A Memory Mansion during the Siege of Leningrad

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	• The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (P.S.) Debra Dean Harper Perennial, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

5 stars doesn't mean perfect.....

I've thought about this book repeatedly since I finished it last week, a testament to how deeply it affected me. There is much to ponder, particularly the power of memory and the profundity of its loss. Marina is in her 80s, struggling with the early stages of Alzheimers disease. As her short term memory begins to falter, she drifts back to the dramatic years of her youth during the siege of Leningrad in WWII. Beautifully written, with nice transitions from the present to the past and back again without disruption.

So what didn't I like? I found it unlikely (but not impossible) that her children would know so little of their mother's past, and I felt the story would be richer had there been more exploration of Marina's present circumstances. That having been said, I highly recommend this novel for its originality and its loving depiction of the waning years of a life.

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Beauty transcends everything

I often think people give 5 stars too freely, but this is a book that truly deserves it. For me it is usually the characters that carry or drown a novel, but in this case the characters themselves are not too important. They remain as placeholders in a novel that although achingly detailed in its description of the war and its effects on the citizens has a dreamlike quality to it. The bits descibing certain artwork fit seamlessly and appropriately into the narrative and are pieces of art themselves. A beautiful novel celebrating the gloriousness of little things backdropped by both a period of horrible wartime and ordinary life for an impact rarely seen in debut novels. Alzheimers is shown as heartbreaking yet with hidden benefits.

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A MUST REA

Someone said, "If you know someone who has Alzheimer's, you do not want to read this book." Absolutely not true! My father-in-law has Alzheimers and I found this book to be incredibly insightful and thoughtful in regards to Alzheimer's. Once I started this book I could not put it down. The way Debra Dean weaves the tales in this book just captured me. It is probably one of the best books I have read. Absolutely incredible. I immediately emailed all of my friends and told them they HAD to read this book! Just lovely!

A Memory Mansion during the Siege of Leningrad

The Madonnas of Leningrad, Dean's first novel, won critical acclaim and several awards including the Quill Award for 2006, and ALA Notable Book of the Year 2006. The book will appeal to readers interested in psychological fiction, historical fiction, art history, World War II and Russian history.

Set during the 900 day Siege of Leningrad, (1940 - 1944) Marina, a docent at the Hermitage Museum, lives in the vast museum basement with her family and hundreds of other starving citizens of the city during the Nazi bombings. Increasingly frail and malnourished, she stands watch nightly on the huge roof of the museum buildings spotting enemy aircraft.

The World War II scenes are interwoven with the present-day story of Marina as an old woman living in Seattle, Washington attending a grand-daughter's wedding. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Marina's mind floats freely between the clear memories of her past and her confused experience of the present. During the siege, to distract herself from hunger pains, Marina had memorized much of the huge collection of art treasures, creating a "memory mansion" of paintings and sculptures of the great masters of Western European art. The art lives on very clearly in her disease-riddled brain many decades later giving her the pleasure of viewing the art again as she "walks" through the miles of galleries in her mind.
This book took me to a time and place in history about which I knew very little. Visiting the State Hermitage Museum website to see panoramas from the roof overlooking St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) perhaps showing views that Marina looked at every night added to the experience of reading the book.

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Great book.

I started reading about the siege of Leningrad a few years ago while doing research on Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Then I read a few novels having to do with life during the siege; the hardships, squalor, etc. This one tops them all ... as it relates to life here (in the U.S.) so many years after the siege. A seige survivor's Alzheimers and its affect on her family. Just wonderful stuff. Brava!

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