Blood Red, Snow White (take 2)


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Posted by RichardG on August 29, 2007 at 17:39:10 from 217.207.172.242 user RichardG.

As the last thread has dropped down the page below the various arguments on class etc, and I have now read Marcus Sedgwick's book, I thought a new thread was needed to continue the discussion.

Firstly, this book is advertised as being for children of age 12+. Among other things it contains a scene where a member of the Soviet secret police uses his foot to turn over the body of a murdered prostitute. I know twelve-year-olds grow up faster than they used to, but I found this and some similar scenes rather too adult for the suggested age group.

Secondly, I find it hard to understand the thinking behind the book's structure. It starts off as a scene from "Old Peter's Russian Tales", goes into an allegory of Lenin, Trotsky and the Russian Bear (in which the bear kills Old Peter), diverts to Rasputin and the Romanovs, and then settles down to AR's marital troubles, his relationship with Tabitha, and his meeting and romance with Evgenia. Rather a mixture of themes. The Prologue seems meant to suggest that AR had left Evgenia behind (there is an empty chair by his fireplace) but in the Epilogue she comes in from the next room and sits in the chair, presumably to provide a happy ending. I suppose if I had not know the story of AR & Evgenia this might have provided a little dramatic tension, but as it was, it left me cold as a plot device.

I was left with the feeling that the author read AR's Autobiography and Brogan's Biography, thought there was the basis of a novel there, found himself unable to produce a full-length book from solely the AR material, and duly padded it out. I suppose that any child unfamiliar with the story of the Russian revolution might find this a relatively painless way of learning about it, but otherwise for me the book seemed to lack a point.

Anyone else read it yet ?



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