Lady of the Snakes

by Rachel Pastan

Book Overview

Jane Levitsky is a bright light in the field of nineteenth-century Russian literature, making her name as an expert on the novels of Grigory Karkov and the diaries of his wife, the long-suffering Masha Karkova. Jane is also wife to sweet, reasonable Billy and mother to lovable (if demanding) Maisie, roles she's finding surprisingly challenging to juggle along with her ambitions. But when Jane uncovers evidence that Masha may have been more than...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156035057
• ISBN13: 9780156035057
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Involving Read

I really enjoyed this book. I love the way the author shows Jane's involvement with her career and her family and how she has trouble separating the two. I loved how the author includes passages from Karkov's and Karkova's writings, how she shows the difficulties of Jane's first year as a college professor, and how Jane must solve the mystery of Karkov and Karkova's relationship at the same time she and her husband struggle to hold theirs together. Overall, a very satisfying read.

What a wonderful find!

Thank you to NPR for putting this book on its summer reading list! Lady of the Snakes aptly portrayed the daily struggles of life for a young mother and wife, Jane, struggling to find balance in a world that provides little support for working women. Jane is an assistant professor with a young daughter, her husband in law school full time. Throughout the book, Jane is on a constant mission to make a name for herself within her department, find quality childcare for her young child, be a good wife, mother and friend, and some how find happiness with her chosen path in life. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "Too many things that were supposed to be indications of success feeling like burdens," spoken by a secondary character, a woman who after three children decided to leave tenure at a university when it was clear she would never find balance in her life. Pastan created a realistic scenario where no one is the winner, a genuine world where any one of us could easily play the main character. Well done - a great read!

Terrific Read

Rachel Pastan's Lady of the Snakes is a really terrific read, just a delightful way to spend a few hours. The novel opens as Jane Levitsky, a Russian literature Ph.D. candidate is about to give birth and is focused on the life of another woman, Masha Karkova, the wife of a fictional Russian novelist. Her thoughts lead to comment to a friend, which in turn send her in search of the truth about Masha, her husband, his novels and her journals. Jane has to balance the life of a (working) scholar with that of a wife and mother. The truth she seeks manages to disrupt both her professional and her personal life and she struggles for the balance that most working mom's grapple with. Jane is a sympathetic protagonist, not perfect. One of her experiences that was spot on was her search for child care for her daughter. Pastan captures that dilemma and the hypocricies surrounding it perfectly. I really enjoyed this novel--a sort of Possession-lite. I've seen it referred to as "literary chick lit", but I think the "chick lit" tag is a bit demeaning. The Lady of the Snakes is much more substantive than that genre. This is a really terrific read that I highly recommend. Enjoy!

Snake charmer -- Pastan's novel captivates head and heart

Usually I tear into a book but this time I felt like "Lady of the Snakes" devoured me and left me an extremely satisfied reader. As a motherhood writer myself, I've read hundreds of books about the tradeoffs between work and family that all mothers have to face. Since reading is part of my work, at this point in my life I am generally burned out about reading about motherhood, and have little patience for either dense literary fiction or fluffy "chick lit." Against that background, "Lady of the Snakes" was a wonderful treat. Incredibly honest about the everyday realities of a young academic juggling work and family, yet engrossing on the level of big questions; compulsively readable and convincingly literary at the same time. Rachel Pastan creates believable voices for both her modern heroine, Professor Jane Levitsky, and Jane's research subject, Russian countess Maria Karkova. (Quite an accomplishment given that Pastan had to create the excerpts of Karkova's journals and letters as well as the fictional 19th-century literary masterpieces of her husband Grigory Karkov.) The academic mystery/counterplot about Karkov and Karkova is involving even if you have no background in Russian literature. The relationships between Karkov and Karkova, Jane and Maria, Jane and her husband Billy, and Jane and her academic rivals avoid easy categorization, mirroring the complicated textures and ambivalence of real life. I was touched by Jane's honesty about the tug she felt toward her work even as she cared deeply for her young daughter. "Lady of the Snakes" would make an ideal book club selection. If you enjoyed Allegra Goodman's Intuition or A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance I highly recommend "Lady of the Snakes."

Frank and funny

This story, of Jane Levitsky, Russian literature scholar, wife and mother, hits all the bases for this working mother. Pastan writes beautifully about the way that ambition and the love of one's work (and its politics) can tangle up so drastically with the needs of children and spouse and domestic life. The literary mystery on which Jane stumbles provides additional dramatic heft: Pastan's Russian literary giant, Karkov, and his wife, Masha, are believable down to the "original" material of their journals and writings. Lady of the Snakes is a rare find.