Friday, October 13, 2006

Dreams of My Russian Summers - post IV

The book ends with the feeling of exile moving from the steppes of Siberia to a flat in Paris as Andrei is unable to go back to Russia and meet for one final time with Charlotte

Bullet points between pages 188 - 241

* Andrei spends a last summer with Charlotte and remembers the afternoon they got caught in a storm, hopped onto a moving train and then ate a cold meal in a powerless station cafe

* He then leaves fro Paris and spends 20 years away falling into some bad times before managing to get himself established as a novelist

* The question of whether or not Charlotte is still alive haunts him and he sends a contact to find out who reports back that she is in her 80s but alive and well leading to attempts by Andrei to get a passport to go back and visit her and try and bring her back to Paris

* He is refused a passport and then is informed that Charlotte has died and sent him a package which contains a letter that at first seems to contain a story unrelated to anything but then it reveals the true story of his mother and his relationships with Charlotte

* The ending, which is over with in just a few pages, indicates the love that Charlotte had to take him in and bring him up in her own family and the relationship between France and Russian within him has to change again

I will post a review tomorrow