Currently Reading Russka : The Novel of Russia By EDWARD RUTHERFURD see related

RUSSKA is alright--lovely descriptions of the Russian land, which I had never read about before.  Also, good overall picture of cultural transformations due to invading societies and religious conversions.  But the "storyline" itself is a bit too choppy, jumping several hundred years between chapters. 

So far, I like the chapter with Yanka. There was something so human in the way she internalized and rationalized her incestuous relationship with her father, and how she dealt with it. Not like the horrible condemnation and deep shame our society instills in such victims. 

Also wished to read more about Kiy and the marauding Scythians. In that chapter, I was so ready to see Kiy ride off with the Scythians to some great destiny--but no, the Alan returned Kiy to his mother.  I guess it's the small acts of grace that really make the wheels of the world turn (the majority of us do not experience a "great destiny")

Rutherford's SARUM was much more easier to follow, not only because I'm comfortable with the history of the British Isles, but because the story of the five families and their generations were more closely narrated, with skipping over only a couple generations or so to the next historical period.  Fascinating to imagine the rise and fall of family fortunes, sometimes through one's own undoing, or more often through external political machinations.  Often both. 

Anyway, I'm still gratified to be reading RUSSKA, because I have Ukranian, Romanian and Russian roots in my family forest--at least 4 generations ago, the Jewish tree in my family forest was uprooted and transplanted to America and Canada. Because of the pogroms. Sad stuff. Most of the men did not make it out of there.  None of their children (my grandparents & great-grandparents) would talk about it, so today, my family doesnt know much. 

Eventually, I'll finish RUSSKA, even if it's one of the rare novels I've picked up that doesn't glue itself to my nose. 

(Novels-That-Glue-Themselves-to-My-Nose would include THE POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courtenay, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden, THE BLUE CASTLE by L.M. Montgomery, and not to forget, the recent THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown, plus many more!)