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A Partial History of Lost Causes

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 802 ratings · 243 reviews

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION

NAMED BY THE NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION AS A 5 UNDER 35 AUTHOR • WINNER OF THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION •NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE

In Jennifer duBois’s mesmerizing and exquisitely rendered debut novel, a long-lost letter links two disparate characters, each search...more

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published March 20th 2012 by The Dial Press

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Nov 30, 2011 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Imagine that you’re right in the prime of life – 30 years old—and discover that you are living under the shadow of Huntington’s Disease, a degenerative disorder that killed your father and will destroy your body and then your mind.

As you’re struggling to cope, you come across a letter from your now deceased father to the world chess champion Alexsandr Beztov who is now on a quixotic quest to unseat Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In it, your father asks for guidance on what to do when the enormous cert...more Imagine that you’re right in the prime of life – 30 years old—and discover that you are living under the shadow of Huntington’s Disease, a degenerative disorder that killed your father and will destroy your body and then your mind.

As you’re struggling to cope, you come across a letter from your now deceased father to the world chess champion Alexsandr Beztov who is now on a quixotic quest to unseat Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In it, your father asks for guidance on what to do when the enormous certainty is upon you that you are playing a losing match? You have nothing left to lose, so you travel to Russia to unearth the answer and eventually realize that both you and Alexsandr are searching for some of the same answers, for different reasons.

This is, perhaps, one of the freshest and most imaginative debuts I’ve read lately, and Jennifer DuBois approaches it with grace and thoughtfulness. Some of her prose – truisms, really, stated in the most eloquent ways – tackle that all-important question of why we live at all if we know we cannot win. She writes with a hard-won maturity that most people who are twice her age have not yet gleaned.

Take this observation for example: “Personality is continuity. Personality is the myth of continuity. And the person is lost when nothing an be old to him, when nothing can be familiar, when all parallels, all symbols, all analogs are lost; when the world is perpetually stunning; when we are all newborns again, at last.” Or this one: “I thought about what Aleksandr had said about chess, about the paralyzing effects of imagination. I knew that to be true. Any time I let my mind wander more than three steps into the future, it reached the limits of comprehension and fell off the edge.”

If prose like this appeals to you, then you must read this book. Narrated in the first person by Irina, the young woman with Huntington’s, and by the one-time chess prodigy Alexsandr, Partial History is rich with description of the USSR in the 1980s; the dreariness, the poverty, the paranoia, the overriding political considerations.

There are some missteps that keep Partial History from quite reaching a 5-star rating (although it’s close enough that I am rating it that way). The novel soars when the questions are the most lofty: how to move forward when the odds are stacked against you. When tackling the Soviet bureaucracy, the narrative tends to slow and the sinister and illegal activities seem to be drawn with too fine a point.

Still, from start to finish, the book is beautifully plotted with an organic ending, the writing is luscious in many instances, and the themes manage to be universal and original at the same time. It’s wonderful to see a debut author take literary chances and reveal the wisdom of the human heart and its courage under fire.
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Nov 30, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

After a series of less than wonderful reads, I wanted to read a book that just called out to me from my shelves. I chose this book for its title. Also because it is set partly in Russia and I am a sucker for books set in any time period of that country. I was so rewarded!

It is not a perfect novel, whatever that means. Ms duBois is young, named one the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" for 2012. This is her first novel though according to her bio she has studied hard and practiced much. All...more

After a series of less than wonderful reads, I wanted to read a book that just called out to me from my shelves. I chose this book for its title. Also because it is set partly in Russia and I am a sucker for books set in any time period of that country. I was so rewarded!

It is not a perfect novel, whatever that means. Ms duBois is young, named one the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" for 2012. This is her first novel though according to her bio she has studied hard and practiced much. All of that speaks well for her but I think her biggest asset is her imagination.

