his daughter-in-law, his stint with a KGB man, until Yeltsinâs coming to power.
Svyatoslav Semyonovich, although his own eccentric life disappoints him, seems to enjoy the othersâ experiences greatly. He is sarcastic about his own self and mocks himself greatly, but his views have great psychological depth and his words startle the reader through sudden and profound epiphanies, as he attempts to look at his own life as if a text.
Although the story starts during the time of the professorâs old age with his daughter-in-law taking care of him and keeping him company, it dips back and forth through the several different stages and decades, and at times, its frequent back and forth motion surprised and at times stunned this reader as if a jolt.
I recommend this book to readers who love world literature because I found it to be quite different and somewhat eccentric than any book I have read recently. I also think, reading this book can give us a tiny peephole into the present-day Russian literature.
Is this stream of consciousness?
I kinda understood the story, maybe? Was it cultural differences that made this so hard for me to get through? It all just seemed like a jumbled mess to me.
Not My Type of Book
Tried to give it a chance when I decided I probably didn't like it. I read for some time to see if it took hold, but found it tedious and mundane. No spark for me, so I returned it.
