Chimes of a lost cathedral

It pains me not to be able to give this a better rating, but alas, no. And we'll just blame me for, say, not being up to the challenge as a reader, how's that? Because I love Janet Fitch. I do. I think she is a brilliant writer. I follow her on twitter for god's sake. haha It's obvious she did her homework here and is a passionate Russophile (is that a word?) as far as the Russian history and the many iterations of St. Petersburg go... But... It's just that I'm a typical self-centered American and I only care (this) much about the Russian revolution and I only care the same amount about Russian literature. If both of those things are YOUR things, then, hurray! have I got a book for you.

Now, I could have blah blah blahed my way through all that "Russer stuff" only I kind of hated the main character Marina Makarova and had a hard time feeling any sympathy, empathy, interest in her or what would next befall the young Russian beauty. And there were a lot of things, that happened to our heroine both of her own creation and otherwise. In fact, okay, so I couldn't identify with the main character, big deal. Then give me a secondary character to root for, give me a plot line to hold on to but nope. ALL the characters were horrible in one way or another and there just weren't any redeeming qualities therein. In fact, none were fleshed out in the slightest and nobody (main character included) came alive for me. Except for maybe the side character of Arkady von Principe (not sure if that's his name, I don't have the book handy). He was flawed and horrible in the darkest, most corrupt and interesting ways but he was dealt with, in this second installment, in the briefest, most unbelievable way imaginable that one couldn't help feeling a bit cheated of his dastardliness. It was anticlimactic at best. That is probably the biggest complaint I have. For such a long book (2 whole 700+ page tomes) and all the details, details, details, it still somehow seemed superficial and never got down to the nitty and the gritty, the innermost workings of the characters' psyches. You know, the interesting stuff. How can that be? The plot was more or less the main character, in equal portions, getting her ass handed to her or just totally lucking out in unbelievable ways. You know, just happening to be at the exact right place at the exact right time for some man from her past to show up and profess his undying love and devotion to her even though he hasn't seen or communicated with her during their time apart. Even though, now, she's an old hag of 20 who hasn't had a decent meal not to mention a BATH in the last 6 months and just literally got finished with poop patrol. He just happens to be there exactly at the right moment to get her out of a jam. Convenient. Sorry, I just couldn't buy into it.

So, like I said, it's just me. I somehow failed this history lesson and examination of the Russian revolution and it's aftermath on Russian society. I hated The Brothers Karamazov (DNF) and I'm pretty sure I rated Anna Karenina 3 stars. It's me. Maybe you'll have a more enjoyable time of it. I'm sorry Janet Fitch, don't be mad. I'll still read anything you write. I just hope the next one is not about Russia.