Pushkin & the Queen of Spades

Rating:
Summary: A mother's love
Review: After her controversial debut The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Gone With The Wind, Alice Randall is back on the literary front with PUSHKIN AND THE QUEEN OF SPADES, a work of art presenting deeper observations on race, classism, interracial relationships, motherhood, family, and love. Embedded in these themes are strands of humor, literary references, and a mother's love and frustration in protecting her son from the realities and cruelties of the world.

Windsor Armstrong is a professor of Russian literature and has named her son Pushkin X after Alexander Pushkin, the Afro-Russian poet and Malcolm X. She raised Pushkin with the hopes that he would one day follow in her footsteps, as an intellectual, not boxed in the same stereotypical class of many other black men. Unfortunately, Pushkin has his own ideas and goals in life. He excels in football, turns down a scholarship to Harvard, and eventually advances to the NFL, to the horror of Windsor. When he announces his marriage to a white Russian lap dancer, Windsor finds herself lost in a myriad of emotions.

"Pissed" would be the forefront emotion as she takes his announcement personally, wondering why he didn't choose a black woman, why he chose the life he lives, and how she can continue to love him, considering all of the issues she finds with him. Tossing back and forth from the past to the present, she relives her life, her troubles, pain, and happiness, as she creates a wedding gift for Pushkin -- a narrative of her life. Through the revelation of her disappointments, we're able to further understand her anger and the love she has for Pushkin. In addition, we're given a multifaceted view of her character and her past.

PUSHKIN AND THE QUEEN OF SPADES is an exploratory journey for Windsor as she searches for identity and reconciliation. It is at times moving, hilarious at others, but, nonetheless, adeptly addresses many concerns faced by parents. It is definitely a book to be read slowly, up close and afar, to catch exactly what's going on throughout the pages. It is an exciting look into contemporary fiction with a literary edge.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers


Rating:
Summary: A Great American Novel
Review: Alice Randall's Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, is, simply put, a great novel. Beginning with the hilarious double entendre of its title the book is rife with meaning and food for thought. The issues addressed in the book, our internal and external lives at the intersection of race and culture and the long term impact that our relations with our parents have on our own children are often discussed in solemn, ponderous and often overly contentious tones. Randall will have none of that. Rather, she embarks on a graceful, biting and often hilarious tour de force that should leave the reader laughing out load while at the same time soaking in the powerful ideas set out neatly inside the pearls of laughter. Mary Poppins once said a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down. In this instance a while lot of sugar and down right great writing helps open our minds to the sometimes provocative issues she sets out.

The story line itself is simple. Windsor Armstrong is an African American woman, graduate of Harvard, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the holder of a PhD in Russian literature. Her son Pushkin X is named after the great Russian poet and playwright, Alexander Pushkin (author of a famous book The Queen of Spades) whose own African ancestry formed the emotional basis of his work and life including his tragic death in a duel. Pushkin X has dashed Windsor's hopes that he would follow in his mother's academic career. He turned down Harvard and played football, at the University of Michigan. Even worse, Pushkin's football skills have resulted in his becoming a star in the NFL. The book's plot is revealed in the opening paragraph, perhaps one of the funniest opening paragraphs I have read in recent memory. Brief excerpts follow:

"Look what they done to my boy! . . . Fifty million people have watched him on a single Monday night. He has given a Russian girl a diamond ring. He means to get married. My son is a football player engaged to a Russian-born lap dancer, a girl named Tanya who danced at a club call Mons Venus. There is a God and he's punishing me. This much bad luck cannot happen by accident."

It soon becomes apparent that Pushkin X has withdrawn his mother's invitation to his wedding after she expresses opposition to the marriage and, more importantly, after she once again refuses to reveal the identity of Pushkin X's father, long a source of contention between mother and son. The rest of the book is devoted to Windsor's internal dialogue in the days leading up to the wedding. She touches on her early childhood in Detroit up to 1968 and the impact of her relationship with her father, whom she adored, and her mother, whom she did not adore, who took her away from Detroit and her father to D.C. They arrive in D.C. soon after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Despite her unhappiness in D.C. the city (and her mother) provides her with the opportunities that take her on her life's journey to Harvard, to Russia and a career as a scholar. Her internal dialogue continues. Like a river, her dialogue takes many twists and turns. Randall's words emerge as a beautiful stream of consciousness that leads us to many new and unexpected destinations. She is never boring and often profound. She is also funny and downright sassy at times as she embarks on riffs that touch on such diverse topics as her sex life, Malcolm X, `the souls of black folks', and writers such as Colson Whitehead and others. She touches on the meaning of being a mother and how the love of a mother (or father) for a child can bring more pain than we sometimes think we can endure. Simply put, in a context that Windsor Armstrong might enjoy - Curtis Mayfield may have had Windsor Armstrong in mind when he wrote the words "the woman's got soul".

The identity of Pushkin X's father and the nature of his conception gradually emerge as the book reaches it climax. That climax includes Windsor's wedding gift to Pushkin X - which gift is worth the price of the book standing alone.

