Ekaterina

by Donald Harington

Book Overview

Ekaterina has just arrived in an unnamed city at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela with a pasteboard suitcase, a kerchief that covers her lack of hair, and little more than a rudimentary... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156000474
• ISBN13: 9780156000475
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

rich in entertainment

You may object to the subject matter (a young woman who lusts after 12 year-old boys), but this was a very satisfying, very complete novel. It is rich in content, varied in plot and environment, and even though some of the events are pretty implausible, they are tackled with such grace and command that you willingly suspend disbelief for the sake of the story. I highly recommend this absorbing novel, with a most surprising ending. Donald Harington, RIP, tremendous author. Check out The Cherry Pit as well.

Blink Your Eyes

This is a wonderful and fascinating book. I live just a few miles away from the real 'Arcata Springs' and 'Fateville', and have visited the 'Halfmoon' dozens of times. I have even met the author at the 'Halfmoon' before. I urge you to read this book.

Great novel by a great author

I love Donald Harington! He is a great writer. He can make even a ghost seem sad and funny and full of life (ha ha). Seriously, this story mixes a sketchy heroine, a sketchy innocent young boy, and one of my favorite epic journeys home to Stay More. Almost every Harington novel has one, a journey home, a long description of the town and the mountains and what makes even a ghost-town feel like where you belong. That the heroine feels this way having never been before makes it all the more magical and inspiring. I think this is a redemptive tale, it's just hard to see at times. In his beautiful way, he makes even the worst offenders at home in his magical redneck world. There are characters like these in my small town, and I think underneath the "Lolita" homage is a real look at this part of small-town life in the Ozarks.

A fabulous book

I only came across this book after reading Nabakov's 'Lolita'. And I have to say that if any of you are contemplating reading 'Ekaterina' you'd be rewarded if you read 'Lolita' first (preferably the 'Annotated Lolita' edited by Alfred Appel Jr). One similarity between 'Lolita' and 'Ekaterina' is obvious - the disturbing theme of pedophilia. But there are so many other parallels. One in particular is the examination of authorial intrusion. In 'Lolita', Nabakov allows himself surreptitious peeps and circumlocutions as if from behind the stage of a puppet theater. And to the intelligent reader he lets it be known that he is the puppet master and that his novel is not a slice of "reality" but a work of fiction. Similarly (but, it must be said, less subtly) Harington's manipulation of his characters implies an authorial presence at all times. Harington examines the roll of the artist as God right from the start by using the second person narrative technique. This is a technique that I have rarely come across but Harington uses it expertly.For those of you who like reading complex novels filled with self-reflexion, intertextuality, and jokes aimed at publishers then this is a novel for you!Highly recommended.

Wonderful evocation of an immigrant in a rural tourist town

Donald Harington remains the best uncelebrated author in America. "Ekaterina," set in a thinly disguised Eureka Springs, Arkansas, at a majestic old hotel (with a creepy history), is story telling at its best. The details are perfect; if you've read any of Harington's previous novels, you are richly rewarded. If you haven't, you are not harmed in the telling of the story but you will want to read the others when you've finished. This will be a book you not only enjoy but you will want to turn others onto. I once collected an autograph from a favorite famous author, William Styron, who told me, in our too-brief conversation, that Harington is one of his favorite authors. Read "Ekaterina" and you will see why.