Fellow Travelers
A Novel
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- 7,99 €
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- 7,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
Fellow Travelers is the story of the women in the brothers lives: Katya, the peasant girl Victor rescues from the streets of Moscow; Tania, the communist party functionary who eventually becomes his wife; and Yelena, the singer and cabaret entertainer Manny marries and ultimately destroys. Though the story centers on the rivalry between the two brothers, it also reflects the ambitions of their father, a millionaire co-founder of the American Communist Party; his suffragist wife Eva; and Eva’s son Eddie, a professional labor organizer and committed defender of workers’ rights. Spread across 50 years of history, the scene ranges from the mining camps of Siberia to the opulent mansions of post-revolutionary Moscow, from the political turmoil of New York in the early years of the century to the corporate affluence of postwar America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spanning 60 years, Cook's exposition-heavy first novel begins in 1922, when brash New Yorker Manny Faust persuades his pliant younger brother, 19-year-old Victor, to quit college, abandon his dreams of acting and join him in a new business in the fledgling Soviet Union. Victor complies, establishing a pattern of submission and complacency that will haunt him throughout this heavy-handed saga. In Russia, the brothers revive a failing platinum mine, foray into money laundering and launch a shady import-export operation. Victor has a good head for business, and grotesquely ambitious Manny consistently exploits that talent--first in Moscow and, later, back in the States, where the Fausts return after Stalin assumes power. With his eventual leadership of Pacific Petroleum, and his substantial art collection, Manny is clearly modeled after Occidental Petroleum's Armand Hammer (who did, in fact, have a younger brother named Victor). Given recent revelations about Hammer and espionage, the parallel might have yielded rich plot twists, but Cook's awkward prose fails to enliven even the myriad love episodes. Victor is a tedious narrator who frequently, and frustratingly, loses track of his story: describing his daughters' childhoods, he writes, "And yet, as with so much from those days, I can't quite remember them. The outline is there, but the emotion I felt remains invisible." There are some satisfying, if obvious, scenes showing the futility of a utopian society: in Russia, as elsewhere, people lust for money and power. But this is an oddly sterile novel. Notwithstanding the heavy-handed symbolism of the name "Faust," there's none of the implied battle between good and evil. The outline is there, but the emotions remain invisible.
