Edward Docx

I love books that have the ability to suck you into its pages. I started reading The Calligrapher and before I knew it 75 pages were devoured before I next looked up.
Onto the plot: Jasper Jackson is a classy cad. He knows his wine. He knows his fish. He knows fashion. He knows his classical tunes. As a professional calligrapher, he knows the poetry of John Donne intimately. He also cheats on women who are already labeled "the other woman." He can't have a monogamous relationship to save his life...until he meets gorgeous-girl Madeleine. She is everything he has ever wanted in a partner: smart, funny, sarcastic, gone from home a lot as a travel writer, and of course, so beautiful everyone stops to stare wherever she goes. Miss Perfect. Jackson is willing to give up every other fling and sexual conquest for this girl. He has met his match in Maddy. He even takes her to meet his grandmother. No other woman has had the honor. Unfortunately, the other broken hearts Jasper has trampled on to get to Madeleine just won't go away. He needs to deal with those messes before he can come clean. But. Is it too late?… (more)

After receiving a very distressing phone call from his mother who lives in St Petersburg, Gabriel Glover travels from his home in London to Russia. When he arrives, he finds his mother dead in her apartment. Gabrielle calls his twin sister, Isabelle, who comes from New York to help him. Together, the twins arrange their mother's funeral without contacting their father, Nicholas, a manipulative, licentious bully.....
So begins PRAVDA, in which Edward Docx has distilled the classic Russian novel to its essence.
Each chapter is devoted to one character's point of view and the narrative twists and turns through past and present, through secrets, betrayals and lies to the final truth.
Docx's rich, descriptive prose makes PRAVDA a powerful,moving experience.… (more)

I picked up this book based on the Russian title - "pravda" means "truth" in Russian. Some of the "truth" started emerging early in the book, but the most shocking part is revealed in the last pages.

I have never heard of the author but was intrigued. The book was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. To say that this is a very insightful book about a dysfunctional family is to say very little. It is much more than that. A story of agony and turmoil. With a lot of subthemes. In describing books, we often talk about "developed" or "not so developed" characters. Well, I felt that this author actually lived through his characters, every one of them.

The writing style at first appears a bit pretentious but then it grows on you, and in the end I can only call it very eloquent. At times, even too wordy - the author has the tendency of enhancing on the description by adding on to it in subsequent sentences, each one with a slightly different shade (here is the most succinct example of it: "... a wearer of grievance, a bearer of grudge").

All in all, I was quite taken with the writing - it was Mr. Docx's second book but it felt as if I were reading a seasoned writer. I also felt a little influence of Dostoevsky here. The story unravels slowly, as if peeling off the layers of the plot, and in the end there is quite an unexpected surprise. I must also mention his superb (if highly ironic!) description of conservatives and liberals in England (or it can be applied to any place) and his intriguingly sound take on Russian character. I was impressed with the author's knowledge of Russian words, all except one name (Artyom), spelled correctly, which, sadly, is not the case with all novels using Russian phraseology.… (more)