dotinthesky | Head Over Heels

Boris Akunin, The Death of Achilles, 2005
Erast Fandorin's detective stories are my idea of perfect escapism. All the books are set in the later half of the 19th century - mostly in Russia - and feature a young, stuttering hero who is a mixture between Hercules Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. In this fourth book of the series, Fandorin returns to Russia in 1882 after years of adventure in Turkey and Japan. He brings with him a loyal, if stubborn, sidekick and manservant called Masa who provides the novel's comic relief. By coincidence, Fandorin's old friend and Russian hero, General Sobolev (the "Russian Achilles") drops dead in the hotel they are staying in. Fandorin is not convinced that such a young and strong military man would die from a heart attack; he promptly begins an investigation against the wishes of many powerful men, unravelling a web of intrigue that links the government with the most vicious criminals in Moscow's underworld.

What I admire about Akunin's writing is the ease in which he conjures atmosphere from a bygone age while at the same time dishing out a page-turner. 19th century Moscow comes alive effortlessly, with its aristocratic salons, its cabarets and expensive escorts, its political intrigue. If you wish to escape reality for a while, you can't go wrong with this novel or any of the ones preceding it.

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Plus, there are tons of neat art galleries, pubs, music venues, cheap cinemas... the list goes on and on. :-)

Where would one find some of these cheap cinemas? I've been to the big London galleries and such but I once I'm over here for good, I plan on exploring some of the smaller places. Whereabouts in the area do you live, if you don't mind me asking?

I live just south of Victoria Park. North of the Park there's a little "village" with cafes, restaurants, a bookshop, pubs - really worthwhile investigating. If you follow north the canal that runs by Victoria Park, you'll reach Broadway Road. On saturdays, Broadway market is the place to be for exotic foods, cheeses, coffee, second-hand clothes - really great mix of people!

On Bethnal Green road, there's the Rich Mix (just north of Brick Lane) which has cheap films. There's also the Genesis cinema on Whitechapel road (between Mile End and Whitechape station) which also has cheap films (well, cheaper than the ones downtown.) Then there's Hackney, a bus ride away from Mile End, with its Rio cinema (another cheapy.) For theatre, there's the Hackney Empire, and there's another theatre in Stratford (one or two stations east of Mile End) but I forget its name.

I could just go on and on... There's Columbia Road, north of Bethnal Green Road and Brick Lane, with its beautiful flower market on Sundays; there's Shoreditch, with its trendy bars and nightclubs (a growing yuppie area, unfortunately). AH! And there's the Palm Tree pub in Mile End Park (that will be quite near you), the best pub in the area. Saturdays, it has live jazz standards by old local folks who dress up for the occasion. In the summer, you can sit on the grass with your bear and watch the ducks on the canal. :-)

Brilliant, thank you so much! Going to save this so I can explore when I get back in the fall. May try to drag someone with me to explore the Broadway market tomorrow, or the flower market Sunday. I've been looking for a collection of flowers to photograph, that just might work. I'm just south of Victoria Park as well, on Roman Road. I'm liking it more and more thanks to all these new ideas.

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