A carefully constructed and sparsely told novel, The Madonnas of Leningrad tells the story of the siege of Leningrad through the deteriorating mind of a woman who survived the war as a staff member hiding in the cellar of the Hermitage. Author Debra Dean tells a delirious story through flashbacks driven by Alzheimer's in the mind of Marina, an elderly survivor now living in the U.S. who has spent most of her life suppressing her memory of the terrible year she spent in the former palace that now holds some of the greatest artistic treasures in the world.
At the beginning of the invasion the art that had been housed at the Hermitage was boxed up and shipped away. As a promise that it would be returned one day, all the frames were left hanging empty on the walls. Marina survived the deprivation of the siege by memorizing the placement of every painting in the collection. She would spend her days walking through the museum placing the missing paintings back into their frames, building a "memory palace". As is often the case with Alzheimer's, Marina begins to return to this pivotal time in her life and wanders her "memory palace" while her grasp of her present continues to loosen.
At the beginning of the invasion the art that had been housed at the Hermitage was boxed up and shipped away. As a promise that it would be returned one day, all the frames were left hanging empty on the walls. Marina survived the deprivation of the siege by memorizing the placement of every painting in the collection. She would spend her days walking through the museum placing the missing paintings back into their frames, building a "memory palace". As is often the case with Alzheimer's, Marina begins to return to this pivotal time in her life and wanders her "memory palace" while her grasp of her present continues to loosen.
Dean uses Marina's mental state to construct a delirious dream state from which to conjure Marina's suppressed past and narrates a horrific tale elegantly. Readers experience the horror and sensations of famine, death, sex, cold and loss in great detail, but with poetry verging on magical realism:
No one weeps anymore, or if they do, it is over small things, inconsequential moments that catch them unprepared... What is heartbreaking is the sight of a single gull lifting effortlessly from a street lamp. Its wings unfurl like silk scarves against the mauve sky, and Marina hears the rustle of its feathers. What is heartbreaking is that there is still beauty in the world.
No one weeps anymore, or if they do, it is over small things, inconsequential moments that catch them unprepared... What is heartbreaking is the sight of a single gull lifting effortlessly from a street lamp. Its wings unfurl like silk scarves against the mauve sky, and Marina hears the rustle of its feathers. What is heartbreaking is that there is still beauty in the world.
This is not a simple narrative. It weaves in time and in voice, jumping unexpectedly from the perspective of Marina in war-torn Russia to the vantage point of her daughter Elena in the present day U.S. It is an excellent debut for a first time novelist.
Where Madonnas lacks is in the present. The modern world is a shallow structure designed to support the past and the characters feel thin. Over time, it develops on its own, but not enough to care much about. I felt myself wading through contemporary scenes in order to get back to the past. But the past is compelling enough and the present brief enough that the wait is short.
Where Madonnas lacks is in the present. The modern world is a shallow structure designed to support the past and the characters feel thin. Over time, it develops on its own, but not enough to care much about. I felt myself wading through contemporary scenes in order to get back to the past. But the past is compelling enough and the present brief enough that the wait is short.
The Madonnas of Leningrad shines a window into a side of the Second World War that many never know. It offers a fascinating insight into the 900 day siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as it reconstructs the worst winter of the St. Petersburg front in great detail. Though morbid, even heartbreaking at times, there are lessons to be learned through the eyes of Marina. She is able to build a world in her imagination that brightens reality and she experiences miracles both large and small that make the mundane radiate and give import to simple pleasures. As Marina takes a group of young soldiers through a tour of the empty Hermitage, something magical happens:
Ravishing splashes of color pour out of the darkness and resolve into images... The room is filling with women, with children, with saints and goddesses, and the boys are whispering among themselves. They point at the frames on the wall, at the paintings crowding the edges of the lamplight. The captain is weeping. He is staring at the wall, wiping at his eyes.
Marina has shared her memory with others, and her purpose has been fulfilled. It is an ironic twist of fate that it is her memory that will eventually undo her.
Ravishing splashes of color pour out of the darkness and resolve into images... The room is filling with women, with children, with saints and goddesses, and the boys are whispering among themselves. They point at the frames on the wall, at the paintings crowding the edges of the lamplight. The captain is weeping. He is staring at the wall, wiping at his eyes.
Marina has shared her memory with others, and her purpose has been fulfilled. It is an ironic twist of fate that it is her memory that will eventually undo her.
