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Dreams of My Russian Summers
 
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Dreams of My Russian Summers [Abridged] (Audio Cassette)

by Andrei Makine (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Each summer, Andrei Makine's narrator and his sister leave the Soviet Union for the mythical land of France-Atlantis. That this country is a beautiful confabulation, a consolation existing only in his maternal grandmother's mind, makes it no less real. Though Charlotte Lemonnier lives in a town on the edge of the steppe, each night she journeys to a long-ago Paris, telling tales that the children then translate with their more Russian minds: "The president of the Republic was bound to have something Stalinesque about him in the portrait sketched by our imagination. Neuilly was peopled with kolkhozniks. And the slow emergence of Paris from the waters evoked a very Russian emotion--that of fleeting relief after one more historic cataclysm ..."

Makine's first novel is a singing tribute to the alchemy of inspiration, but it is no less familiar with the sorrows of reality. And it is only as he gets older that the narrator begins to piece together his grandmother's far more tragic past--her experiences in the Great War, the October Revolution, and after. Dreams of My Russian Summers is a love letter to an extraordinary woman (it's hard not to see the book as autobiographical) as well as to language and literature, which the boy turns to in avoidance of history's manipulations. It has all the marks of an instant classic. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

The first of Makine's four novels to appear in English, this autobiographical novel won the 1995 Prix Medicis for Best Foreign Fiction as well as France's prestigious Prix Goncourt, never before awarded to a non-Frenchman. Its coming-of-age story describes young Andrei's summers with his French grandmother Charlotte in the remote Russian village of Saranza. She came to Russia as a Red Cross nurse during World War I and fell in love with a Russian lawyer who went off to the front and later died a premature death from his war wounds. Charlotte and Andrei spend many summer evenings sharing her memories of turn-of-the-century Paris. As the adolescent Andrei struggles with his identity?is he Russian or French?he discovers that it was possible for Charlotte to live in such a foreign land and retain her "Frenchness" because of her love for her husband. Andrei finally reconciles these contrasting facets of his identity and eventually emigrates to France. Makine has fashioned a deeply felt, lyrically told tale. For all general library collections.?Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
5 star:
 (23)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical memories of idyllic summers past, April 3 2004
By Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dreams Of My Russian Summers: A Novel (Paperback)
Andrei Makine, born in Siberia in 1957, has written an prose ode to his French grandmother, a memorable account of life in Communist Russia as lived by the woman who gave him joy, comfort, and permission to dream of other worlds.
Each summer, Andrei and his sister visited this grandmother at the edge of Russia's vast steppes, and in the evening she told them stories of her past. Trapped in Russia after the revolution, she married a Russian and became a hardworking Soviet wife and mother - but she never lost the Frenchness of her utmost being. Slowly, over the years, she reveals harsh truths to young Andrei - but always with a lyrical and dreamlike quality that makes reading this book feel as though you're inhaling pure, gauzy poetry.
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5.0 out of 5 stars speak, memory, Dec 21 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dreams Of My Russian Summers: A Novel (Paperback)
A lovely, lyrical "autobiographical novel". Makine, born Russian, has lived in France since 1987. This novel covers his extraordinary relationship with his grandmother, who sets his life in motion by re-telling stories of her French past. This is a wonderful book, filled with spare, powerful writing. One of the loveliest books I've read in a long time.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Aug 21 2003
By H. S. Hansen "hshansen" (Round Rock, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dreams Of My Russian Summers: A Novel (Paperback)
A work of art, Makine's use of language is stunning. Not a quick read, I frequently had to stop and ponder many profound passages. Literature as an art form is not dead.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
I read that book in French (Le Testament Français) so it may be possible that the English translation isn't as good as the French one. Read more
Published on Mar 29 2003 by Annie

3.0 out of 5 stars hit 'n miss
Erk! What a difficult review to write! So uneven, so blurry and ephemeral in plot and character, but containing a scene or two of exquisite beauty and skilled craftsmanship... Read more
Published on Sep 26 2002 by Jay Stevens

2.0 out of 5 stars Pas plus au sujet de la France
I'll spare you the details of this poorly-constructed novel, which, if you so choose, you may obtain for yourself. Let's get right to the commentary, shall we? Read more
Published on Aug 3 2002 by Kelly

2.0 out of 5 stars Try something else
A surprisingly large number of critics have compared this novel to Proust (though my copy has a reviewer compare it to "Doctor Zhivago). Read more
Published on April 2 2002 by pnotley@hotmail.com

5.0 out of 5 stars A durable masterpiece
Time alters all things. The resultant changes can be decay, or tedium/passe, or at the opposite end of the spectrum the changes can be enhancing as a patina on fine wood. Read more
Published on Jan 29 2002 by Grady Harp

3.0 out of 5 stars Something lost in the translation...
In typical contemporary French fashion, there is an elliptical quality to this fictionalized memoir which suits the content. Read more
Published on Dec 10 2001 by Uncle C

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving tribute to a grandmother
Author's dedication and fascination with his grandmother were extremely moving to me. I wish I could find the words to tell the story of my grandmother's life...
Published on July 4 2001 by Marina

4.0 out of 5 stars Discovery of the past through grandma's memorabilia
Andrei Makine's award winning novel, "Dreams of My Russian Summers", reads like a autobiography of the author's youthful life as a Russian teenager who spends each... Read more
Published on May 13 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars A PITILESS, BEAUTIFUL, ABSURD, UNIQUE RUSSIA
To be honest, I was expecting a bit more from this book. Somehow I expected it to be more sweeping, to be more engaging, and in reality it was not. Read more
Published on Jan 17 2001 by EriKa

3.0 out of 5 stars speak, memory of things past
In an era when everything is an event, and nothing just happens naturally, it's hard not to be suspicious of the a novel that is the first ever to win both the Prix Goncourt and... Read more
Published on Jan 15 2001 by Orrin C. Judd

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