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Lady of the Snakes
by
Rachel Pastan (Goodreads Author)
Jane Levitsky is a bright light in the field of nineteenth-century Russian literature, making her name as an expert on the novels of Grigory Karkov and the diaries of his wife, the long-suffering Masha Karkova. Jane is also wife to sweet, reasonable Billy and mother to lovable (if demanding) Maisie, roles she’s finding surprisingly challenging to juggle along with her ambi
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Hardcover, 308 pages
Published
January 14th 2008
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. An intelligent story that is complex without alienating the reader, schloarly without being pretentious. Not a completely unique view of the modern woman but smart and real nonetheless. Pastan does a fantastic job of weaving together mulitple stories, muliple lives- and showing the underlying parallels in all of them. I think that if I was a Russian lit scholar and/or a mother, this would be the story of my life - that's how real this boo
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Pretty good literary mystery and motherhood/marriage drama. I liked it enough to look forward to reading it, but not enough to rave about it. There were some plot lines I just didn't buy relating to the main character as a mother, but overall, a good read.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. My friend's mother lent it to me, and after reading the flap, I figured it was worth a peek, just to see if it was any good. And that was pretty much the last time I came up for air.
Jane Levitsky is a young woman working as an assistant professor and researching the papers of the wife of a Russian literary giant, but she is also struggling with how to meld her professional life with her private one as a wife and mother. It's a familiar problem for ...more
Jane Levitsky is a young woman working as an assistant professor and researching the papers of the wife of a Russian literary giant, but she is also struggling with how to meld her professional life with her private one as a wife and mother. It's a familiar problem for ...more
Aug 28, 2008
Anastasia
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
my middle class women friends with kids
It's been a very long time since I've read a book that has spoken to me on as personal a level as this one. I think Pastan did an amazing job of writing an engaging, smart, very readable novel while also articulating work-motherhood-partnership struggle so many middle class (white?) women are currently living. I was particularly impressed with Pastan's ability to create a character, Jane, who cared passionately about her work, about her child, and about her partner-- and who also hated the incon
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This was such a fun beach read...a 19th century literary mystery combined with a little modern motherhood angst about the challenges of trying to really have it all - family, career, & self. A couple of wry observations that stuck with me:
On how a newborn changes everything - "This is what women's lives are like...It had never occurred to her - not really - that women's lives were still so deeply different from men's. Now she saw it, and it shocked her. She had thought the world had changed ...more
On how a newborn changes everything - "This is what women's lives are like...It had never occurred to her - not really - that women's lives were still so deeply different from men's. Now she saw it, and it shocked her. She had thought the world had changed ...more
This was an amazing book! Part academic mystery, part an examination of a working woman’s compromises, it is filled with wonderful, expressive language and perfectly-constructed images. We follow Jane Levitsky during her first year as an assistant professor at UW-Madison, dealing with the grind of all-new preparations and the pressure to publish; in addition, she has a toddler and a husband in law school. She suffers the insecurities of a woman trying to have it all: she wants to spend more time
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May 29, 2008
Laura
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
women, mothers, wives
Recommended to Laura by:
NPR
Shelves:
favorites
This is an AMAZING novel. The observational skills of the author regarding relationships (personal and professional) are incredible. And the way she was able to put them into words was so satisfying. Several times I was just blown away thinking I have felt like that but didn't know how to verbalize it!