The story opens as Aleksandr arrives in 1979 Leningrad, a young chess prodigy having traveled for six days from the extreme eastern end of Russia. He is unsophisticated and clueless, but has escaped a hopeless, dreary life and dares to hope for his future. His arrival coincides with Stalin's centenary and within a year he will have survived the indignities of substandard communist housing, the cold, and the chess academy, while befriending a wanted trio of dissidents and falling in love.

In the second chapter Irina begins her story. It is 2006 in Cambridge, MA. Irina learned to play chess from her father, a college level music teacher, fierce student of Cold War politics, and eccentric, who died of Huntington's disease. Irina observed at close hand his ten years of decline and death. Knowing that Huntington's is hereditary, she got herself tested and learned at age 22 that she had a 50% chance of hitting the onset of symptoms at age 32.

Meanwhile, Alexandr became the chess champion of the Soviet Union; Irina's father had sent him a letter and received a reply but not an answer to an impassioned question. So began the connection which powers the plot.

When I was in college, one of my best friends got cancer and was given a year to live. She had been blind since the age of three but was an extremely adventurous, empowered person. She rode bikes, knitted, played guitar and was doing extremely well at the University of Michigan. She spent the last year of her life touring the world.

In 2004, my father died in an Alzheimers home after his own decade of decline. I have a slight worry about going that way myself. I often wonder if I should just throw caution to the wind and live as wildly and dangerously as I can before I fall into any sort of reduced condition. That may be why I loved this book so much.

When Irina turns 30, she goes to Russia looking for Alexandr. Her father's question in his letter was, "How does one proceed in a lost cause?" By this time, Alexandr has faced a few lost causes of his own. Irina needs an answer. She has become equal parts depressed and driven.

I did not love every page. Ms duBois weaves a convoluted tale. Irina is hard to know, maddening at times; Alexandr a most unlikely hero; St Petersburg and Moscow dangerous, mysterious cities protecting secrets both ancient and modern. I often felt lost and confused, but never was I tempted to give up reading. Ultimately what is a mash-up of tragedy, philosophy, humor, and adventure came together in marvelous ways and a finale of hope for the world.(less)

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Jul 07, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jennifer Dubois weaves together the stories of her two main characters, in alternating chapters, timelines and points of view. Through the eyes of Alexandr, a chess prodigy and future world champion, we see the hardships, compromises and hypocrisies of life in the last decades of the Soviet Union.

More than twenty years later, Irina, whose father has recently died of Huntington's disease, discovers that he wrote a letter to Alexandr, asking a simple question: "What is the right way to approach a...more Jennifer Dubois weaves together the stories of her two main characters, in alternating chapters, timelines and points of view. Through the eyes of Alexandr, a chess prodigy and future world champion, we see the hardships, compromises and hypocrisies of life in the last decades of the Soviet Union.

More than twenty years later, Irina, whose father has recently died of Huntington's disease, discovers that he wrote a letter to Alexandr, asking a simple question: "What is the right way to approach a game when you know that all is lost?"

The question has profound meaning to Irina, as she has learned that genetics have doomed her to the same debilitating end as her father. Alexandr, however, appears to have dismissed the letter, delegating it to an assistant. The brusque response sets Irina on a trip halfway around the world to obtain an answer to her father's last lucid request.

As the paths of the two characters gradually converge, the question becomes the central theme of the book. Alexandr becomes involved in a doomed subversive political movement, and must choose between newly formed political ideals and his dreams of conquering the world of chess. In a society that views success in chess as glorifying the state, only a loyal party member will be allowed to succeed.

Irina, meanwhile, must deal with the certainty that her remaining life will be short, robbing her of both her mind and her body. She has seen the progressive effects of the disease on the life of her mother, and determines that, while she can still choose, she will make a different choice.

There are a few awkward passages as Alexandr's long history merges Irina's short life. One section, told in Irina's voice but in present tense, oddly telegraphs future events. Another brief section, written in first person plural, describes Alexandr's career in post-Soviet politics.

