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'The Imperial Wife': Two strong women, separated by a century

'The Imperial Wife': Two strong women, separated by a century

When asked about my reading preferences, I always say that I read nonfiction to learn and fiction to get lost in a world. Of course, that’s false: sometimes nonfiction is enveloping and fiction teaches. The latter is the case with University of Pittsburgh professor Irina Reyn’s mesmerizing new novel, “The Imperial Wife.” Its dual storylines are each intriguing, while the novel skips easily between past and the present, leaving readers with more knowledge about Russia (imperial and present day), visual art, auction houses and the lives of the very rich. But its greatest accomplishment is making the inner lives of two fascinating women known.

The first is Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, the Prussian princess you may better know by her eventual name and title: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. In the book, we meet Sophie just before she is introduced to her fiancé, who will become Peter III. It’s a doomed match from the start, because Peter is an idiot, but Sophie tries to make the best of her situation.


"THE IMPERIAL WIFE"
By Irina Reyn
Thomas Dunne Books ($25.99).

Modern-day Tanya Kagan is in a similar pickle. She’s an up-and-coming auction house executive in Manhattan, with a specialty in Russian art. As she tries to placate potential buyers and prove the authenticity of Catherine the Great’s necklace for an important auction, Tanya is also dealing with a recalcitrant husband: Carl, a college professor and novelist. His novel’s topic? Catherine the Great.

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Ms. Reyn knows how ambitious women see the world and how the world sees them. Even more importantly, she knows how ambitious women see themselves, and her book is full of illuminating inner thoughts from both Catherine and Tanya. Both struggle to move forward. Catherine doesn’t want to accept that the purpose handed to her — to have royal babies — isn’t going to be the life she’ll lead, while Tanya begins to realize that the constant criticism she hears — that she wants to control everything — may have some merit.

That’s not to say that the novel is all navel-gazing by well-off Russian women. Ms. Reyn’s last novel, “What Happened to Anna K?,” updated Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to much acclaim. In this, her second novel, she again sets much of the action in New York and Russia, and there’s a great deal of fun to be had for readers in traveling through both time and place under her tutelage. I particularly loved Tanya’s travels to far-off islands to woo her very wealthy clients. And there’s a scene, set in Moscow, where Tanya is swept into a dance party by a group of friendly, very stylish younger women; I found myself wishing that the scene would go on and on.

That Tanya fits in everywhere can be a bit maddening. She finds flaws with herself, but there’s quite a bit of praise for her beauty and poise from others. That’s why the end of the novel, when she tries to settle things with Carl, is so satisfying. He sees and knows her, and doesn’t necessarily approve, although he loves her.

The end of Catherine’s story is well-known, or at least Google-able, but Ms. Reyn managed to keep the suspense in that section, too. And I don’t want to give away the ending, but the two plotlines end up doing more than simply mirror each other. They’re twined together, in a way that feels surprising, believable.

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In fact, that description serves as a good description of “The Imperial Wife.” There’s plenty here that seems wonderfully realistic, at least to this former Brooklynite, but plenty more that’s new. As a fast-paced novel, it’s a great read, but as a meditation on what it means to be woman, it’s transcendent.

Shannon Reed is a contributor to The New Yorker and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, with credits at The Washington Post, Buzzfeed and New York Magazine (shannonreed.org).

First Published: August 21, 2016, 4:00 a.m.

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