In many respects the structure of Randall's dialogues are reminiscent of James Joyce's Ulysses. This is not to compare Randall to Joyce necessarily but I think it is no small compliment to the power of Randall's writing to even be thought of with Joyce in the same paragraph. As Christopher Hitchens once said about a writer once compared to Tolstoy, to be even compared to Tolstoy (or Joyce in this instance) is no small achievement even if one hasn't quite reach that stature (yet). I enjoyed the book tremendously and encourage anyone with an interest in good books to pick this up and read it. It is a book to be enjoyed and savored.

Rating:
Summary: A Great American Novel
Review: Alice Randall's Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, is, simply put, a great novel. Beginning with the hilarious double entendre of its title the book is rife with meaning and food for thought. The issues addressed in the book, our internal and external lives at the intersection of race and culture and the long term impact that our relations with our parents have on our own children are often discussed in solemn, ponderous and often overly contentious tones. Randall will have none of that. Rather, she embarks on a graceful, biting and often hilarious tour de force that should leave the reader laughing out load while at the same time soaking in the powerful ideas set out neatly inside the pearls of laughter. Mary Poppins once said a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down. In this instance a while lot of sugar and down right great writing helps open our minds to the sometimes provocative issues she sets out.

The story line itself is simple. Windsor Armstrong is an African American woman, graduate of Harvard, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the holder of a PhD in Russian literature. Her son Pushkin X is named after the great Russian poet and playwright, Alexander Pushkin (author of a famous book The Queen of Spades) whose own African ancestry formed the emotional basis of his work and life including his tragic death in a duel. Pushkin X has dashed Windsor's hopes that he would follow in his mother's academic career. He turned down Harvard and played football, at the University of Michigan. Even worse, Pushkin's football skills have resulted in his becoming a star in the NFL. The book's plot is revealed in the opening paragraph, perhaps one of the funniest opening paragraphs I have read in recent memory. Brief excerpts follow:

"Look what they done to my boy! . . . Fifty million people have watched him on a single Monday night. He has given a Russian girl a diamond ring. He means to get married. My son is a football player engaged to a Russian-born lap dancer, a girl named Tanya who danced at a club call Mons Venus. There is a God and he's punishing me. This much bad luck cannot happen by accident."

It soon becomes apparent that Pushkin X has withdrawn his mother's invitation to his wedding after she expresses opposition to the marriage and, more importantly, after she once again refuses to reveal the identity of Pushkin X's father, long a source of contention between mother and son. The rest of the book is devoted to Windsor's internal dialogue in the days leading up to the wedding. She touches on her early childhood in Detroit up to 1968 and the impact of her relationship with her father, whom she adored, and her mother, whom she did not adore, who took her away from Detroit and her father to D.C. They arrive in D.C. soon after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Despite her unhappiness in D.C. the city (and her mother) provides her with the opportunities that take her on her life's journey to Harvard, to Russia and a career as a scholar. Her internal dialogue continues. Like a river, her dialogue takes many twists and turns. Randall's words emerge as a beautiful stream of consciousness that leads us to many new and unexpected destinations. She is never boring and often profound. She is also funny and downright sassy at times as she embarks on riffs that touch on such diverse topics as her sex life, Malcolm X, 'the souls of black folks', and writers such as Colson Whitehead and others. She touches on the meaning of being a mother and how the love of a mother (or father) for a child can bring more pain than we sometimes think we can endure. Simply put, in a context that Windsor Armstrong might enjoy - Curtis Mayfield may have had Windsor Armstrong in mind when he wrote the words "the woman's got soul".

The identity of Pushkin X's father and the nature of his conception gradually emerge as the book reaches it climax. That climax includes Windsor's wedding gift to Pushkin X - which gift is worth the price of the book standing alone.

In many respects the structure of Randall's dialogues are reminiscent of James Joyce's Ulysses. This is not to compare Randall to Joyce necessarily but I think it is no small compliment to the power of Randall's writing to even be thought of with Joyce in the same paragraph. As Christopher Hitchens once said about a writer once compared to Tolstoy, to be even compared to Tolstoy (or Joyce in this instance) is no small achievement even if one hasn't quite reach that stature (yet). I enjoyed the book tremendously and encourage anyone with an interest in good books to pick this up and read it. It is a book to be enjoyed and savored.

Rating:
Summary: Top Draft Pick of 2004
Review: In Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Alice Randall mixes a spicy gumbo of Russian literature, Motown, and hip-hop that glides across the palate of the mind to rave culinary reviews. It's funky, hip, and sexy, yet sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and righteously poetic. When a Harvard-educated professor's football superstar son decides to marry a Russian lap dancer, her life becomes a retrospective of "where did I go wrong as a single black mother?" Windsor Armstrong thought she had raised her son, Pushkin X, to be a perfect reflection of herself: educated, erudite, and worldly, and sees his taste for the common as a direct rejection of everything she has ingrained in him, including her place in his life. Rather than retreat and wait for him to come to his senses, she writes a hip-hop elegy of epic proportions as a wedding gift in hopes of culling his forgiveness while desperately trying to respect his choices.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, thought provoking and entertaining
Review: Randall's latest novel, "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" covers a lot of territory. On one level, it's the story of a mother's love for her son and her attempt to protect him from a truth that she feels may crush him. Windsor and Pushkin X - mother and son - are the focal characters in the novel. When Windsor learns of her son's plans to marry a Russian lap dancer, she is forced to reckon with aspects of her past that she has tried desperately to forget. Not only must she find a way to accept her future white daughter-in-law, but she must also find a way to tell her son who his father is. Within this story line, the author demonstrates the current and historical complexities of black/white racial relationships.

