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Sunday, October 25th, 2009 06:58 pmFinished Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk, by Boris Akunin.
I'm sure you can google or read amazon reviews to see the plot summary, so I'll just go straight into my impressions.
I had read two of the author's other series, and fairly enjoyed them. This one was longer, and it took more time for things to get going (and also, it was the second in a series, so a lot of the background on the recurring characters was unknown to me); basically the main character only starts uncovering the mystery about a third of the way through the book, because the Bishop sends three other envoys who all meet with misfortune. As a mystery, this works pretty well, IMHO, because I didn't see it coming, and yet it was adequately foreshadowed; although perhaps more of the interest in the book is in the portrayal of 19th century Russian social and ecclesiastical life (the narrator is clearly from the time period of the tale, as well: which I like because I like teh omnescient narration, and am amused at several conceits like how they handle Pelagia's various disguises). However, although this was fascinating, I was somewhat hampered because of my total lack of Russian literature/history background (yeah, I have a good background in English and French, and that sort of helps for the countries adjacent to them, to a certain extent, but I haven't read much Dostoevsky, and his novels kind of play a role in the plot (quite literally)). Although it is compared to Umberto Eco in the afterword (which outlines some Russian folklore references English-speaking readers might be aware of), IMHO Akunin hasn't Eco's "vastness," although he does have a similar erudition.
I'm sure you can google or read amazon reviews to see the plot summary, so I'll just go straight into my impressions.
I had read two of the author's other series, and fairly enjoyed them. This one was longer, and it took more time for things to get going (and also, it was the second in a series, so a lot of the background on the recurring characters was unknown to me); basically the main character only starts uncovering the mystery about a third of the way through the book, because the Bishop sends three other envoys who all meet with misfortune. As a mystery, this works pretty well, IMHO, because I didn't see it coming, and yet it was adequately foreshadowed; although perhaps more of the interest in the book is in the portrayal of 19th century Russian social and ecclesiastical life (the narrator is clearly from the time period of the tale, as well: which I like because I like teh omnescient narration, and am amused at several conceits like how they handle Pelagia's various disguises). However, although this was fascinating, I was somewhat hampered because of my total lack of Russian literature/history background (yeah, I have a good background in English and French, and that sort of helps for the countries adjacent to them, to a certain extent, but I haven't read much Dostoevsky, and his novels kind of play a role in the plot (quite literally)). Although it is compared to Umberto Eco in the afterword (which outlines some Russian folklore references English-speaking readers might be aware of), IMHO Akunin hasn't Eco's "vastness," although he does have a similar erudition.