In the later chapters, Ms. Dubois proposes several answers to the central question. Ultimately, the answer seems to be, simply, you do what you must. As Irina says, "The only way to properly way to face doom is to be on time."

"... I add this to my catalog of gratitude, somewhere between the sandwich and the symphony," she says, "the feeling of getting up early to do something of consequence."

Ms. Dubois writes some really beautiful paragraphs, especially in her descriptions of everyday life in the kommunalkas of Soviet Leningrad. The cold becomes as formidable an antagonist as the party itself.

She also drew me into the struggles of Alexandr to understand and cope with the lost causes in his life: a brief love affair with a woman whom he believed betrayed him by marrying a low-level party functionary; his brief involvement in the anti-government movement; a pivotal match against the IBM Deep Blue chess program; the newborn democratic movement struggling to survive after the fall of the Soviet Union.

It was with Irina, though, that I most related. Her attempts to deny, hide from, and finally, embrace, her mortality reflect the challenge we all face. Can we protect those whom we love from the fallout as our lives disintegrate? Is the best strategy to isolate ourselves from the people who care about us, or must we mingle our messy lives and make the best of it?

These are challenging questions, and it's been a long time since I've read a book that asks them so well. I expect they will linger with me for some time.(less)

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Sep 17, 2012 Kathryn marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

This book has such an interesting cover. I am glad to have won this book and look forward to getting it and reading it!

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Apr 24, 2013 Leanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Partial History of Lost Causes alternates between two points of view - Aleksandr's and Irina's. Aleksandr is a chess genius extraordinaire who arrives in Leningrad to attend a chess college and gets tangled up in the opposing party's quest against the Party, eventually launching his own doomed presidential campaign a couple of decades later. Irina is a lost young woman wrestling with her own mortality - she watched her father deteriorate slowly due to Huntington's disease and a genetic test ha...more A Partial History of Lost Causes alternates between two points of view - Aleksandr's and Irina's. Aleksandr is a chess genius extraordinaire who arrives in Leningrad to attend a chess college and gets tangled up in the opposing party's quest against the Party, eventually launching his own doomed presidential campaign a couple of decades later. Irina is a lost young woman wrestling with her own mortality - she watched her father deteriorate slowly due to Huntington's disease and a genetic test has confirmed she is headed for the same future. When she discovers a letter her father wrote to Aleksandr before his mind started to unravel, she embarks on a "last adventure" to find Aleksandr and learn the answer to her father's questions (which are parallel to her own).

There were several things I really liked. I found the timeline very interesting - Aleksandr's chapters span 20+ years, while Irina's are only a couple, and of course they intersect about two-thirds in. I also loved the overall theme of the novel - what do you do when you're doomed to fail, when there is concrete evidence that your days are numbered and you're just waiting for the end?

I was more engaged by Irina's chapters - perhaps it was the format, as Irina's were told in first person, whereas Aleksandr's were in third person, but overall she just seemed more fleshed out, more sympathetic. I'm a sucker for a little bit of love story, even if it's just in the background, and some of the passages Dubois wrote about Irina and her feelings for Jonathan were quietly beautiful. And then there was Lars - his significance in the novel was a little less than I had imagined when he was introduced, because he was such an intriguing character, but I loved him anyway, and it was nice to see him sneak in there at the end for a last word.

I am not a very politic-y person, and that didn't change after reading this book - but I did learn a thing or two about Russian politics from reading it. I have a love/hate relationship with books that cause me to turn to Wikipedia; they get my brain juices flowing and teach me interesting new things, but sometimes I just want to read without having to look elsewhere to understand the context.

I've mostly listed the reasons I liked the book, and I'm actually finding it more difficult to articulate what held me back from a higher rating. All of the elements of a great novel were there, the writing was lovely, and I was reasonably moved by the story itself. But I was never completely pulled into it - I would enjoy it as I read it, but I was never compelled to come back to it immediately, and I didn't think about it for days after I finished it (although I did actually like the ending - I found it poetic).

