![]() ![]() Nina revels in the leaps and kicks and high jumps her body loves. ![]() We are drawn into Nina’s dancing because Kalotay goes into such detail that we can almost imagine we’re watching the ballet and feeling the magic of live theatre. Kalotay describes ballet with a storyteller’s eye. ![]() I loved reading about Nina’s rise to principal dancer. The Russian scenes are beautiful and captivating. The auction also reveals a mystery in the present - why is Nina so reluctant to meet Grigori Solodin, a Russian professor with an amber necklace so apparently part of a set Nina owns? This dredges up memories she would rather forget, of her life in Stalinist Russia. Now living in Boston, she has decided to auction off her jewelry. Nina Revskaya is an elderly former dancer from the Bolshoi ballet. It’s farcical, and definitely welcome, keeping the book from taking its heavy subject matter too seriously. Later, a solemn TV interview scene includes a nurse who sneaks into camera view, waves, and scurries back off screen. Take for example a character whose ex-fiance’s new woman had “all her ducks in a row.” The character’s mother “let slip” that the ex-fiance was moving to Seattle with “the woman with the ducks.” It’s a toss away phrase, but one that turns a cliche into an opportunity to giggle. And once in a while, Kalotay injects a cheeky line or two into an otherwise serious scene. The pacing is a bit slow, but that somehow fits with the book’s reflective, nostalgic nature. ![]() Daphne Kalotay’s Russian Winter is a beautifully written book. ![]()
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