about a book

jaclynday:

What I’ve Read: The True Memoirs of Little K: A Novel by Adrienne Sharp

The True Memoirs of Little K is the first-person, faux-memoirs of Mathilde Kschessinska, a prima ballerina who danced for the Russian court in the final years before the Romanov empire was dissolved. Based on real events (and some real people), Sharp’s characterization of Mathilde (nicknamed “Little K”) gives this mostly imagined novel the feeling of actual memoirs.

Without giving too much away, Mathilde’s memoirs follow her career in ballet, to her becoming the mistress to a prominent figure in the Russian court to the mother of a son she nearly loses to the Russian imperial family first, and later, to violent revolutionaries.

It’s a beautifully-written book, with a fascinating and believable portrayal of what Mathilde’s life must have been like. (Her ballet career, upper-crust lifestyle, exploits and lovers are all documented in these faux-memoirs!)

This book is not a book about ballet, although there are several asides about various ballets and ballet terms that may satisfy you if you want to read this book for that purpose. But, this book is really about the Russian revolution—told through Sharp’s envisioning of what Mathilde may have heard, seen and experienced, of course.

If you want to read a nonfiction account of Mathilde’s life, try Imperial Dancer by Coryne Hall. I haven’t read it, but do intend to after reading this fictionalized version of her life!