However - this is still worth a read, and I will keep an eye out for Dubois' next release. 3.5 stars.(less)

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Jun 27, 2012 Seamus Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars

How should we conduct ourselves when victory is impossible? A Partial History of Lost Causes is a moving exploration of this question on several levels. From playing an unbeatable opponent in chess, to running against an unbeatable opponent in an election, to living life in the shadow of a debilitating disease . . . Everyone's life is filled with lost causes and since, SPOILER ALERT, every one of us is going to die, our very lives are essentially lost causes. So: how should we go about losing?

Ma...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012

This was my favorite book of 2012, and I just realized I never entered it. It's difficult to characterize this book. The plot is twisty, but it's not a mystery. The main character is ill, but it's not just about that, either. The writing is excellent; I underlined so many awesome lines and phrases. Example: "His quasi-British accent made him sound like he was always on the brink of apology. His expression made him look like a person who had never apologized in his entire life." And: "He shouldn'...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Wow! This is a first novel worth getting excited about. We get the protagonists' life stories in alternating chapters that come together exactly as they should, and along the way we get supporting characters who are as interesting as the leads. The action remains focused and the characters and events carry the story along.

Aleksandr is a world chess champion who made his way to the top with a meaningful detour in the Russian political underground of St. Petersburg (a lost cause if there ever was...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Diane Kistner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jennifer DuBois' debut novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, impressed me for her connotative, fresh, and sometimes poetic renderings of winning and losing, of living and dying, and the meaning of it all through the metaphorical framework of chess. I read it wide-eyed and with heart fully engaged, and it's worth four stars for its ability to hold my attention at that level. The richness and depth of the language is nothing short of delicious, if a bit bitter. Like a young but highly promising...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Alice Heiserman rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a first novel by a young author who has the sensitivity of an old soul. It is about a young woman who watches her father fall apart from Huntington's disease till he is but a shell of his former vibrant self. Knowing that it is hereditary, she has herself tested and learns that she has the genes for it. Her father taught her chess, which she enjoys and at one point early in his disease, her father writes to the soon-to-be Russian world chess champion and asks him how to live with a lost...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Mallory rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes you read a book that words simply cannot capture, but you love it even though you can't articulate exactly what makes it so incredible. This is one of those books. While a brief explanation of the plot ("It's about Soviet-era chess players and a woman with Huntington's") got more raised eyebrows than contented sighs from friends I tried to tell about it, the lyrical writing, the heartbreaking sadness and the questions that are simultaneously complex yet simple make this a book you will...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

First, a disclaimer: I know the author, as I have taken writing courses from her. She's lovely, and insightful, and possesses an enviable and incredible talent.

Her debut, at its best moments, is both heartbreaking and profoundly intelligent. Dubois distills the essence of experience in such a way that it resonates emotionally, regardless of our interest in or attachment to her characters, or even our investment in the storyline. And therein lies the problem: nothing much happens. The action does...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Jaci rated it 4 of 5 stars

"How does one proceed in a lost cause?" in this instance pertains to both Russian politics and terminal illness. Aleksandr Bezetov, a former chess champion, is running against Putin. Irina Ellison has Huntington's disease and finds a connection between Bezetov and her father, who had died from Huntington's. The outcome is surprising and satisfying.
p.91: "I'm probably dying this year," I told her. "My dear," said Elizabeta, and she coughed again. "That's no great distinction."
p.126: "So strategiz...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Amy Bond added it

