I found myself a little lost in the timeline of the stories as they unfolded.

If you are a fan of Russian history and art, you may really enjoy all of the peripheral information offered up in his book. The main character Alexander takes many side trips into examples of authors, poets, composers as well as members of the aristocracy. My familiarity is limited to Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, and Anna Karenina. Other references leave me feeling wholly inadequate. The story itself is interesting, but very hard to pick out of the additional bits that I found myself skipping over.

somewhat dark and graphic, the idea was interesting and thought provoking