Olga Andreyev Carlisle

I always thought that Olga Andreyev Carlisle was a professor of Russian literature, but actually she is a painter--not that I've ever seen any of her work or heard it spoken of. My husband gave me this biography as a present (it's signed by the author!) because it had the word "Russia" in the title.

It turns out that the reason I associate her name with Russian literature is because she and her husband were instrumental in getting Solzhenitsyn's work out of Russia and published in the West using all kinds of ruses so that Solzhenitsyn would not be complicit in this illegal, according to the Soviets, endeavor. Once Solzhenitsyn was out of Russia, he blamed them for not following his directions and denied them publishing rights. How this all came about is detailed in her memoirs.

She is the granddaughter of Leonid Andreev - a respected short story writer and playwright of the Symbolist era. Her grandparents' circle of friends included literary and cultural giants, and the beginning of the memoirs focuses on that, although she didn't really have much personal interaction with these people and didn't have very many interesting stories regarding her grandfather.

She grew up in France and the bulk of the memoirs focuses on her schooling and then on her college years where she meets her future husband. Way too much detail is given about their love-making, more than anyone really needs to know. Her move to America with her husband, raising her son, and finally the whole episode with Solzhenitsyn is near the end of the memoir. This was the most interesting part of the book, and it was too bad that it took so long to get there.

I'm not sure who this memoir is written for...most likely for any future grandchildren who come along, though some of it probably isn't really what you want to describe to your grandkids. It's not a bad book, just kind of meh.… (mer)