Vesna Goldsworthy

IRON CURTAIN by Vesna Goldsworthy
IRON CURTAIN is a delight to read. It has humor, pathos, tension, fear, love, loyalty, tragedy, responsibility, faithfulness and patriotism. Milena and Jason, as well as all the supporting characters, are well drawn, and accurate. The descriptions of the two countries reflect the notions of how each country sees itself and the other. The book covers the differences between perception and reality, especially as it relates to how communist countries view the west and vice versa.
My daughter lived for several years in a former Soviet Republic. I completely understand Milena’s decisions. The notion of freedom has varying degrees of reality: freedom from want, from decision making, to choose, to make mistakes, and others. Where and what is “home” is also a point that is covered well by this book.
One of my favorite characters was Clarissa. She had depths of character that slowly emerged as the book progressed.
IRON CURTAIN would make a great book for discussion groups. I highly recommend it, even with its slow start.
5 of 5 stars… (meer)

Milena Orbansky is the privileged daughter of a hero of the revolution. Her life is one of luxury and indulgence, albeit within a communist state. Then she meets an English poet, over to perform at a festival, and her life changes. She falls deeply in love and escapes to the West. However life in 1980s London is not what she is used to and she begins to realise that there is a price to pay for freedom.
This is a really strong book. The decadence and rebellion of Milena's life in her home country is contrasted so sharply to realities of poverty in the free world. There is also a huge undercurrent on the theme of betrayal, Milena will not betray her country or her family but her husband has no such morals. It is obvious that the author has lived life in the communist bloc, the authenticity screams from the page.… (meer)

When I read Nino Harataschvili’s The Eighth Life (For Brilka) early on in the year (I think it may have been back in January), I was worried that the rest of the year might be a literary anticlimax, and that I would not encounter anything else anywhere near as good. Well I can relax again now, as Vesna Goldsworthy's 'Gorsky' has served to herald the onset of spring, and give a new zest to the year's reading.

It is important to stress that Gorsky is a wondeful novel in its own right. It is also, however, a glittering homage to 'The Great Gatsby'. Goldsworthy might not quite ascend to Fitzgerald's effortlessly poetic narrative [well, who could? I first read 'The Great Gatsby' as part of my A Level English course and even as an emotionally callow Leicestershire lad, it was immediately apparent to me that Fitzgerald's prose was infinitely more poetic than even the best of D H Lawrence's verse, which formed another part of the syllabus] but she does often come close. A laudable achievement for any writer, this is altogether more remarkable for Ms Goldsworthy as English is, I believe, her third or fourth language.

Gatsby's 1920s dazzling New York and New Jersey is replaced by a twenty first century London peopled by east European émigrés, ranging from Russian multi-millionaires who are left left feeling humble alongside their neighbouring billionaires, Bulgarian former Olympic gymnastics medallists and impoverished Serbians. Nick Carraway has morphed into Nikola "Nick" Kimovic, a Serbian who escaped the troubles of his homeland in the 1990s and wound up in London, working for a pittance in Fynch's antiquarian bookshop in the back streets of Chelsea. Here he first encounters the dazzlingly beautiful Natalia Summerscale who comes in seeking works on Russian art.

Shortly afterwards, Ramon Borisovich Gorsky comes into Fynch's and deposits a huge cheque with a request that the shop track down remarkable books to populate the library he is including in the new mansion he is having built in Chelsea, Gorsky is the richest of the superrich Russians who have made London their playground, and Nick gradually fills us in about some of his exotic history. Like Gatsby, no-one really knows where Gorsky came from. He was suddenly there, with his billions behind him, owning properties all around the world and throwing the most amazing parties, attended by society magazine 'A listers' from all over the world (though not always by Gorsky himself).

Like Jay Gatsby, Gorsky is a driven man, one who has achieved limitless commercial success of dubious moral provenance, but one for whom something remains missing, seemingly unattainable despite the wealth and power at his behest. He is in love, and desperate for fulfilment.

Goldsworthy's plotting is immaculate, and the books fairly fizzes along, supported by beautiful descriptions of London: the city is almost a character in its own right (even though it is a London with which I am wholly unfamiliar myself, despite having lived her for nearly forty years!). She seamlessly mingles a little bit of everything: politics, murder, love, art and social observation, though the melange is managed impeccably.… (meer)