I have only read good reviews about this book so far, so perhaps I am alone in my assessment, but I had a really hard time getting in to the characters. As someone who really loves the game of chess, I thought I was going to really like this book - former chess champion Alexander, is one of two main protagonists, but I had a hard time following why he was always so sad. His daughter, Irina, the main character, suffers from an insurmountable fear that someday her brain will give way to Huntington...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story in A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer DuBois is told in chapters that alternate between two narrators: Aleksandr Bezetov and Irina Ellison. The novel opens in 1979 when Aleksandr Bezetov was in training in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and on his way to becoming a world chess champion. Chapters follow Aleksandr into the 1980's and then quickly become current. Irina's chapters begin in 2006 when we learn of her father's long protracted bout with Huntington's disease and her diagnos...more The story in A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer DuBois is told in chapters that alternate between two narrators: Aleksandr Bezetov and Irina Ellison. The novel opens in 1979 when Aleksandr Bezetov was in training in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and on his way to becoming a world chess champion. Chapters follow Aleksandr into the 1980's and then quickly become current. Irina's chapters begin in 2006 when we learn of her father's long protracted bout with Huntington's disease and her diagnosis to suffer the same fate. Irina finds a copy of a letter her father had written to Aleksandr years ago, asking him what is the proper way to proceed when you know you’re losing? Aleksandr had never replied to her father's question so Irina feels compelled to travel to Russia to ask him for his answer to the question her father posed to him years before. When Irina arrives in Russia, Aleksandr is running for president against Vladimir Putin.

Since Aleksandr is a chess champion, the game and symbolism from chess play a major role in the novel - if only in it's constant presence. Having the chapters alternate between characters from different parts of the world imitates the two distinct players in a chess match. Even the surprising actions of the characters could mimic strategic chess moves. All the characters are faced with carrying on with their lives while facing lost causes, just as a chess match continues and players follow the rules even while knowing that, in the end, someone will lose. In this case both players (characters) seem fearful of life as they both face the ultimate formidable opponent: death.

DuBois is clearly a very good writer and she displays a wonderful way with her prose. To her credit it's actually hard to believe at times that A Partial History of Lost Causes is her first novel. There were several sections I'd love to quote just so others can experience the beauty of her writing but in this case, since I was reading an advanced reading copy, you will have to follow the link below for an example of her writing. She does an admirable job setting the tone and place with her descriptions. I thought DuBois was equally proficient in capturing Irina's current life in Massachusetts as she was in describing Aleksandr's life and struggles in the Soviet Union in the early 1980's.

On the other hand, while I enjoyed the novel, there were some drawbacks for me. The set up leading to Irina's sudden departure to Russia, leaving everyone behind and events leading to her prolonged stay in Russia seemed almost too sudden. Eventually, I did end up feeling somewhat detached from the characters. This isn't always the case when I am presented with novels where the main characters are dislikeable or self-absorbed, but, as A Partial History of Lost Causes progressed, my interest in what would happen to both Aleksandr and Irina lessened.

A Partial History of Lost Causes is a dark, somber tale - part psychological character study and political/historical thriller, it is highly recommended.

Disclosure:I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

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Mar 29, 2012 Everyday eBook rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A New Search for Meaning: Jennifer DuBois’ A Partial History of Lost Causes

In Jennifer DuBois’ debut novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, the lives of two characters are intertwined by their search for meaning. It is a beautifully told story that will appeal to fans of Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge or Katherine Neville’s The Eight.

In present-day Cambridge, Massachusetts, Irina Ellison is a thirty-year-old lecturer mourning the loss of her beloved father to Huntington’s disease. A gre...more A New Search for Meaning: Jennifer DuBois’ A Partial History of Lost Causes

In Jennifer DuBois’ debut novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, the lives of two characters are intertwined by their search for meaning. It is a beautifully told story that will appeal to fans of Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge or Katherine Neville’s The Eight.

In present-day Cambridge, Massachusetts, Irina Ellison is a thirty-year-old lecturer mourning the loss of her beloved father to Huntington’s disease. A great lover of chess, her father was particularly fascinated with the internationally renowned Russian chess champion, Aleksandr Bezetov. So much so, that his final act is to compose a letter to Bezetov asking, “How does one proceed against a lost cause?” Upon finding that she has also inherited her father’s grueling disease, Irina makes a life-changing decision: to walk away from everything she has ever known, travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, to find Aleksandr Bezetov — and an answer to her father’s question.

