Olga Arbyelina, a White Russian princess living quietly with her adolescent son in a small French town, is a relative newcomer to the Russian community there. Intriguingly little is known about her when, in the summer of 1947, she is suspected of murdering a fellow emigre, only for the case to be dropped. As the story of the preceding year unfolds, a picture forms of her upbringing in Russia followed by her exile and marriage in France, and the details of a darker, hidden crime begin to emerge, encircling the narrative in an ever-tightening snare.
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'Beautifully observed and lyrically expressed, the novel slowly ... A tragic story of misplaced erotic love' (The Times )
'Though his blend of memory and imagination has won him comparison with Proust, his broad sweep and mystical vision, his emotional intensity and lyrical elan ... belong to the tradition of nineteenth-century Russian novelists' (Independent )
'Intriguing ... meticulous, lyrical prose ... he charges space with tension and the inanimate with meaning ... Makine deserves our full attention' (The Sunday Times )
'An elaborately haunting work ...Olga's involuted, tormented conciousness becomes a sophisticated pleasure in its own right ... Makine's novel possesses the feverish beauty of a hot-house culture in its final efflorescence' (Publishers Weekly )
Structured like a crime novel, but told in the language of a poet... It's a thrilling book, lit with the soft light of despair, withpassages which should shock but whose style caresses, melting this scandalous story into a captivating melody. The readers of "Le Testament Francais" will rediscover in "Olga Arbelina's crime" Andrei Makine's beautiful and supple writing, his relish for the waking dream.' (FIGARO LITTERAIRE )
'Though his blend of memory and imagination has won him comparison with Proust, his broad sweep and mystical vision, his emotional intensity and lyrical elan ... belong to the tradition of nineteenth-century Russian novelists' (Independent )
'Intriguing ... meticulous, lyrical prose ... he charges space with tension and the inanimate with meaning ... Makine deserves our full attention' (The Sunday Times )
'An elaborately haunting work ...Olga's involuted, tormented conciousness becomes a sophisticated pleasure in its own right ... Makine's novel possesses the feverish beauty of a hot-house culture in its final efflorescence' (Publishers Weekly )
Structured like a crime novel, but told in the language of a poet... It's a thrilling book, lit with the soft light of despair, withpassages which should shock but whose style caresses, melting this scandalous story into a captivating melody. The readers of "Le Testament Francais" will rediscover in "Olga Arbelina's crime" Andrei Makine's beautiful and supple writing, his relish for the waking dream.' (FIGARO LITTERAIRE )
About the Author
Andreï Makine was born in Siberia in 1957, and taught at the University of Novgorod. In 1987 he left the Soviet Union and sought asylum in Paris, where he lived rough before finding teaching work. His first novel was published in France in 1990, once he'd pretended he'd only translated it from another Russian's original. His third was published under his own name and Olga Arbélina's Crime is his fifth.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Set in the years just after the Second World War, this tells the story of Olga Arbelinya, a Russian emigrant who lives outside Paris with her haemophiliac son.
One day she is found washed up and incoherent on the riverbank together with the body of a former Tsarist officer. In court she accuses herself of his murder, although she can hardly have caused his death. Who he is and how they got there form the starting point for the rest of Makine's novel, which describes her aristocratic childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia, her flight to France and the last, powerful love affair that causes her mind, and her normal life, to unravel. The beauty of Makine is that he makes no judgements: whether Arbelinya's 'crime' is a crime is left open to the reader. More importantly, although there is no shortage of tragedy in the story, he takes care not to lay it on too heavily. Events are described from Arbelinya's often confused perspective, and the line between reality and imagination is skilfully blurred.This distancing makes 'Olga Arbelinya's Crime' melancholy rather than harrowing reading. The literary equivalent of staring out of the window on a grey rainy day.
One day she is found washed up and incoherent on the riverbank together with the body of a former Tsarist officer. In court she accuses herself of his murder, although she can hardly have caused his death. Who he is and how they got there form the starting point for the rest of Makine's novel, which describes her aristocratic childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia, her flight to France and the last, powerful love affair that causes her mind, and her normal life, to unravel. The beauty of Makine is that he makes no judgements: whether Arbelinya's 'crime' is a crime is left open to the reader. More importantly, although there is no shortage of tragedy in the story, he takes care not to lay it on too heavily. Events are described from Arbelinya's often confused perspective, and the line between reality and imagination is skilfully blurred.This distancing makes 'Olga Arbelinya's Crime' melancholy rather than harrowing reading. The literary equivalent of staring out of the window on a grey rainy day.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Barton Keyes
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a great enthusiast for the works of Andre Makine. His work is -- at its best -- breathtakingly good: crystal clear prose that illuminates thoughts, feelings and actions that usually pass unnoticed. But in this case....
Olga Arbyelina's crime is a repulsive one and the book is a difficult read in consequence. The literary gifts are still there but this time one gets the feeling that they have been misapplied. Makine does not shy away from difficult subjects or raw emotions in any of his stories but there is little in this one to provide any greater understanding of the human condition and hence no redeeming virtue for what is essentially a sordid tale.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I really tried hard to like this book, but in the end I just had to give in to the feeling that it was pseudo-intellectual histrionics. Just because something takes itself so seriously, doesn't mean it's serious. Some editions come with 'reading group' guides printed in the back of them, to ensure further that the painfully obvious symbolism isn't missed. Nuff said.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
too lyrical, wild and larmoyant
Having read eight or nine of his books, this is my least favorite novel. It was his fifth, a true challenge after becoming a millionaire with his fourth,`The French Testament',... Read more
Published 4 months ago by P. A. Doornbos
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing.
Makine is an extraordinary writer with many wonderful gifts and great accomplishments. In this book, however, the gifts seem to be wasted--or at least used for dubious effect. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2003 by Mary Whipple
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