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| Publisher:
Triumvirate Publications |
| Release
Date: 2003 |
| ISBN:
0-9709975-5-8 |
| Awards:
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| Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
| Buy
it at Amazon |
| Read
an Excerpt |
| Genre:
Fiction and Literature - General |
| Reviewed:
2003 |
| Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
| Reviewer
Notes: Reviewer, Kristin Johnson, is the author of
CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING, co-written with Mimi Cummins.
Her third book, ORDINARY MIRACLES: My Incredible Spiritual,
Artistic and Scientific Journey, co-written with Sir Rupert
A.L. Perrin, M.D., will be published by PublishAmerica in 2004.
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Life
and Times of Ellemar Why
By Vladimir
Chernozemsky
You
think Iraq and Afghanistan have problems? Turkey in the 1950s is
in worse shape, waiting on the legendary savior, the Son of Ataturk,
a.k.a. Ellemar Coev, a.k.a. Ellemar Why, an actor aesthete who tends
not to honor his parents and instead shifts identities in time and
space until the reader is just as confused as poor Ellemar. Is he
the Son of Ataturk? Is he the brother of Lieutenant Alexy "Alyo"
Dreckov, or is Abbou Beckir, a pedophile sadist, Ellemar's brother?
And just who is Ally/Alyo, who Ellemar has adopted as a son? Turns
out he's Otto's brother. Otto is the son of Miglena, who masquerades
as a loyal spy to get Ellemar from Bulgaria to Turkey and into trouble.
The
book intends to be a Dostoevskyian James Bondian Don Quixote
meets Slaughterhouse Five meets Moon Over Parador,
but the difficulty of keeping the Ataturk lineage and the characters
straight complicates the morality tale of a poet struggling with
shifting identities, a sudden destiny and the ability to occupy
others' bodies at will. The characters should stop and ask Ellemar
why the plot can't be convoluted in a way that makes it comprehensible,
or why the author Vladimir Chernozemsky didn't hire a better editor.
There is an
intriguing "Twilight Zone" surreal quality to the book.
It's no more a novel about the long-lost heir to a country than
"Mulholland Drive" is a thriller. Both play with the mind
and test reader expectations. Both feature mistaken, shifting identities
and complex love affairs. Does Miglena really love Otto, her son?
Is she just a femme fatale? Are Ally and Otto lovers as well as
brothers, or is their intimacy just a pretense as they claim? Who
is Abbou Beckir, really, and whose side is Alyo Dreckov on? Did
Chernozemsky not include Rita Hayworth along with her husband Aga
Khan because he knew he couldn't top the images of her in "The
Shawshank Redemption"? Speaking of redemption, Ellemar's paternal
love for Ally and several at-risk boys saves the book, as does the
zippy dialogue that adds to the story's manic madness.
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