In Cold War-era Russia, young Bezetov, setting foot into the square of St. Petersburg for the first time, meets a group of boys tired of the lives they are forced to live and rumbling for change. A prodigy from the country, he arrives to play chess and quickly becomes known as a fierce and unbeatable competitor. However, calls for rebellion are too intoxicating to ignore, and he quickly finds himself rising in the ranks and leading an uprising that will change history forever.

In present-day Russia, the once-great chess champion Bezetov awakens one day in his lavish surroundings to find the fires of change behind him, and with them, any purpose for living. As he struggles to understand his worth and place in the universe, he is confronted at his doorstep by a young, lost Irina. With this encounter, both characters find they need something that exists in each other to remember what keeps them going every day.

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Jun 04, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: russia

Modern-day St. Petersburg is the setting for two characters who are both doomed to fail. Irina, an American professor, knows that she will die of Huntington's disease. Alexandr, a Soviet-era chess champion, knows that he cannot beat Putin. I came close to giving this five stars--fascinating setting, perfectly imperfect characters, and one gorgeous sentence after another.

If you have any interest in Russia, this is an amazing book. St. Petersburg comes alive: Brezhnev-era dissident cafes, grungy h...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

After her father dies of Huntington's disease, Irina (also afflicted with the genes that make Huntington's a certainty for her, as well) discovers a copy of a letter he'd written many years before to Aleksandr Bezetov, then the reigning world chess champion. A great fan of Aleksandr's, Irina's father posed to him the question: How does one go on in the face of certain loss? Aleksandr never replied.

Irina embarks on a quest. She travels to Russia in search of Aleksandr Bezetov and the answers to h...more

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May 29, 2012 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-edition

3 ½ stars out of 5. Knowing full well that authors often don't choose, or even have much say, in the titles of their books, I got this book partially because of the fabulous title. Whether Ms. Dubois chose this title, I can't say, but I love it.

A complex chess prodigy in brutal Russia, a woman condemned to a slow and horrible death, and their intertwining fates and that of the Soviet Union, Russia, Communism, were all spun together to make a lovely story. The characters have depth, sometimes ins...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, some-recent-favorites

Quite close to the end I still could not predict how the story would be resolved, but DuBois closed the novel quite beautifully - almost literally beautiful and with a stunning precision plotwise. Among other things, the novel is about chess, Russian politics and state corruption under Putin, Chechnyan terrorism (Beslan, the theater hostage crisis, bombings), love, courage/cowardice, how we know and understand another person (or persist in misunderstanding), and the terror experienced by a certa...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Doc Kinne rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book was a great debut. I think Jennifer had some very interesting things to say on the subject of live, death, and the journey in between largely through dealing with a father with Alzhimers. Her interest in Russian geopolitics proved to be, for me, a very nice plot vehicle. Interestingly, her use of chess started to fray a bit as the book went on. To a much larger extent than I could deal with she basically lifted major portions of Alexandr's later life, once he got into politics, from Gar...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Patty rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I received this book and I read the synopsis I could not for the life of me remember why I decided to review it. It was so very different from what I usually read. As I started to read I was almost immediately enthralled and suddenly very happy I had chosen to read the book. Not that it is a happy book, not by any means, but Ms. duBois has a writing style that just pulls you in and almost refuses to let you out.

Irina Ellison grows up in the shadow of a father dying by inches from Huntingdon...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Denise rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: historical-fiction, favorites, read-in-2011

I received this book free from the publisher from a contest held on their website. This in no way affects the content of my review.

