I greatly enjoyed the two books by Mikhail Lemkhin: "Missing Frames" and "Fragments". I am especially moved by portraits. There is something about the portraits that make them very different from most others. The pictures are not posed, but don't seem to be too candid either. I get the impression that the subject is aware of the photographer, but is not posing for him, at least not physically. It is as if the subject is exposing his/her inner soul to the camera. The photographs work, in deeply satisfying way, very well. I know I will look at them again and again.

Perhaps one of the most touching books on Russia that I've ever read. I travelled there in 1998 and this book vividly took me back to that trip. Even if you haven't been there, this book will help you understand a little better what it's like. Emotionally captivating!

Having read "Crime and Punishment" fifteen years ago, I was prepared for Dostoevsky's commentary on the social and materialistic qualities of the Russian middle class of the 19th Century. "The Idiot" has a slower pace but a surprise ending which makes reading it well worth the effort.

The novel begins with three strangers in a train en route to Petersburg. A young man named Prince Myshkin is returning from a Swiss sanatorium where he has been treated for the past few years for some malady similar to epilepsy. He meets a roguish young man named Rogozhin, who has an unhealthy obsession with a beautiful young woman named Nastasya Filippovna, and a nosy government official named Lebedyev, who figures prominently throughout the novel.

Upon arriving in Petersburg, Myshkin acquaints himself with many of the citizens and eventually meets, and is infatuated by, Nastasya. She is pushy, fickle, and impetuous, and bounces from fiance to fiance like a fortune hunter. Her irresistibility and psychological stronghold on the men in her life leads to her downfall.

The basis of the novel is that Myshkin is not bright, has not had much education, and traverses society with a mentality of simplistic innocence. When speaking his opinion, he struggles to articulate himself with Charlie Brown-like stammering and wishy-washiness. For this reason, people consider him an idiot, but he is a good, honest, sympathetic, and gracious person. When he comes into a large inheritance, he is blackmailed by a man who claims to be the illegitimate son of Myshkin's benefactor; but when the man's story is debunked, Myshkin befriends rather than chastises the culprit and his accomplices. Myshkin also falls in love with and becomes betrothed to a giddy girl named Aglaia, who uses his ingenuousness as a foil for her jokes and sarcasm, despite his undying devotion to her.

The novel seems to say that a saintly man, making his way in a society that is concerned with materialism and cutthroat avarice, will be considered a childish idiot for valuing honesty, kindness, and the simple things in life. Like I said, the ending is a shocker and sends a plaintive message, that in a crazy world, a sanatorium is the only place for a saint.

The Idiot is often unfairly compared to Dostoyevsky's other masterpieces and, even though The Idiot usually comes out on the short end of any comparison, it is certainly my favorite. Although the narrative of The Idiot may ramble more than do some of Dostoyevsky's other books, I feel it is ultimately more profound.

At its core, The Idiot is a character/society study although it also encompasses many religious and political aspects as well. The central character, Prince Myshkin, provides the contrast for all the other characters and is definitely a "Christ-like" figure, a man who embodies most perfectly the Christian ideals of selflessness and love.

Prince Myshkin is a man who has suffered from mental illness since childhood. This illness has the curious effect of causing him to respond from his heart rather than from his head. In addition, Myshkin also suffers from a form of epilepsy that causes him to launch into tirades regarding the social ills of the day. As a Christ-like figure, Myshkin is in direct contrast to the other characters in the book who are all worldly and sophisticated, though somewhat cynical, aristocrats. Myshkin's extreme goodness also causes him to become entangled in various political and personal intrigues.

Although completely good, Prince Myshkin in a fully realized character. One of the marvels of this novel is that Dostoyevsky managed to present Myshkin as a serious, rather than a comic, character. His goodness is not something we want to laugh at. There are many comic moments in the book, however, and most of them are provided through various financial and romantic entanglements.

