the book starts out dramatically with a dead body being discovered in the boot of a car parked on the street, when the thaw sets in moscow. nick, the hero, is constantly aware of his weakness - for young leggy girls, for living the rich life that moscow offers its expat citizens. He learns to look the other way when shady deals for non existent oil wells are being brokered at the office, when his beautiful young girl friends pretend to be sisters while they escort him around, when the girl friends 'help' their 'aunt' exchange her large spacious central moscow apartment for a half built apartment in the outskirts of moscow. the visual imagery created in describing the moscow of the 1990's is beautiful. i could see in my mind's eye the snow as it falls on moscow and see its citizens slipping as they walked on the pavements, the short skirts that the girls wore and the cheap coats which looked opulent from a distance, the dacha that nick visited with his girlfriends, the train journey to the apartment that the 'aunt' is being conned to move into.
the fascination in reading this book lies in the curiosity that one demonstrates, in trying to find out the extent of nick's self deception.
No comments:
Post a Comment