Vesna Goldsworthy: Monsieur Ka, 9781784741181, hardcover, Chatto & Windus (Penguin Random House UK), pub date 22. February 2018

 

With her wonderful new novel “Monsieur Ka” Vesna Goldsworthy created an exceptional atmosphere reminding me so much of the underlying melancholies found running like a current through Russian classics. She is such a skillful writer. The idea to continue telling a story based on the Karenin family from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is exquisite and she pulls it off beautifully. “Monsieur Ka” is one of these quiet books I always longed to go back to, perfect storytelling.

It is the bitter cold winter of 1947 in post war London. Albertine Whitelaw, a young, newly wed Frenchwoman who met her husband Albie in Alexandria, is trying to feel at home in her cold Earls Court house while he is travelling on covert government business in Europe. Feeling even more lonely and estranged during Albie’s absence, she accepts a job as a companion to elderly Monsieur Carr, a Russian count whose son Alex is looking for someone who can converse and read French to his father after a stroke. Albertine soon discovers Count Carr to be none other than the son of Anna Karenina, Count Sergei Karenin. A deep friendship and trust develops between these unlike exiles and Alex Karenin’s family over the ensuing months which begin to have an effect on her life. As Count Karenin starts telling her about his dramatic life, Albertine decides to surprise him by chronicling his life in a book.

One feels like one is sitting right next to Albertine as she unravels her own life story and that of the Karenin family. An atmospheric literary page turner I greatly enjoyed.

Amy Bloom: White Houses, 9780812995664, Penguin Random House US, hardcover

Amy Bloom is such a fine writer, I never read anything by her before and was truly astonished at the quality of her writing.  A literary novel but a page turner at the same time is how I would describe her latest book centering on Eleanor Roosevelt’s suspected Lesbian liaison during her time in the White House with journalist Lorena Hickok. This was never confirmed, historians are split over the issue but Hickok was known to be a Lesbian and 3000 letters between the couple are part of the Roosevelt archives.

Lorena Hickok gives this exquisite novel her voice and what a voice it is. Her upbringing was truly a horrific one which left no room for sentiments. One of the most memorable passages of the book is her description of her childhood and coming of age. The book stays close to historical facts; Lorena became one of the best known female journalists of her time gathering many firsts.  When assigned to cover Franklin D Roosevelt’s election campaign, she meets Eleanor Roosevelt for the first time to do a portrait of the soon to be first wife.  Both women fall madly in love with each other and in the novel Lorena makes no bones about their love being a very physical one.  I was very moved by her description of their deep love and understanding during adverse times and circumstances lasting their entire life. 

This intimate, cracking novel of an unusual relationship with revealing juicy bits about the Franklin D Roosevelts household at the White House will probably appeal to women readers mostly. What could have easily become  a soapy, romantic story about Lesbian love by a less talented writer was turned into a delicate, intriguing literary novel by Amy Bloom. Superb.