Natalya Goncharova was the wife of one of Russia’s most famous writers, Alexander Pushkin. Catching his eye at her first ball when aged barely sixteen, she would later become notorious when held largely to blame for his tragic early death after a duel with her alleged lover, a Frenchman, George d’Anthes. This novel is an attempt to give a fresh voice to Natalya and restore her reputation.

Considered to be a great beauty and moving in court circles with their vicious gossip and loose codes of fidelity, it is inevitable that she will have to deal with jealous women and men other than her husband being attracted to her. Her struggles to avoid the unwanted attentions of Tsar Nicholas I are a particular challenge. Yet Natalya can’t seem to control her naturally flirtatious nature and throws herself into an unwise (if unrequited) relationship with d’Anthes.

The descriptions of aristocratic life in early 19th Century Russia are well-drawn and the risky political intrigues of the revolutionary Decembrists, with whom Pushkin was involved, are not explored in much detail. It is only due to his popularity as an author that he does not suffer the fates of many of his Decembrist friends – death or banishment to Siberia. Yet he remains conflicted over them as he copes with the highs and lows of his career and marriage.

So - does the novel succeed in rehabilitating Natalya? Unfortunately, no. By giving us her first-person voice, it should make her more sympathetic to the reader, but the result is contradictory. She keeps telling us how much she adores her husband and will love him forever, yet also tries to justify her roving eye for other men. She professes to have writing skills of her own but this aspect is never fully explored. Ultimately, she comes across as totally self-centred, more concerned with dressing up, attending balls and flirting with other men (even when pregnant!) than being a devoted and loyal supporter of Pushkin or demonstrating serious intelligence to match his.
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Interesting in parts, in others this odd novel borders on the repetitive and I struggled to finish it. (The title doesn't make much sense either.) By the end, my patience had been severely tried with Natalya’s behaviour that always ended with her bemoaning her situation or having regrets, also her cavalier treatment of others, including bitchy rows with her sister Ekatarina. I felt for Pushkin, if the real Natalya was this flippitygibbit of a wife. If he hadn’t been shot by the other man, eventually he might have ended up using his pistol on himself!

Two stars.

(I purchased this from a secondhand bookstore and as it was published in 2018 it may now be out of print in some countries.)
 
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Two women authors first took the book world by storm in tandem with the sexual revolution during the 1960s and caused scandal by daring to give the female perspective on a genre that had hitherto been the domain of macho authors like Harold Robbins. Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins busted through the prejudices of a misogynistic publishing industry to become massive success stories with their flamboyant and sexy novels that were the nightmare of critics but adored by millions of readers.
 
In this novel, both women are determined to get published, inspired by their personal experiences in show business. Susann’s Valley of the Dolls will expose the underbelly of drugs - “dolls” being the slang term for uppers and downers - and Collins’ The World is Full of Married Men will be the first in many novels that dish the dirt on Hollywood sexuality.
 
But behind their glitzy and glamorous personas, there are disappointments and tragedies. Susann has a severely autistic son hidden from view and her main drive is to make enough money to keep him in safe care for life. Collins’ first husband is a manic-depressive and commits suicide after she divorces him, and she is consumed with guilt. Linking the two women together is Nancy White, a young graduate with ambitions to be a book editor.

All three negotiate many personal and career challenges. Susann and Collins become close friends although the author admits in her notes they probably never met. Also, Nancy turns out to be a fictional character and so her inclusion raises numerous questions, the main one being:- Would two prominent authors with hectic lives of their own really concern themselves with a lowly editorial assistant’s relationship issues? 

Thus, this is a difficult novel for me to review - or decide on a star rating.

If it had been a fully fictional tale, with differently named characters inspired by, or loosely based on, Susann and Collins, I'd have been much happier about it. The sub-plots featuring Nancy's career ladder, romantic life and her tragic cousin Louise are interesting enough to warrant a complete story on their own. I might be too pedantic, but I believe it's unfair on readers to choose real-life characters (especially those within living memory for many of us) and then put them in situations for which there is no evidence. I also don't like being short-changed by such revelatory author's notes at the end and would much rather be forewarned in the beginning to avoid finding out later that it's all make-believe.
 
