Book Nook Cafe discussion

What is this? A Book Buddy Read ! All are welcome to join in.

Book The Wizard of the Kremlin

Author Giuliano da Empoli
Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and Swiss writer and political scientist. He was Deputy Mayor for Culture in Florence and a senior advisor to Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi. Since the publication of his first book at age twenty-two, he has published eleven more books on politics and economics. His first novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, won the Grand Prix du Roman and was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize. It will be translated into more than thirty languages.

Wiki Full bio link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulian...

When ? The discussion will begin around January 1, 2024

Where? The entire discussion will take place in this single thread.

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Book Details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Other Press (November 7, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1635423953
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1635423952

Synopsis
A Financial Times Best Book of 2023

Filled with real political insight and intrigue, this thrilling novel explores the nature of power through the inner workings of Putin’s regime.

Working at the heart of Russian power, the enigmatic Vadim Baranov-Putin's chief spin doctor-has used his background in experimental theatre and reality TV to turn the entire country into an avant-garde political stage. Here truth and lies, news and propaganda, have become indistinguishable.

Hi, Patti:

Thanks again for starting this little group. And here's what I meant by a new genre.

When I said there might be a new genre of books that uncover the real identities of historical people, I had in mind books like The Orientalist and The Personal Librarian. The first is IMO an honest effort to uncover the identity of a man whose life goal was to obscure his origins. This man was an acknowledged genius who took a very odd path. The author does a good job of exploring his life and finding a plausible explanation for his behavior.

The Personal Librarian purportedly told the story of a mixed race American woman, a free black woman descended from generations of free black and white people, Belle was a member of the new elite class of successful black intellectuals and entrepreneurs. Belle was already working at Princeton University assessing the authenticity and value of written material. When offered a dream job with J.P. Morgan, Belle and her mother decided to create a new white identity so that she could accept this honor. It was already obvious that Jim Crow was coming. At great personal cost, she altered her origin story, and successfully took on the characteristics of an educated New York Society lady, only to be unmasked after her death by her "biographer," Marie Benedict, Ms, Benedict ignored Belle's life as it happened, and seized on rumors, altering real dates as needed to fit her concocted romance novel. I think this is very bad form, indeed, and next year my in person book club will read another Marie Benedict book about Hedy Lamar. I only hope it's more honest.

So I guess my genre remark had to do with people who reacted to threats to their personal development by creating one or more new identities, obscuring their beginnings and keeping secrets so they would not be exposed. I am not troubled that they have been exposed, but that one author did not respect her subject enough to honor her with a true account.

Let's figure out what it is we like about this kind of story and then we can get a list together.

Michele wrote: "So I guess my genre remark had to do with people who reacted to threats to their personal development by creating one or more new identities, obscuring their beginnings and keeping secrets so they would not be exposed. I am not troubled that they have been exposed, but that one author did not respect her subject enough to honor her with a true account...."

Michele, i appreciate your comments on the genre. This trend, which i've noticed as well, is a big reason i tend to steer clear of historical novels about Real People. Your point about the author's seeming lack of respect is dead-on and i intend to use that expression in the future.

I read An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege--Heidi Ardizzone. I wasn't a fan of the heavy reliance on the letters between her presumed (married) lover but the rest of the book satisfied my needs for a biography. I suspect a better bio could be accomplished but for now, this will do.

ANYway, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this new genre path.

I don't know the etiquette for book buddies-- so I'm going to jump in and begin with a summary of Chapter One. I suspect this is not necessary, but ???? So here goes. The character of Baranov, a former government functionary who worked with the tsar in a mysterious capacity, behind he scenes, secretly, at night, without fanfare, but to great effect. It's also an introduction to how Russia actually works. The tsar is Baranov's way of referring to the despotic leader of Russia in the 21st C. Then the narrator of the book is introduced, an author/scholar/researcher who has convinced his university to pay for. him to do research in Moscow.

The narrator refers very quickly to the new propaganda strategy that had changed the political equilibrium of all countries on earth. Very timely. But, while noting the influence of the reclusive Baranov, even in retirement, the narrator is more interested in Yevgeny Zamyatin, an author influential in the early 20th Century. A revolutionary exiled in 1905, he returned to Russia in 1917, but soon realized that the Bolsheviks were not interested in building a workers' paradise. In 1922, her "became a time machine," He began to write a novel that although intending to describe the Russia of the 1920's, increasingly described the Russia of the 21st C. It's title was "We." The world he describes is one in which everything is regulatesd and everything is transparent, exposed-- even voting, which is now public. He talks about AI, algorithms and our entrapment in the web of digitization.

Alone in Moscow in the modern day, the narrator becomes disoriented in time. He gets his news from social media and closely follows the account of Nikolai Brandeis. He didn't know who it really was, but it couldn't be the real Wizard of the Kremlin (Baranov), could it? Brandeis didn't discuss politics, but literature which supported certain viewpoints less directly. He sometimes quotes Zamyatin about enforced transparency.Tthe narrator. is moved to reply that transparency makes it easier for the Guardians to see and control the people. Brandeis sends a reply at 3AM, remarking on the narrator's interest in Z. He asks how long the narrator will be in Moscow, and wants to show him something related to Zamyatin. End of chapter.
I was captured immediately by the fatalistic, dark, Russian-ness of the subject matter and the tone. I also enjoyed the intellectual level of the writing. I understood many of the references (1905, 1917), but I feel if they get any more obscure, I will resort to Wikipedia.
(I just read "The Orientalist," which is set in Baku between 1900 and 1922, so this part was easy!)
Is anybody else reading yet, and what are you thinking?
Michele