Closing in on my 26...F is for Kate Furnivall who wrote the book, The Jewel of St. Petersburg, a prequel to The Russian Concubine in terms of plot, though written afterwards. Set in Russia of 1910, it leads into the violence of the eventual Revolution, following characters of varying social classes. The heroine, Valentina, is born to her White Russian life but, through the actions of rebel terrorists, is driven to "make something more of herself". She dedicates herself to learning nursing. She falls in love with a Danish engineer, who despite working for the Tsar, is himself dedicated to improving the lot of the poor workers by building sewer tunnels. Furnivall tells a sweeping tale, interweaving chauffeur provocateurs and bizarrely apolitical/both sided Cossacks and snooty Hussars, with the backdrop of the decaying Russian society.
I wanted to like this book. I was pleased by the elements where she drew on complicated Bolshevik/Menshavik history to suggest that the Revolution does not happen overnight. But the characters do seem flat--an after effect, perhaps, of having written the prequel after their characters have taken shape in other novels. Valentina survives a lot because she's beautiful with flashing dark eyes. Valentina's governing minister father is a particular caricature--decadent, greedy, corrupt, old fashioned in values especially towards women, short sighted. The writing was occasionally engaging but then there would be suddenly points where the writer seemed to lose interest, where a scene should have continued but just stops and then jumps quickly to the next scene.
Meh. On the whole, just average.
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