This novel basically revolves around the question of "What do you do when you know you are facing a lost cause?" The novel centers around two characters, Irina Ellison and Aleksandr Bezetov. Irina Ellison is an English lecturer in Massachusetts, whose father passed away from Huntington's disease (of which Irina has inherited from him). Aleksandr Bezetov is a former R...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Candice rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel begins with two separate storylines - American Irina Ellison's beginning in 2006 and Russian chess player Aleksandr Bezetov's beginning in 1979. The cold and loneliness are almost palpable when reading of Bezetov's trip to St. Petersburg in 1979. Irina's interest in Bezetov is due to a letter her father wrote to him several years before he died of Huntington's Disease. Irina has just found that she has inherited the disease and with this death sentence upon her, decides to travel to Ru...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Corey rated it 5 of 5 stars

It has been a while since I liked a book as much as I liked this one. This was really a masterpiece… and Dubois’ first novel?! Unbelievable! Here’s what I loved about this book in order from most to still a lot….

1. The writing…. Wow! Example of a sentence that really spoke to me for whatever reason: “The sentiment was real enough, I suppose, but the rest was composed of gestures imitating the behavior of other people, people who had an entire future to love and fail one another.”

2. The idea… Two...more It has been a while since I liked a book as much as I liked this one. This was really a masterpiece… and Dubois’ first novel?! Unbelievable! Here’s what I loved about this book in order from most to still a lot….

1. The writing…. Wow! Example of a sentence that really spoke to me for whatever reason: “The sentiment was real enough, I suppose, but the rest was composed of gestures imitating the behavior of other people, people who had an entire future to love and fail one another.”

2. The idea… Two people from extremely different walks of life are connected by the fact that they are both living lives which they know are lost causes: Irina is 30 and has Huntington’s Disease. She knows approximately when her condition will start to deteriorate and that she will first lose motor function and then brain function and will be able to live a long life but in a practically vegetative state, relying on the people she loves to care for her for years after she will no longer be able to recognize or have a relationship with them. Aleksander is a former chess world champion turned politician in Russia. He is campaigning for democracy in Russia and knows that he cannot win the election against Putin. He begins every speech with “My friends, we have no chance of winning.”

3. The female protagonist is self-sufficient, mature (in most things) and is not motivated by romance or love. It is hard for me to imagine a novel with a single 30-year old female as the main character who is actually like people I know – single or not, making decisions on the basis of rationality and logic, unlike fictional characters who are usually single-mindedly motivated by the search for someone to be with. I also liked that Irina was 30 and a recent PhD graduate just like me and many of my friends. (My least favorite thing about the book was Irina’s negativity. She was really alone and isolated in the world, partially by choice but also because she didn’t seem to have a lot of human connections, and I found this really depressing. Maybe it made the story neater to write.)

4. Present day Russia with its political turmoil that I don’t know enough about is a really cool setting…
(less)

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Jun 21, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books-read

"All of us are doomed, but some are more doomed than others."
--Vladimir Nabokov

A Partial History of Lost Causes is a story about two very different individuals whose lives are about to intersect. Aleksandr Bezetov, is a former chess prodigy who decides to challenge Vladimir Putin for President of Russia. The other individual is a 30 year old college lecturer from Cambridge, MA named Irina Ellison.

After Irina’s father dies from Huntington’s disease, she finds a letter that he had written some...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Dina rated it 2 of 5 stars

It's not a bad story, but I have trouble getting past all the errors in the details about Russia. I am sure it is hard to research details of life in another country at another time, but when that time is a fairly recent past and there are literally millions of people that can provide those details, the author and/or editor have an obligation to get someone knowledgeable to fix the mistakes. I'm not talking about one or two details ... almost every time the narrative moves to 1980 Leningrad, the...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Leka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: america

Oggettiva-mente

No, oggettivamente non so parlare di questo libro -se è per questo, nemmeno degli altri, in effetti-.
Dirò solo che mi hanno molto colpito l’uso degli aggettivi -ma anche questa è una constatazione soggettiva- e l’ironia- compassionevole talvolta, mai però tediosa-, con cui tutta la vicenda è narrata.
Per il resto vi rimando alla scheda del libro (che trovate qui) e ai commenti su aNobii (http://www.anobii.com/books/Storia_pa...).

