The House By The Dvina: A Russian Childhood (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
Page 225: I really do love the book. Is it b/c I appreciate what Oscar has destroyed? I do not think so! I promise - this is my last quote:"We spent several days in the convent..... In the refectory sttod long tables with stools placed around them. In the centre of the room, standing at a praying desk, a nun read passages from the Bible throughout the meal. The first course, I remember, was a rich fish soup known as "ukha", with pieces of the fuqh and potatoes floating in it. I might well have enjoyed it if it wasn't that each bowl had to be shared with three and more people. I didn't mind so much sharing the soup with my immediate neighbor, a fresh young nun, but facing me sat an old and not particularly clean-looking pilgrim, who dribbled and loudly smacked her lips...."That is it. I will not quote any more. I don't want to get in trouble with plagarism! I have NOT added any new pictures of the little rascal Oscar onto my profile photos. Page 222: You know I really love this book. Well dear little Oscar, my 3 mth old puppy pulled it off the desk and had lots of fun ripping it while I brushed my teetn! Actually I can continue to page 328 of 335. He destroyed the beginning and end of the book. I found the word EPILOGUE. Nothing else is readable of the last 7 pages. Hej, I tell myself I still can read from page 222 to 328 and IT IS ONLY A BOOK! So first I thought I will buy another one, but heck I have it in my head! Maybe somebody can fill me in on the last 7 pages.....Page 166: A quote that reveals the character of just one in this large, bizarrely wonderful family:"There was an enormous tiger-like cat whose amber eyes were intently fixed on the numerous squirrels that Uncle Sanya kept. These animals, with their bushy tails, leapt about the furniture, cracked hazelnuts laid out on the table, made little clicking noises and amused themselves by running up and down the walls, tearing off strips of paper."I am on page 154: I totally love this book. The writing is magnificent. It draws a picture of Russian landscape - the snow sparkles, the bells jingle, the horses' breath are warm on my skin. I would never want to see this as a movie; the pictures the author has drawn for me would be destroyed. The Russian character is vibrantly, poignantly and lovingly depicted. The people with all their charms and faults become real. I keep thinking I should quote some lines - but which do I pick? The ones that interestingly describe a troika, or the sleigh ride down the frozen river and around the island, all bundled up in furs or the kind woman who "no matter where she went or whom she met radiated warmth and affection". No matter what I quote you will not understand unless you read the book! And I think OMG this book, which nobody talks about, was just out there and I just happened to find it. What else am I missing! What luck that I found it. If you have any interest in Russia, read this book. And it NEVER drags. Just found this in a second hand book store; I was looking for Zemindar by Fitzgerald, which I didn't find! Anyhow this looks actually just as good! I rarely find what I come to look for.
A wonderful and evocatively written book, with great character development, it centers around two families and life in the early 1900s, World War 1 and the Russian Revolution. It tells the story of the author growing up in Archangel, Russia, in a loving, warm and rich-in-tradition family. It gives the reader an amazing insight into what Russia was like back then – the fun, laughter and gaiety associated with a rich and comfortable lifestyle – at least for the author’s family, both Russian and Scottish. An amazingly beautifully written autobiography with vividly painted descriptions of life as lived in the seasons by the River Dvina – one can actually feel the seasons – as spring awakes, giving way to the warmth of summer and the white nights, followed by the autumnal phase leading up to the dark and extreme blustery cold winters. Loved the pictures painted of the winter journeys and the holiday celebrations. The hardships and tragedies that followed were even more starkly felt juxtaposed against the earlier lifestyle. The author and her family and friends undergo extreme hardship, destruction and loss of life, and we experience every feeling of despair and hope -- along with all the characters. A beautiful book – one to read over and over again.
What do You think about The House By The Dvina: A Russian Childhood (1997)?
It spans 1879-1920, what it was like being a British emigre wife living in the Arctic of Tsarist Russia, Archangel. Lucky escape from the Bolsheviks at the end, and insight into how the old society confidently thought they would lose. Why did they make those rocky stagecoach rides and alarming sounding ice thaw river crossings? Seems a riskier culture than it needed to be, yet resourceful against the risks it took. At the Scottish end a local's simple yet hits you memory of the Tay Bridge disaster, he just saw the lights vanish. Her life flipped back and fore between Archangel and Dundee: it introduces you to a culture of travelling on freight ships, that hardly anyone is aware of now or how to arrange to do it.
—Maurice Frank
I can't say enough about this memoir. It has everything - an intense sense of place and time, an exotic locale, catastrophic events as well as detailed depictions of Russian culture (christenings, name days, Christmases, Easters, the food at these events, the way the household was run, etc.), also the comings and goings of a large extended family (with all their quirks and histories - in both Russia and Scotland) not to mention the household servants, and friends of the family.As if that weren't enough, Fraser writes with exquisite detail of the Russian landscape, the change of the seasons, and the river which figures in such a large way in all their lives. I was absolutely transported by her picture of winter afternoons spent flying along the frozen river in a horse-drawn sledge. The story of her Babushka as a young wife, very heavily pregnant, making a harrowing and lengthy journey by sledge, barely stopping and sometimes nearly frostbitten, to plead with the Tsar for her husband who had been sentenced to Siberia - also stellar, and only one of the many, many stories in this book.I loved it, I highly recommend it, I'd read it again. My thanks to Bettie who clued me in to it.
—Sylvester
