The Hunted Book

First things first: This book took a really long time to get started. For the first hundred pages or so, I felt like I was in the middle of a history lesson, just being filled in on background information on both the situation in Russia and on Alex himself. I will be the first to admit the history lesson is sorely needed, and I'm exactly the type of reader who necessitates it. For better or for worse, I know very little about the situation in Russia in the early '90s. I was a kid at the time, and not exactly up on my world politics. That I haven't learned more about it since then is my own fault, and the major reason for the long explanatory passages near the beginning of the book. The issue is, though, that they are very long, and it took about half the book before I felt like things were finally starting to happen. Is there a happy medium to be had here, where the background information I need to follow the political story is given without such a slow start? I honestly can't say. I can say, though, that were it not for the sake of reviewing, I would never have finished the book. Sometime during the first half of the book, I would have given up on the thing.

Once the plot finally picks up, it turns into an interesting tale, but never gets away from telling me what's going on instead of showing me. Significant plot points were often summarized for me, or emotions would be given to me as a flat statement rather than displayed in voice or body language. As a result, although I found the twisty politics interesting, there was always a disconnect which prevented my relating to any of the characters the way I'd like to. Certainly there was no immersion into the world of the novel.

It's clear Haig is very fond of Alex and Elena, and the two of them never come across as anything but heroic. The banter between the two of them and the depictions of their marriage, even in the middle of everything they went through are wonderful and warm, and by far my favourite parts of the book.

Sadly, a number of other characters are randomly dropped from the book after having been introduced as significant secondary players. In fact, some of what I considered the most interesting characters just disappear with no resolution, which means turning the last page leaves me thinking "...but what happened to so-and-so?" I WILL NEVER KNOW.

Even more tragic, every character who is not white is portrayed as a gang member, with the exception of a single black courtroom judge. Granted, most of the major players are Russian, and the white folks have more than their fair share of villains, but when "blacks and spanish" translates to "violent petty thugs" every single time they're mentioned, we have a problem. A serious one.

The prose is often awkward and unnatural, spelling things out for the reader far more than necessary and often repeating itself. Take a look:

"Barely paying attention, he now was looking over her shoulder at a man who had just swaggered through the entrance. Six leggy women of identical height and approximate weight and anorexic build were hanging off his arms, all with their hair died [sic] bright red, all dressed in identical red evening gowns. He thought at first he was seeing double, or triple, and it was time to cut back on the hooch. What a glorious time to be ridiculously rich and Russian."
Sure, the passage is out of context, but when the entire book is written like this, well, I think it gives you a pretty good idea of what the writing is like. There are some good ideas in there, but the awkward use of language is barring them from really getting free.

Which is actually a pretty good analogy for the book. Some fun ideas, but with the stop-and-start pacing and the constant summarizing of important plot points, those ideas got obscured pretty quickly for me.

What really struck me as interesting is that The Hunted is based on a true story. Which, uh, has already been told in non-fiction books, including one written by Alex Konanykhin himself, as a memoir entitled Defiance. Which leads me to wonder... why fictionalize a true story that's already been told? I might as well just pick up the memoir and hear the tale straight from the source, you know?