On another level, the story examines class and culture conflicts within the African American community. Windsor comes from a family with "all of the vices except those that are unforgivable and none of the virtues except those that are absolutely necessary". It is within this context that Randall explores the difficulties that Windsor has with integrating all facets of her life after a legitimate shift in class and cultural status. ". . . Negroes who survive to thrive exhibit highly original adaptations to life", Windsor tells Pushkin X; and she adapts by compartmentalizing her life in an effort to keep the criminal and abusive aspects of her family background from bleeding into the highly intellectual and academic life she now has as a Russian studies professor at Vanderbilt University. Is it possible to jettison what was then for what is now? Is it necessary? I found this aspect of the novel comparable in many ways to my life experience and the author captures the character's psychological conflicts with apt clarity and clinical insight.

Then there's the literary relationship between the text of Randall's novel and the work of Alexander Pushkin. Although I wasn't familiar with Pushkin's work I had heard of him at some point during my academic career. What I don't recall hearing is that he is of African descent. This bit of knowledge did for me on a small scale what it did for Windsor enormously - it sparked an interest to know more about the African-Russian. It's because of Randall's work that I've recently read Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades", that I've read a little biographical information about the author and his work, and that I will read "The Negro of Peter the Great." There is nothing more beautiful, more powerful, than a novel that entertains, uplifts, and educates; "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" does all three.

And then there's the rhythm of the story, the beat. Poetic passages and skillfully crafted phrases reflect the author's command of language and knowledge of literary history. "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" is a monumental accomplishment. Randall packs the story with African-American history and tradition as well as literary creativity and complexity. You'll have to put your thinking hat on for this one but its well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, thought provoking and entertaining
Review: Randall's latest novel, "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" covers a lot of territory. On one level, it's the story of a mother's love for her son and her attempt to protect him from a truth that she feels may crush him. Windsor and Pushkin X - mother and son - are the focal characters in the novel. When Windsor learns of her son's plans to marry a Russian lap dancer, she is forced to reckon with aspects of her past that she has tried desperately to forget. Not only must she find a way to accept her future white daughter-in-law, but she must also find a way to tell her son who his father is. Within this story line, the author demonstrates the current and historical complexities of black/white racial relationships.

On another level, the story examines class and culture conflicts within the African American community. Windsor comes from a family with "all of the vices except those that are unforgivable and none of the virtues except those that are absolutely necessary". It is within this context that Randall explores the difficulties that Windsor has with integrating all facets of her life after a legitimate shift in class and cultural status. ". . . Negroes who survive to thrive exhibit highly original adaptations to life", Windsor tells Pushkin X; and she adapts by compartmentalizing her life in an effort to keep the criminal and abusive aspects of her family background from bleeding into the highly intellectual and academic life she now has as a Russian studies professor at Vanderbilt University. Is it possible to jettison what was then for what is now? Is it necessary? I found this aspect of the novel comparable in many ways to my life experience and the author captures the character's psychological conflicts with apt clarity and clinical insight.

Then there's the literary relationship between the text of Randall's novel and the work of Alexander Pushkin. Although I wasn't familiar with Pushkin's work I had heard of him at some point during my academic career. What I don't recall hearing is that he is of African descent. This bit of knowledge did for me on a small scale what it did for Windsor enormously - it sparked an interest to know more about the African-Russian. It's because of Randall's work that I've recently read Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades", that I've read a little biographical information about the author and his work, and that I will read "The Negro of Peter the Great." There is nothing more beautiful, more powerful, than a novel that entertains, uplifts, and educates; "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" does all three.

And then there's the rhythm of the story, the beat. Poetic passages and skillfully crafted phrases reflect the author's command of language and knowledge of literary history. "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" is a monumental accomplishment. Randall packs the story with African-American history and tradition as well as literary creativity and complexity. You'll have to put your thinking hat on for this one but its well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Blown away
Review: The author of Wind Done Gone has gone and done it. This book heads in a completely different direction than the previous controversial best-seller. And how ironic: The previous book's successful legal defense was that it was a "parody," yet not in the "parody-funny" sense. This book, while not a parody, is far more humorous than her first work. Indeed, while Randall's first book will likely be taught for years to come, this I believe should be treated as her "first novel." It has more of a voice that must surely be hers. It is both sweeping and fragmented, yet tightly and economically written. The characters are stunningly strange, yet perfectly suited for the roles they play in the book's fast-paced, page-turning plot. Randall has something for everyone in this book: Russian literature to NFL football to lap-dancers. And lots of great southern food. I'm already looking for a way to get to Nashville for a meal at one of the many restaurants that provide a backdrop for scenes in the book.