The Tattered Cloak & Other Novels

Just completed The Tattered Cloak and I will say that I was quite a fan.

Inside are six short stories about various Russian characters who are either going from Russia to Paris, or are already there, or are leaving to somewhere else; they all take place between 1920s and the 40s, and no, World War II is not the main focus. Instead, they all, more, or less, focus on the hardships of survival in general, either because of change in culture, or because of forced change of personal events in finance and relationships.

I enjoyed the various tones of the book as a whole, where for a few of the stories you get that huge sense of continual despair of, again, surviving and not necessarily thriving, but in most of the stories, like The Resurrection of Mozart, Astashev in Paris, The Black Pestilence, and The Memory of Schliemann, that sense of dread is only an undertone where I saw more positivity for life. I also enjoyed the variance of everyone’s fears and darkness; it made for a well-rounded book with just enough differences to make it not boring and repetitive.

There were three that really stuck out for me: The Waiter and the Slut, The Tattered Cloak, and The Black Pestilence. The Waiter and the Slut is a good reminder about those certain people you might come across in life who just plain use people. She is a prime example of someone who manipulates the situation to have it play out in their favor; I do not know why, but seeing her become more and more desperate to survive via the arm of a wealthy man only to knowingly use someone of little means gave me such a good feeling of “serves you right” which a dab of cringe. The Tattered Cloak was a good situation where, for me, it was not so much from a relational standpoint, but more of a social one. I was totally rooting for Sasha in every way as she grew up, even if for the longest time she just really struggled with truly interacting with people. It was nice to see her shed layers to stop being numb. The Black Pestilence is a story I think a lot of people can relate to. Evgenii seems like a wonderful human being, and he gives off a good front to cover up relational pain. The need to run away to someplace new in reaction to events in life that you want to shut the door on is natural and there is nothing wrong with running away. We all need it every now and then.

I would recommend The Tattered Cloak and Other Novels. I feel like this is something I could read again and discuss with someone if we were wanting to be depressed and emo for awhile. I mean, this is turn of the century Russian literature, so the content is going to be heavy, so be prepared for that. This is just not so much in your face about it; perhaps this is the difference between female and male authors in this genre [??].

Either way, if you are interested in The Tattered Cloak, you can find it here.

10/10