Although Prince Myshkin is the thread that links all the characters and aspects in the novel, he is not the only fully realized character; the others are also extremely well drawn. Dostoyevsky was fond of using real life incidents in his books and his notes tells us this is something he did in creating the characters that populate this book.

Ultimately, The Idiot is a tragic book. Politically, it ridicules the shallow ideals of the Russian aristocracy, and, while Prince Myshkin's ramblings may seem comic, they are actually harsh criticism.

Prince Myshkin was more than "a positively good man." He was a man who could see into the future and know what lay in store. Dostoyevsky's deep insight into the character of man makes The Idiot one of literature's most profound and timeless works.

Most of us have probably heard the phrase, "Why, that was as unreadable as a Russian novel!" Of course, they're probably thinking about Tolstoy's War and Peace. The fact of the matter is this: I was 18 or 19, in AP English, VERY skeptical about these so-called "classics". But then we read Notes from Underground and my view of Russian literature was permanently changed. As a matter of fact, I liked NfU SO much that I read THE IDIOT of my own initiative and--get this--liked it MORE than NfU. Hey, how can you resist a story about a diseased Prince who's coming home to Russia after being in an Asylum? There were just so many quotable and likable passages in this book. My bookmark soon became full with page numbers. Towards the beginning, the Prince and a servant have an interesting conversation concerning one of Dostoyevsky's main interests: Crime and Punishment. That particular scene details a French execution. Quite a while later, Dostoyevsky retells that French execution story and DOES IT BETTER THAN THE FIRST TIME. But the book is not always serious. One of the things that I like about Dostoyevsky is that he has a dark sense of humor. You would too, if you were in debt, epileptic, and were spared from the firing squad AT THE LAST SECOND. I laughed out loud when I got to the part about the Cigar and Poodle. You'll find it in Chapter 9 or so. Also, there's a character named Prince S. Now THAT is a pun. Of course, being a tranlated work, who's to say whether it was intentional or not? Yes, this is a very long book, but I REALLY enjoyed it. Hopefully you'll come to agree.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Russian literary society. This book gives an interesting account of her life as an emigre of her life in France and US, and how her Russian heritage and literary upbringing affected her daily life.

This is a graceful little memoir rich in anecdote and detail of post-WWII Paris and New York. In it, the author chronicles her development as an intelligent and talented young woman during the 1950's, beginning in Paris, where her emigre Russian parents strove to carry on the Andreyev family traditions in art and literature. While studying to become a painter, she meets a handsome American student at the Sorbonne, marries, and moves to America. There she dives into the New York art scene, studying with Robert Motherwell and bcoming friends with those who became landmark figures in 20th century arts and letters. Her stoutness of character is indicated by the fact that she persisted in bringing to Motherwell's class the small still-life paintings whose techniques she was determined to master - having to display them among the enormous, flat abstractions with which her teacher and fellow students were enamored at the time. Rather than belabor his charming young student regarding her entire approach to art, Motherwell simply ignored her paintings.In later years, having become a respected writer on Russian affairs, she becomes a conduit and agent for Alexander Solzhenitsyn and other writers living under Soviet oppression.The author's knack for evoking the mood of her times as well as the sights, sounds, and smells of her surroundings, plus her lifelong dedication to the intellectual life and intellectual freedom make this a satisfying and inspiring read.

When you have a novel set against some tumultuous period in history such as the French Revolution, the US Civil War, the Holocaust, or in this case, the Russian Revolution, you expect a story with some depth to it. There are books set in times and places that I have never personally experienced, but after reading the book, I feel I had been there in person. This book is not one of those. A lot of the history (which I've read) is accurate enough, but the characters are flat as cardboard, and I never felt they came alive. I had trouble figuring out their motivations, they ended up seeming like victims of their own incredible naivete. The skeleton in the family closet was predictable, not shocking to a 21st century audience, and really did not further the story. This is not a long book, which may also be part of the problem. I realize not everyone can produce a War and Peace or a Doctor Zhivago, but I felt this novel didnt rise above the mediocre. I felt the authors barely scratched the surface of the subject matter.