Soggettiva-mente
Se avete voglia di leggere, qui di...more

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Aug 19, 2012 marg rated it 4 of 5 stars

To the people who have often said to me "Well what do you expect if you just randomly pick books off the shelves?? Of course you'll end up with lousy reads," I say to you, books like this one are why I still believe.
APHLC was not recommended to me by anyone, I hadn't even heard of it. I found the title intriguing and went with it, and I am grateful that I did.
This book is elegant, delicate, profound, and deeply moving. It traces two parallel stories bound to intersect (using alternate chapters,...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Lee Razer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: russia, contemporary-fiction

I am drawn to novels about Russia. Why not. For decades it was our partner in the dance of potential mutual and world destruction. It has all the political intrigue you could want. It's awesomely vast. It's European, but it's European in a way quite different from the the familiar comfort of western Europe. The many hardships that drive down life expectancy there can make for potentially good stories, a poor trade off for Russians surely but useful for novelists.

So I was intrigued by the plot of...more I am drawn to novels about Russia. Why not. For decades it was our partner in the dance of potential mutual and world destruction. It has all the political intrigue you could want. It's awesomely vast. It's European, but it's European in a way quite different from the the familiar comfort of western Europe. The many hardships that drive down life expectancy there can make for potentially good stories, a poor trade off for Russians surely but useful for novelists.

So I was intrigued by the plot of this book. In modern Russia, a world chess champion braves the threat of death to lead the futile task of challenging the autocratic and corrupt rule of Vladimir Putin. In America, a young college professor with a death sentence of her own in the form of a hereditary genetic disease finds a letter her father wrote to this Russian decades ago. Her father, about to lose himself to this genetic disease, wrote to ask how one should carry on in the face of certain oncoming defeat. He imagined the Russian might have an answer. No answer came, and now the young American, casting about for a way to react herself, decides to move to Russia, find this man, and get that answer.

The setup is just the smallest bit awkward. Chapters alternate between the Aleksandr of the past almost three decades as he opposes and finally conforms (in a troublesome sort of way) to the Soviet regime, involved in both dissident politics and chess, and Irina in present day America and Russia. Both characters are richly drawn and their psychology and motives well established. The payoff comes about arguably somewhat improbably, with Aleksandr, now opposing the Putin regime, impulsively hiring Irina to be one of his three closest assistants, but if that's accepted then their relationship develops realistically and finally touchingly, nicely avoiding anything maudlin in its hardheadedness.

The political aspect of the novel is interesting, with a conspiracy theory about how Putin rose to power coming to the fore near the end of the book. As someone who values historical accuracy in works of fiction, I'm a bit troubled by the historicity of this, but it makes for a powerful plot thread so I'm going to take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the story. The personal aspect of the novel is astonishingly well done for a first time novelist, and very thoughtful and intelligent. It is full of well observed truths, as when Irina talks about the reactions she gets when she tells people of her fatal diagnosis:

"I will admit it sometimes felt strange to me to make the confession to someone and later catch them laughing, or flirting, or eating a sandwich, instead of tearing at the injustice of it all or sitting quietly at the center of a grand and monstrous grief. The disaster of my life might be only the worst thing another person heard that afternoon; they might have forgotten by dinnertime; they might have been more heartbroken by watching certain movies."

Quite enjoyable novel, in a bleak Russian sort of way.(less)

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“One can become so sentimental about a person's absence, but it's impossible to be consistently sentimental in his presence - when you're confronted with the quotidian selfishness and silence that, I'm given to understand, comprise most of a life. But we were just so new.” — 7 people liked it

“I will admit it sometimes felt strange to me to make the confession to someone and later catch them laughing, or flirting, or eating a sandwich, instead of tearing at the injustice of it all or sitting quietly at the center of a grand and monstrous grief. The disaster of my life might be only the worst thing another person heard that afternoon; they might have forgotten by dinnertime; they might have been more heartbroken by watching certain movies.” — 4 people liked it

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