Leviafan Book

I am a slow, really slow, reader but this book took me a day and a half. For someone faster, it may be a matter of hours. I suppose that's all recommending you need, but here is some more. Akunin -- recommended to me as "the best Russian novelist today" (except that he's Georgian) -- writes a really hilarious parody of Agatha Christie-type murder mysteries, notably a novel like "Murder on the Orient Express." What he "takes" from Christie is a confined luxurious setting (in his case, it's a large steamer), an international cast (they are all sorts of Europeans, one Japanese, one Indian, one African), and meticulous Hercule Poirot logic. However, Akunin deals with gross national stereotypes with magnificent irony and much of the humor comes from pitting the French against the English, everyone against the Japanese, with the Russian elegantly above them all. In the end, you get a very funny retro-contemporary image of the European Union and its debates (Germans excluded), various colonial stereotypes and all sorts of erroneous readings of "national character." The novel is set in 1870s, on a large steam ship sailing from Europe to India. Two detectives are competing for clues and solutions: one is Gustave Gauche, a clumsy ambitious Frenchmen, the other is Erast Fandorin, Akunin's steady sleuth, a handsome Russian who stammers, but wins almost all the ladies' hearts! What is absolutely brilliant about this murder mystery is the fact that: 1) you have all the clues to solve it yourself (unlike in Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle where new information suddenly pours in at the end, and oh, if you had only known...), 2) interpretations offered by the "expert" (Gauche) and the passengers are clearly wrong since they follow clues based on phrenology or physiognomy or national type. Not only is it a great detective novel but also a hilarious critique of the genre!