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The Revolution of Marina M A Novel Janet Fitch Books

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The Revolution of Marina M A Novel Janet Fitch Books

I just finished this beauty of a book after 48 hour holiday reading bender. I have been with Marina through her father, Genya, the archangel, Varvara, Volya and Ukashin. These are all people who want to tell this young, independent, smart, free spirit of a girl what or who she should be. I just got to the last page of this sweeping story set in during the Russian Revolution and I want resolution to the revolution of Marina M. Yet, I get to the end to find "end of book 1." The author is working on Book 2. What frustration! This is how I know I am reading a fantastic historical fiction. I want to know. I need to know now. I want Marina to succeed. Historical fiction, when it is done right, feels like this. It is sweeping and grand. It is personal and emotional. I love this book and I hope many of make the leap and read this 1100 page treasure.


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The Revolution of Marina M A Novel Janet Fitch Books Reviews

(See comments for Trigger Warnings) Consider this review to be 3.5 stars -- there was a great deal I liked, despite the aspects I did not. Among the things I enjoyed were the length, because it gave the reader a chance to submerge themselves in Revolutionary Russia in a way a shorter book would not. The research and details were marvelous. I feel I understand the situation somewhat better than I did before reading MARINA M. Marina herself is a challenge, as a narrator. If you're looking for a straight-out "good guy," you may be out of luck; she's more complex than that. In many ways she reminded me of Emma Bovary, wanting more out of people than they could give, and making rash decisions that rarely improved her already razor-edge life. Very few characters in this book were especially loyal to each other, Marina included. Her story works best when the conflict she faces comes from should-be friends and the situation itself, including more than one heartbreaking family moment. It struggles more when the author introduces particular evil bad guys (most of whom become obsessed with her, natch). Marina rarely handles those characters with much wisdom or maturity. The last movement of the story, which takes place outside of Petrograd with mostly new characters, feels tacked on and unnecessary, as if it belongs in a different book. And because this is only Book 1 of Marina's story, we haven't returned to the time and place of the opening scenes. One of the best arguments for this book is that it is well written, and takes you into Marina's world, and I found it gripping most of the time (again, until the last movement). I hope the 2nd book comes out while the 1st is fresh enough in my mind to pick M's story back up!
Is there a Part Two? I was devastated losing her on a cart headed back to Petrograd. The names, the family, the history, the places come alive for me, and if you don't like the confusion of names, then you must never have read Dostoesvsky or any Russian literature. What else comes alive is the history of a country in grave turmoil, and it echoes out to remind us how fragile institutions, courts, and just getting food to people can be when these break down. Good intentions, hope and philosophy get lost. The excruciating fights among factions and the slow decline into terror and madness and cruelty are depicted through Marina's eyes so that I understood more than I ever have about period in history. An ambivalent girl, who drives on trying to make the right choices while feeling ambivalent, seeing life as a poet, attempting to understand what being human is, what life is, always feeling an outsider in her family's society and when she falls under the spell of group-think or the hideous Baron or the mystic holding her captive and what it is just to need to survive, and then to get out before you are destroyed. It's a mother daughter story you will never forget. The effects of Romance of the time, of poetry, of sex and discovery and yes adventuring...told by a woman adventurer was thrilling. Not since the Goldfinch have I turned pages with such desire to know what happened next.
My favorite book by Janet Fitch is now THE REVOLUTION OF MARINA M, supplanting PAINT IT BLACK. So you see, I don't' mind a long and dark book.

Reading Marina M is to take a journey through terrible times among some truly terrible people. Life is not always beautiful.

Once Marina lived a life of privilege. She held literary ambitions and adored her younger brother. Life was full of gowns, art, flirtation, and adventures with school friends.

As she begins dabbling with ideas of young poets, her own sexual awakening, and a bigger world, she continues to make choices that any adult could tell her will not turn out well. But she is YOUNG. She is impetuous.

Soon, she is lost. She thinks she has found the life she wants, though it is full of hardship. She falls further and further into danger and poverty. She learns what it means to be dirty and hungry. There is no safety net. Well, maybe one left to her by her one true love.

There are chapters that are horrifyingly graphic as Marina pays a price for her youthful dalliances. As the book moves on, just when order seems restored, life again dissolves into a nightmare. The final chapters take Marina to another breaking point.

And the book ends. So yes, there will be a Book 2. I understand the long descent and accept the odd ending of this novel. I loved learning Russian history through the eyes of this intelligent, flawed girl who faces so much over the course of a few years. Marina M is not for everybody. But she's the right heroine by a favorite author for me in these perilous times in the USA.
I just finished this beauty of a book after 48 hour holiday reading bender. I have been with Marina through her father, Genya, the archangel, Varvara, Volya and Ukashin. These are all people who want to tell this young, independent, smart, free spirit of a girl what or who she should be. I just got to the last page of this sweeping story set in during the Russian Revolution and I want resolution to the revolution of Marina M. Yet, I get to the end to find "end of book 1." The author is working on Book 2. What frustration! This is how I know I am reading a fantastic historical fiction. I want to know. I need to know now. I want Marina to succeed. Historical fiction, when it is done right, feels like this. It is sweeping and grand. It is personal and emotional. I love this book and I hope many of make the leap and read this 1100 page treasure.