Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Ever since this book started appearing on the bookblogs early this year, I have had my eye on Child 44. This only increased once it made it to the longlist of the Booker Prize and got quite a lot of criticism for that. Reviews have been very mixed, ranging from great to ‘This book sucks!’ and everything in between, making things even more interesting. Then, a few months ago, I won a copy of Child 44 in a giveaway at Kirsty’s blog Other Stories. Her own review was at the negative side of the scales: She didn’t even finish the book.

Initially, it was the premise of the book that got me interested. Child 44 is a thriller/detective set in 1953 in the Soviet-Union, at the end of the Stalin-era. Secret service officer Leo Demidov becomes involved in the murder of a child, who was found dead near a Moscow train track with dirt stuffed in his mouth and his stomach cut out and missing. When Demidov is demoted and transferred to a town hundreds of kilometers away from Moscow in the Ural mountains, he finds out that in that town as well two children have recently been found murdered in exactly the same way. This is too much of a coincidence in a country where crime is officially non-existent – the authorities want the population to believe that crime is something that happens in the capitalist world, not in their communist country. Formerly a loyal servant to the state, Demidov decides to get to the bottom of this at whatever cost.

I did finish Child 44, but honestly, I was not that impressed by the book. I am not sure at all why it ended up on the Booker longlist. I was not at all convinced by the setting or the characters and there were too many fortunate coincidences, loose ends, somewhat unlikely Russian names and, to top it all off, grammatical errors (a then/than one made me absolutely cringe) and missing words.

I mentioned in my review of Russka, that I have come across very, very few (if any) non-Russian/Western writers who successfully pull off writing fiction set in the Soviet era and especially who get people’s mindset and the atmosphere right. Russka initially made me think about this and following that up with Child 44 kept the subject in my mind. In retrospect, compared to Child 44, Rutherfurd did an excellent job with the characters in Russka. I have been thinking a lot about how to explain this and I am not sure I even get close to putting it into words the right way, it is something of a hunch, something that doesn’t sit right with me while reading a book.

For me, Leo Demidov (Leo, by the way, is not a Russian name, the Russian version of Leo is Lev. I don’t really understand why Smith didn’t call his main character just that, it isn’t that difficult a name for English speakers) was essentially too un-Russian in his way of thinking. I was not convinced by his character, why he would all of a sudden change from a loyal and unquestioning servant to the state and employee of the MGB (the secret service), arresting and interrogating people assuming their guilt beforehand to a questioning, critical, doubting, initiative-taking guy with a conscience. If he was like that before, then how on earth would he have ended up working for the MGB in the first place? Why would he want to work there and why would the MGB have accepted him if there was even the slightest doubt about his views?

Demidov is sort of upset when he realizes that the subject in the case he is working on, Brodsky, is innocent (this happens early on in the book and is not a spoiler, also because it has nothing to do with the child murders as such), but if he has been arresting people before as part of his job, why would Demidov all of a sudden be surprised or even care? I found his reaction to Brodsky’s interrogation and execution somewhat strange. At the same time Demidov has no scruples having his wife Raisa tagged when he suspects her of adultery, so his conscience has its limits.

I was interested in how Raisa and Leo’s relationship would develop once they were sent to Voualsk, the small town in the Ural mountains, and once the “foundation” of their marriage disappears. Unfortunately, there too there were changes that were somewhat unlikely or remained unexplained. This would have been a storyline that could have been much better developed in my opinion, but then again: that would make the book a different kind of story altogether, not a thriller.

The story is set around the time of the death of Stalin in March 1953. Right before he died, Stalin had started up a new campaign known as the Doctors’ Plot, mainly targeted at Jews. I would assume that this would have its influence on Demidov’s work for the MGB, increased activity, etc. But nowhere in the book does this show. Neither does the death of Stalin show, other than in the page and a half when Demidov and his wife Raisa are attending the grieving for Stalin. From what I know of that period, I would expect that the influence of Stalin’s death on the people would be much larger. As it is, including this event doesn’t add anything to the story, it could have been set almost at any time during the Stalin era. Another thing I found missing in the book was fear, fear of being arrested, of being overheard, etc. From what I know, fear was fairly prominent in society at that time. It is mentioned in the book, but it is there somewhere in the background, if at all. All in all, I found that the setting of Stalin’s final days didn’t add that much to the story. Too bad, because I think that could also have played a bigger part in the story, in creating atmosphere.

The first 250 or so pages were fairly slow reading. I only read a chapter or so before putting the book away again, mostly being annoyed at the unconvincing setting and characters. I don’t know, maybe I was too critical, too nit-picking. Then, from the moment the reader finds out who the murderer is, I raced through the last two hundred pages in one evening. Not because the story all of a sudden became really, really good, but because the pace picked up, things got more interesting and possibly just because I temporarily suspended my disbelief or at least didn’t let it take over like before.

I think that the very bare premise of the book has potential (it is inspired by real events) and Smith’s writing as such is very readable and engaging, but the book has too many loose ends, unlikely twists and developments, unconvincing characters and setting for my taste. I don’t know, maybe it has (once again) to do with my knowledge of this part of the world. If you don’t have that baggage, maybe reading this book is different and more convincing, I don’t know. In many ways Child 44 feels like a missed opportunity, because the premise really is not bad. I cannot help but wonder what the book would be had it been written by a Russian writer.

The list of books that helped him in his research Smith gives at the end of the book is interesting and I definitely want to read some more of those books. Some I have read already, some are on my wishlist already, some are new to me.

Here is a list of other reviews. If I have missed yours, leave a link in the comments and I will add it.
Asylum
Dovegreyreader
Booklit
Other Stories
An adventure in reading
The Mookse and the Gripes