The Revolution of Marina M.

September 11, 2017
In a break with her contemporary fiction, Fitch (White Oleander) has written an epic bildungsroman about a girl who lives through the Russian Revolution. In 1916 Petrograd, 16-year-old Marina Dmitrievna Makarova is an aspiring poet from a well-to-do background. Through her eyes, readers see the deprivations caused by World War I, the ouster of the czar, and the rise of the Bolsheviks. She loses her virginity to a friend, Kolya Shurov, on leave from his regiment, and falls in love with an impoverished fellow poet, Gena Kuriakin. With her friends, Jewish Mina and radical Varvara, she is swept up in the first wave of revolutionary fervor, for which her father kicks her out of the house. After a series of misadventures, including sexual enslavement, passing herself off as a boy, and running off with Kolya (now an enemy of the state), Marina finally finds sanctuary at her family’s country estate, which has been taken over by a spiritualist cult. The resilient Marina has much in common with the modern heroines of the author’s previous books and is a protagonist worth following. However, even though the book is well researched, the overlong narrative peters out.

Yelena Shmulenson narrates the story of the Russian Revolution through the voice of a privileged young woman who awakens to the need for change. Shmulenson's portrayal of Marina M. embodies all the confidence of a youth who is struggling with questions, fear, and doubts that assail her as she tries to find her place in a brutal, rapidly changing world. Shmulenson gives distinctive voices to all the speakers, helping the attentive listener keep the large cast of characters straight. She handles the many Russian names with the aplomb of a native speaker. Overall, Fitch immerses Marina's story in accurate historical detail, and Shmulenson breathes life into it. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine