Here is May's selection for the Firewheel Mall Barnes and Noble Mystery Reading Group - Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was mostly set in the USSR but seemed to end in the USA. I know the book was made into a movie but I have not seen it. As I read it I had a hard time visualizing the movie that was made from it. I think part of the reason is because it was set in the USSR and Chief Inspector Renko was a mystery to me as well. Here was an inspector who had his own share of problems. He had problems in his personal life and problems with his professional life. Hey ..., believe it or not, the Russian was the good guy and the American (Osborne) was a bad guy.
Speaking of problems, it seems they are universal. They are not just American problems. Even back at the time of the book, they were having problems with the changing in the balance of ethnicity in Russia. And just like the USA, they were having problems with bigotry.
But the book also focused on some of the differences - the wealth of the USA. There was a noticeable difference between the number of cars in the USA and the number in Russia. The standard of living was different as well.
This is short and our discussion group was small this month. Part of the comments were that the book was hard to read. We did our usual vote and there were three thumbs up, two thumbs down, and two abstains.
2 comments:
I've read this one and I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me struggling with it. As always, enjoyed your review!
Yeah JJ ... it was a struggle to read. I guess another reason it was a struggle was because Russia - the primary location and culture of the story was foreign to me.
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