The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Cape of Storms by Nina BerberovaMichael Pinker
Nina Berberova. Cape of Storms. Trans. Marian Schwartz. New Directions, 1999. 256 pp. $23.95.
Does the original name of the Cape of Good Hope explain early failures to sail around it? A different storm that cannot be circumnavigated envelops three half-sisters living with their exiled father, Tiagin, and his second wife, Liubov Ivanovna, in Paris between the wars. How did they miss this coming storm? What of their own good hopes?
The mother of the eldest half-sister, Dasha, is raped and murdered during the Russian Revolution, the child rescued by her mother’s lover. Dasha harbors an inward assurance, a preternatural harmony connected with the power to cure. Years later, on vacation in France, an inspired Dasha heals and nearly falls for Jan Ladd, lover of her half-sister Sonia, Tiagin’s daughter by Liubov Ivanovna. Fortunately, Dasha discovers her mistake in time. Will she always be so lucky?
Sonia herself probes fate in a journal. Has writing a dissertation prepared her to determine her own harmony? Sonia’s beauty attracts men with whom she dallies, men who attract her half-sisters under different circumstances. Distant and hostile, Sonia appears bent on eradicating all hope. Even penetrating brilliance cannot get Sonia around herself.
Illegitimate Zai travels from Russia with a middle-aged guardian angel. She moves into Dasha’s room, struggling to suppress misgivings. A poet, then an actress, her affections alight with startling vehemence. Zai embraces Jean-Guy, then loses interest. Her latest enthusiasm is reading.
The women start drifting apart. Dasha accepts a wealthy widower and moves to Africa. Sonia considers teaching in the provinces. Zai now lives only for her books. Tiagin may be failing. Then a sudden storm hits.
Berberova gives each woman a distinctive voice and style. The half-sisters’ slow triangulation is wistful, touching, and elegant. This fine translation deftly shades an observant artist’s portrait of her era’s douceur de vivre. [Michael Pinker]