The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall

This is the second of four books that I’ve read by Furnivall, and I think I’m done with her. I previously reviewed “The Jewel of St. Petersburg.” That was not Furnivall’s first novel, but it was written as a prequel to her epic saga, and it was a good book. It had been my intent to read books about Russia, but this first book which in time follows “Jewel” takes place in Junchow, which is presumably Shanghai. In “Jewell” Valentina escapes from the Bolsheviks with her daughter Lydia Ivanova, but in the process of their escape, the Bolsheviks murdered Valentina’s husband, Lydia’s father. Landing in Junchow, Valentina is able to support herself and her daughter in poverty conditions by occasionally playing the piano at big social events, but mostly by being a prostitute to some powerful men. She also becomes a hopeless alcoholic. Valentina and Lydia only avoid getting thrown into the streets from their hovel because little Lydia becomes an adept pickpocket. As Lydia grows into a young beauty, she scandalously falls in love with a Chinese man, Chang An Lo, who saves her from an attack on the streets. Not only is Valentina upset about her daughter’s choice of love objects, but the Chinese are appalled that one of their men is pursuing a white woman. No doubt, the prejudices were very real.

In this book, there’s a lot of information about the opium trade and the underground movement that supports and benefits from it. There’s interesting information about the famous international community of presumably Shanghai and the fortunes/misfortunes of the different nationalities there. But, mostly this was a love story of Lydia and Chang An Lo attempting to overcome impossible odds and great prejudices. As the story concludes, Lydia learns that her father was not murdered after all, but he has been imprisoned in a gulag in Siberia. That sets up the next book, “The Girl from Junchow.” But, I’m going to let that one get by me, even though it leads back to Russia. I’ve heard one of my sisters rave about this series, and the final book in the chronological sequence is “The Red Scarf” which is Furnviall’s most well known book. But, I’m over it, at least for now

The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall

The Jewel of St. Petersburg was written in 2010 as a prequel to Furnivall’s first and second novels, The Russian Concubine (2007) and The Red Scarf (2008), making this a trilogy about Lydia Ivanova Friss, and her parents, Valentina Ivanova and Jens Friss. The Jewel of St. Petersburg is set in tsarist Russia from 1910 through the revolution in 1917, and it depicts the class struggle which led to the emergency of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The setting is dramatic as the country is coming apart at the seams. Valentina is the heroin of this book as she chooses to defy her parents and pursue nursing rather than becoming a concert pianist as her noble class upbringing had intended. She also defied her father who expected her to marry a brutal military man. Rather, she pursued an engineer who was trying to improve the tunnels for the sewage system beneath the city. But, both Valentina and Jens were privileged and when the revolution came, they were both enemies of the new State, so they were forced to try to flee Russia, if only they could get out, along with 5-year-old Lydia.

Furnivall captured the incredibly chaotic mood of the times when Valentina was looking for Jens who had disappeared after he was captured and imprisoned by the Bolsheviks: “Valentina searched for Jens day and night for eight months. But people had vanished all over the city, friends and loved ones there one day and gone the next, so no one wanted to know, no one cared. They were all too frightened for themselves. Mobs roamed the streets, opened prisons, slaughtered police. They set fire to large houses at whim and torched a courthouse and the offices of the secret police. To Okhrana agents were hanged from lampposts in their turn. The city was ablaze with red banners and posters: DESTROY THE TYRANTS and VICTORY BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA.”

This is a period piece, which is what captured my interest, and I’m eager to finish the other two books in the trilogy. The characters are compelling and Furnivall did an excellent job setting off the well-meaning Friss family with bad guys from all levels of society. Victor Arkin was an excellent Bolshevik villain.