The Madonnas of Leningrad
by Debra Dean, 2006, Harper Perennial, New York
This novel, about a woman who was a docent at the Hermatage during the seige of Leningrad, has a unique situation. The woman has Alzheimer’s in her later years and her family knows very little about her background and experiences during the war. Certain snippets of information leak out from time to time, but her family is not able to piece much of it together.
The premise of the novel is interesting and it captures some of the horrible conditions of the seige as well as the impacts of living with somebody with Alzheimer’s, but the author doesn’t quite fulfill its potential. The reader is left hanging at the end, hoping for more. Maybe this is the way it is with all of us when we die, but it is difficult to believe that her family would not have gleaned more about their mother in all the years they lived with her before Alzheimer’s set in.
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