The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean explores the memories and deteriorating mind of Marina, a Russian, who in her old age developed Alzheimer’s and must be cared for by her life long friend and husband Dmitri. Though Marina can’t always remember where she is or her family, she draws connections to her discombobulated present with her crystal clear past as a docent with the Hermitage Museum during the Siege of Leningrad. As the novel progresses, the flashbacks to her life during the Siege and experiences at the Museum piece together her present day life and family.
As a young girl, Marina’s parents were arrested and she was left in the hands of her Uncle Viktor, an archaeologist, and his wife. Together they lived with fellow Russians in a cellar taking cover from bombs, while sharing the small ration of bread they received. Though barely surviving off the limited food supply, Marina worked in the Museum each day packing up the art to keep it protected from the destruction of the bombs. She and another older woman, Anya, removed the paintings but left the empty frames on the wall. To keep from forgetting the information about the paintings they memorized their “Memory Palace.” Though the frames remained empty, they would quiz each other on the details of the paintings that once hung there. Who was the artist? What was the date of the painting? Who was depicted? What color was Madonna’s dress?
This memory palace was something that Marina held onto her entire life. Even while struggling to remember if she had already had breakfast, Marina was remembering the vivid details of a Diego Velazquez painting, and while she couldn’t remember which blue dress her husband wanted her to wear, she knew the details of the same colored dress that the Madonna wore in another painting.
The vivid details of the paintings held in the museum have that she had memorized remained with her, though her present mind is slowly slipping away. This novel contrasts the present struggle of Marina’s mind and the clear flashbacks of how she remembered her experiences of the Siege. Dean touches on how her struggles and family were connected by her love and memory of art during World War II.
-Sarah Clinton
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