The story was great and was really engaging. I became absorbed in the Jane's (the protagonist) life, and although it becomes apparent to the reader what is likely to happen in her life, you want to ...more
The story was great and was really engaging. I became absorbed in the Jane's (the protagonist) life, and although it becomes apparent to the reader what is likely to happen in her life, you want to ...more
An easy, digestible summer read, though undeniably "midcult" in the same vein as Ann Patchett's Bel Canto or Kate Christensen's The Great Man -- i.e. it's a book about intellectuals that really isn't intellectual at all. Best enjoyed with a pina colada on a lounge chair while on vacation from college syllabi authors with no vowels in their names. It has its share clumsy exposition, superficial characterization, and plot twists designed solely to wring some kind of epiphany from a self-absorbed a
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Jan 18, 2008
Jennifer
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone who's had to juggle multiple roles
Recommended to Jennifer by:
Julie
Shelves:
staben-memorial-library
A nicely complex novel about academia, motherhood, marriage, and literary influences. Jane is a first-year professor of Slavic Literature at UW-Madison but also a mother of a demanding two-year-old named Maisie and wife to Billy. She has focused her scholarly interests on the journals of Masha Karkova, the wife of a famous Russian writer of the 1800s, Grigory Karkov. Though Masha's situation, trapped on a family estate and bearing child after child for the not frequently faithful Karkov, seems w
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this was a book i had a hard time putting down. i loved the voice of the narrator -- very cool and accessible, very clear. the character of jane was very refreshing, her various dilemmas felt totally believable and occasionally tragic. the "story-within-a-story" worked well and was the real basis for the novel's suspense. the diaries and letters that jane works so hard to uncover and understand communicate the character of karkova in degrees. on top of jane's professional struggles are her strug
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Maureen Corrigan of NPR's Fresh Air was not quite right about this novel. At first, the book stressed me out because it served as no escape; everything was too relatable: a woman academic at her first job with a 2-year old girl, husband in law school, ( a colleague with a huge stake in her academic field. All the guilt she felt at being a working mom felt right on. But then her daughter gets sick, her husband cheats on her with a grad students, she makes a once-in-a-century academic discovery, a
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I love mothers' point of views. Jane as one catched my attention and I as a teenager surprised myself from reading a classic novel. Yeah I do read books that are classic ones but I do it rarely.
Anyway, this book is addressed to reality and I love that. It makes me ponder and wonder how moms survive every day and how they handle things. Like jobs and people around them. The fact where moms tend to pull over their gift of love over thier families just to show how much they care. Jane is an excepti ...more
Anyway, this book is addressed to reality and I love that. It makes me ponder and wonder how moms survive every day and how they handle things. Like jobs and people around them. The fact where moms tend to pull over their gift of love over thier families just to show how much they care. Jane is an excepti ...more
I bought this book after reading a rave review praising its realistic portrayal of a woman trying to juggle her marriage, her baby, and her career in academia. But it turns out that the heroine is researching a Russian literary giant, and it seemed like half the damn book consisted of passages from these fake Russian books and fake Russian letters and fake Russian diaries. And (sorry Mrs. Whirry, my Honors English teacher) I loathe Russian literature. So I skipped a lot, because I'm not interest
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Rachel is a former teacher of mine, and so I was excited to see this attention all this book was getting (and also a little annoyed - I waited months to get it from the library until finally giving in and buying it!). This was a great, smart (dare I say feminist?) book. Which also made me grumble a bit over PW's "highbrow chick lit" description - it's written by a female author, and features a female protagonist who's studying a female literary figure, simultaneously dealing with the unique diff
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I found this book on NPR's list of summer reads. It is a well-written and well-developed novel that manages to be academic as well as popular. The protagantist finds herself in the midst of an academic/research conspiracy while simulataneoulsy struggling to balance the demands/role/desires of motherhood with her career. The book is critical and thoughtful of both careers as well as those who decide to opt-out. At first I was annoyed that the protaganist's thesis (discussed throughout in detail)
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
If you liked Possession, you might like this book. If you didn't like Possession, you definitely wouldn't like this book.
Like Byatt's novel, this one romanticizes literary study, making it into an exciting drama of hidden documents, dastardly thefts from the rare books library, and so forth. But if you don't think about it as realistic, it's enjoyable enough.
Warning: lousy writing in places (especially by the time you get to the second pregnancy)-- if the redundancy is meant to be artistic, tha ...more
Like Byatt's novel, this one romanticizes literary study, making it into an exciting drama of hidden documents, dastardly thefts from the rare books library, and so forth. But if you don't think about it as realistic, it's enjoyable enough.
