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A review by andrew61
A Woman Loved by Andreï Makine
3.0
In 300 pages this novel presents a sweeping picture of the complexity or Russian history through the device of a screenwriter producing a script for a film about Catherine the Great. Oleg in early 1980's Soviet Russia , as Brezhnev is on his death bed presents a rambling film idea to the soviet committee who approve film production. Despite his girlfriends mocking of his rambling obsession the film gets made by an esoteric director mirroring the works of Tarkovsky while Oleg assists until he is summarily dismissed.
Skip forward to post wall 1990's when an old friend benefitting from the opportunity to acquire money after the fall of communism asks Oleg to help him make a dramatically different and raunchy TV series on the great Tsar.
Interspersed with this is the telling of Catherine's life and loves which is makes any telling on the screen seem tame.
A read which as it touches on the expansion of Russia in the late 18th century and the fall of the Soviet empire made for much reflection as the world's attention is focussed on Russian military brutality and force in it's annexation of Ukraine.
Skip forward to post wall 1990's when an old friend benefitting from the opportunity to acquire money after the fall of communism asks Oleg to help him make a dramatically different and raunchy TV series on the great Tsar.
Interspersed with this is the telling of Catherine's life and loves which is makes any telling on the screen seem tame.
A read which as it touches on the expansion of Russia in the late 18th century and the fall of the Soviet empire made for much reflection as the world's attention is focussed on Russian military brutality and force in it's annexation of Ukraine.