Lara Prescott
Författare till The Secrets We Kept
Om författaren
Foto taget av: Lara Prescott at BookExpo at the Javits Center in New York City, May 2019. By Rhododendrites - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79387568
Verk av Lara Prescott
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Födelsedag
- 1981
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Födelseort
- Greensburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Listor
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 2
- Medlemmar
- 1,113
- Popularitet
- #23,080
- Betyg
- 3.7
- Recensioner
- 60
- ISBN
- 41
- Språk
- 9
The story takes place in two locales, clearly labeled: East and West, and during roughly the same time period of 1949 - 1961. In the East, Boris Pasternak is putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece, while Olga, his mistress, is visited by the KGB to inquire about her involvement in his work. This visit eventually leads to the Gulag; Boris is ruminating about his fellow writers and poets who have met a similar fate. The difference is that Stalin loves Boris Pasternak's poetry and his hand has protected Pasternak.
Meanwhile, after the Second World War ends, the women in the OSS who performed admirably are given jobs at the Agency. As typists. Despite their talents, despite their successes, they are asked to type memos and notes and letters, day after day. They form a camaraderie and one of them is Irina. Her mother left Soviet Russia without her husband, and at his death in the USSR she begins to ply her trade as a dressmaker to the community. Irina lives with her and most of the story from the West portions are told from her POV.
The 3 years Boris and Olga spend apart are described, and when the book is finally, finally completed the manner in which it was published would interest the most diehard John le Carré geek. What resulted was pure Soviet machinations to try to explain why the rest of the world read it before it was published in Russia.
In the West, Irina is befriended by Sally, and Irina is engaged to Ted who has a passion for all things Russian. Which is what attracts him to Irina. There are details about life as a working woman in Washington, D.C. in the 50's that are not too different from our own time. The details about life in the Agency as an LGBTQ+ person are horrendous and also, sadly, timely.
I found that this was a book I needed to savor, like a fine wine or heady beer. Pick up, enjoy, then put down.… (mer)