I actually agree on a lot of the points AnastasiaFan was making on the book. I can understand why some of those who may not like the book may be afraid to post their criticisms on the board, since the majority of people here seem to be big fans of it and those who aren't appear to be in the minority. I will admit, I was reluctant to post my criticisms of it as well because of this.
I reviewed the book earlier in this thread and posted my comments on it. I think it was a well-researched book and I don't regret buying it, but I can certainly understand rskkiya's disappointment with it, because I started reading it with very high expectations as well, based on all the raves I had read about it here. It is a massive work and the authors are to be commended for their research and effort, but, yes, a lot of it I had already read before, especially the parts dealing with the family's life before Ekaterinburg. The strongest part of the book for me was the detailed account of the family's daily life in the House of Special Purpose and the account of their executions. These things were actually new to me and I had not read them before in such detail. Like, for instance, that Maria tried to make friends with a guard, and that all the girls except Olga sometimes socialized with them. It was also a relief to read that their life in that house was not as horrific as it had previously been made out to be. The minutely detailed account of the executions is extremely moving and powerful, as you realize exactly the tremendous amount of agony experienced in those dying, chaotic minutes. It was also interesting to read the politics behind the decision of granting them sainthood.
So those were the good points for me. But to return to my original point, I have to stand up and admit that I agree with AnastasiaFan that, upon initially reading the book, it did seem kind of one-sided in that it mostly showed the negative side of the family. Alexandra especially came off to me as extremely arrogant and unlikeable. Nicholas was a cold-blooded anti-Semite and Alexei a spoiled brat. The only sympathetic characters were the four daugthers, and this is because they seemed to be victimized, first by their parents' neglect and later possibly by the guards. I am open-minded and agree that the family were not always the perfect angels they were made out to be, but I also think that if their negatives are to be pointed out, then one should explain the possible reasons behind them. Yes, Alexandra was not nice to the guards, but I can't blame her, given they represented those who had just ruined their lives. Yes, Nicholas was anti-Semitic, but that was a product of his upbringing and of the times, and from what I've read on this board, in his last years he had actually relented quite a bit and both he and his wife were willing to concede more rights to their Jewish subjects. Yes, Alexei was a spoiled brat, but that's not surprising given the fact that he was rarely disciplined, and as he matured he changed into a nicer person who was much more sympathetic to those in need. Despite this, I can understand as someone pointed out here previously, that perhaps the book pointed out the more negative aspects of these people because everyone else has already glowingly covered all of their positive ones. But I think if someone is reading this book as an introduction to the Romanovs, their perspective on the family may be skewed and unbalanced.
Anyway, those are further thoughts I had on this. I have mixed feelings about the book, I liked some things and didn't agree with others, but such is the nature of such a work. If others are not enraptured by the book, they should speak up as well, because it's O.K. Everyone has different opinions and not everyone has to like it, even when it seems everyone else does.