Warning: lousy writing in places (especially by the time you get to the second pregnancy)-- if the redundancy is meant to be artistic, tha ...more
I'm torn between giving this 2.5 or 3 stars. I picked it up because it was touted as literary mystery, which it was -- sorta. But the main character and all her pissing and moaning just bugged me to no end, even though some of her complaints were valid and have (I'm sure) escaped my own mouth. But it was constant!!! As for the literary mystery, I figured it out about 60 pages into the book, and one of the "clues" related to a plot point about halfway through showed just how much the author was r
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When I read the back cover of this book, it pulled at my academic heartstrings. I felt I could relate to the narrator, who is a graduate student and scholar of Russian literature. While the narrator was likeable, the book for me was a bit of a letdown. Her research into the lives of 19th century Russian writer Grigory Karkov (fictional)and his mysterious wife Masha was rather slow, and the payoff I had expected just didn't materialize. The trials and rapture of academic life were made clear and
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I don't remember how this book made its way onto my to-read list, so when I picked it up at the library, I wasn't sure about it. When it started, I had only looked at the cover and briefly read the inside flap and developed pre-conceived notions about what this book would be. But I was totally wrong. I love that it takes what was once a complete chic-lit plotline (woman tries to choose between career and being a mom and loses her husband along the way to the babysitter) and brings in real intell
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I enjoyed reading this book very much. Jane Levitsky is a young Russian literature scholar, studying the writings of the wife of a (fictional) Russian author, whose life echos Tolstoy's. So her professional career was really interesting to me, but I also liked the description of her struggles as a young mother, trying to balance work and family obligations. I didn't feel like the book deserved four stars, but I did really like it.
Jun 14, 2008
Lolakay
rated it
it was ok
Recommended to Lolakay by:
Fresh Air on NPR
Shelves:
fiction
I heard about this on Fresh Air where it was recommended as a good beach read. I enjoyed it (sort of), but not in the way the author intended. The protagonist was a total mess and made idiotic decisions with consequences visible from miles away. I mostly got a sadistic thrill watching shit fall all around her. Passed it on to a friend who inhaled it in a day or so and agreed it was silly, but beach-worthy.
A light, entertaining novel that got me through an extremely long series of flights and layovers in various airports. The diary excerpts didn't seem authentic to me, but rather a 21st century version of a 19th century woman's thoughts. And the academic side didn't quite ring true either. But there were some nice touches, particularly dealing with the current (perennial?) conflict between working mothers and mothers at home.
I loved this book -- at least partly because it was set at UW-Madison. The story of the young assistant professor trying to survive the first year of her academic career, a young child, and a move rang true. The "understory" about the Russian woman writer she was studying was really good, too. The juxtaposition of the struggles of young contemporary women who are trying to "have it all" and their "oppressed sisters" from an earlier time was well done and thought provoking.
This book was heavily promoted as a summer read on various Slavic lists because it's heroine is an assistant professor in the Slavic Dept. at UW Madison. I didn't like it all that much, but maybe because a lot of it read like my life! :) Not the mystery and the marital problems, though :). The mystery is predictable as are the marital problems, the snakes are the most interesting aspect of the book.
Maybe this wasn't the best thing for me to read, as the book revolves around a new mother/professor who is finding it difficult to balance these at times competing interests. In all honesty, as a new mother/doctoral candidate myself, it scared the crap out of me. I believe that Jane does eventually realize that she can strike a balance, but whether or not this is possible in real life is another matter completely.
I really enjoyed this book. I love literary mysteries and the main character is a new mom trying to balance parenting with her career aspirations, which I can definitely relate to. Sometimes the plot seemed a bit contrived, however I couldn't put it down. It will most likely appeal to readers who enjoyed Possession by A.S. Byatt or Carol Goodman's mysteries. The author is the daughter of the amazing poet Linda Pastan.
Such a fine story that covers, so deeply, quite a few major characters in the book. Several characters are Russian authors, which are our heroine, a Junior Professor, is doing research on.
But its also so rich in describing marriage, sex, midwestern landscapes (both natural and man-made), University politics, parenthood and even more.
Loved it, in addition to it's being such a page-turner.
Oh yeah, don't forget the interesting stuff about snakes.
But its also so rich in describing marriage, sex, midwestern landscapes (both natural and man-made), University politics, parenthood and even more.
Loved it, in addition to it's being such a page-turner.
Oh yeah, don't forget the interesting stuff about snakes.
Good, not great. Contemporary woman seeking to "have it all" as mother, wife & careerist who finds a parallel in a historical figure she's researching. A story within a story...discovering hidden truths. This style of uncovering historical mysteries (via the "hidden" letter) has been used a few times - and I've enjoyed it more in other books (A.S. Byatt's Possession is long, but wonderful). Characters not so memorable, but not unpleasant either. Just fine.
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