If you're not in the least bothered at all by veracity in your historical fiction, you'll no doubt enjoy this latest novel from Gill Paul about two more dynamic women of the 20th Century.#  
 
With many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
  
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# See my earlier review of A Beautiful Rival about Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden.

My reading has been pretty eclectic recently. After a a long stretch engrossed in historical fiction or serious non-fiction, I often feel the need to switch to contemporary romance, cosy crimes or more gritty thrillers.

The latter can be problematic. I'm a little concerned about the number of books that have female victims at the mercy of violent men, many of these  women being portrayed as trapped and incapable of standing up for themselves. Given that domestic violence is a very serious issue in our society, reading fictional accounts of such abuse might seem a tad unhealthy.

The trouble is, these books - like some movies - are the equivalent of those foods that can trap you with their aromas. Think the smell of frying bacon or hot chips when you're hungry on a cold winter's day, or chocolate cake baking or roasting coffee - or whatever you struggle to resist. So it is with books like this. They trap you with clever opening hooks, followed by fast-paced dialogue and non-stop action, and you find yourself on a roller-coaster, compelled to keep turning the pages even though you know the whole thing is ridiculous.

This time it's two women at the mercy of controlling men. Once started, I couldn't put it down. I won't detail the plot as it will spoil some of the twists and turns which are, of course, unrelenting. It has ludicrous coincidences. The friendships and relationships have varying levels of toxicity. The nasty male characters are as cliched as you can get. The women are gullible and trusting when anyone in their right mind would have run a mile from the situations they stupidly walk into. Etc, etc, etc. It took me just a day to read. And left me mocking myself for getting so sucked in. If you're in the mood for some high octane entertainment you will probably love it. 

(No star rating, as it will be subject to personal taste.)

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​Ever since the beginning of Christianity, many thinkers and scholars have pondered on how this religion became the world-changing force that it did.

Can we ever know for certain who was the historical Jesus? How did an Eastern religion that promotes love of one another become the oppressive and often crushingly brutal state-controlled power that would dominate the West for centuries and was responsible for so many religious wars, persecution, torture and murder of countless individuals, overseen by holy sanctioned institutions such as the Inquisition? If you dared to voice a different opinion, you were accused of heresy and suffered grim consequences. 

Jesus was not as unique as we’ve always been led to believe, as living around the same time in the ancient world were many other seers and holy men who claimed they were born of gods, and therefore divine, who professed to miracles like walking on water, curing the sick, and even raising the dead. Apollonius was just one example; a man whose life, teachings and miracles closely parallel those of Jesus.

Nor were the four Gospels of the New Testament the only ones written about the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, but were settled on in the 4th Century when Emperor Constantine declared that Christianity would be the official religion of the Roman Empire. His reasons for doing so were more likely to do with power and control and getting rid of disparate factions rather than genuine faith.

This book delves into some of those lesser-known gospels and other scattered fragments of records that were excluded or classified as heresy, many still to be found in obscure depositories even though they should have been destroyed. Before Constantine’s decree, numerous sects and cults claimed to be the true Christianity, some of them unsavoury or bizarre. One says Jesus had an identical twin, was also a child-killer and slave owner. Remnants of those strange early beliefs still exist today, e.g. Pontius Pilate is venerated as a saint in Ethiopia.

Eminently readable and informative in a populist style, and with quirky asides, perhaps this isn’t a book you’d recommend to your deeply religious Christian friends, but it highly recommended for anyone with an open mind who is curious about the pragmatic history of Jesus and the origins of the Christian religion.

Five stars.

(The author Catherine Nixey is the daughter of a former monk and nun, and how she came to her subject is also an interesting story.)

 
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