ENCHANTMENTS by Kathryn Harrison (fic)

Katherine Harrison has written a number of books, all with interesting characters and settings.  This time she turned to the last days of the Russian Empire.  The story of the last Tsar and the end of the Romanov dynasty is familiar to us.  We know the Tsarina Alexandra became infatuated with the mad monk, Rasputin with his healing powers.  But, what I didn't know was that Rasputin was married and had three children. This is the fictional story of one of his children, loosely based on her fascinating life.

The story opens at Tsarskoe Selo, Catherine the Great's opulent winter palace (now a museum).  The royal family await their fate there. The heir to the throne, Prince Aloysha, is one of a number of decendents of Queen Victoria of England, who is afflicted with Hemophilia.  In a vain attempt to cure him, Tsarina Alexandra turns to Grigori Rasputin, a reputed healer and poor peasant from the steppes of Siberia.  Rasputin is slovenly, alcoholic, dirty, and magnetic. People of all classes are drawn to him by his intense eyes and reported sexual prowess.  Rumors abound about his influence over the Royal Family and strange relationship with the Tsarina.  As the situation becomes intolerable, a group of aristocrats get together and murder Rasputin.  This proves a difficult task; the drunken monk is poisoned with no result; they then stab him and still he struggles on; finally, in desperation they bundle him into a sack and toss him into the icy Neva.

Mourning and unconsolable, Alexandria summons Rasputin's daughters to the Palace, hoping one of them, Masha, has inherited her father's powers of healing.  Instead Masha becomes a friend and confidant to the lonely Prince.  As the restrictions intensify around the Romanovs, Masha in an effort to entertain Aloysha, begins to tell him fascinating stories which are the enchantments of the title.
The novel veers back and forth between Masha's life with her family and father, and that as witness to the final days of the Romanov family.

Harrison is an entertaining writer and her descriptions of the palaces and other prisons of the family ring authentic.  Her descriptive writing is at its best when describing the preparations and purification of the body of her father.  Masha and her father's Housekeeper/Mistress work together, wordlessly preparing the body for burial.

I wish Harrison had dwelt more on Masha's life after the murder of the Romanov's.  We know she escaped to Paris with an abusive husband, had two children, became a circus performer, eventually an American citizen, wrote a memoir and married a second time.  She had quite a life.

 The weakest part of the book for me was her relationship with Prince Aloysha and the non-development of any of the Romanov sisters.  Still, it is an entertaining read and a different take on the tragedy of the Russian Royal Family.