Penelope Fitzgerald has influential family connections, although from the book, she can certainly stand on her own. The Beginning of Spring is set in Moscow, 1913, just before the Russian Revolution. It tells of the family and work troubles of a British printer who is born and raised in Russia.

I like how Fitzgerald incorporates the literal into the metaphorical (or is it the other way round?): everything extraneous and illicit is dumped into the river; in Russia, there are only white birch trees. I also like how the characters are never in sync with one another as if we, the readers, are missing parts of the conversation.

But don't ask me what the metaphors mean, and don't ask me what the philosophy of the book is because I really don't know. ( )

I enjoyed Fitzgerald's The Bookshop very much so started to look for other of her books and was pleasantly surprised to find this on my shelves: no memory of when or why I picked it up. But I'm glad that I did. A novel set in Moscow in 1913 that opens with Nellie, the wife of Frank Reid, suddenly leaving him and their three children. The novel then follows Frank's life as he adjusts to the new situation, involving Lisa, a new young Russian nanny whom he hires to help with the children, Selwyn, the other-worldly follower of Tolstoy and poet who works for Frank, a visit from Nellie's brother from England, and the three precocious children. Some nice descriptions of life in Moscow including the physical hardships of winter, the superstitious earthy life of Russians, the incompetence and crookedness of just about everyone in an official position, and Frank's brush with the secret police concerned with incipient unrest or rebellion among students.

There is no real spark to the book, except perhaps Frank's infatuation with Lisa which reawakens passions he hadn't had or shown for some time. It's here that one can be sympathetic to Nellie who must have felt cocooned with Frank who is a decent, honest man making a good living for his family in often trying circumstance, but who is the sort of person to whom life happens, rather than really living it. Frank seems to float through life until Lisa provides a jolt. And maybe that's the point. Life is not often grand moments and momentous turning points; it is a complicated, multifarious existence and most people move through it like a pinball, bouncing gently off one incident or circumstance after another. The end of the book describes the grand ceremonies involved in re-opening the house in the spring; unsealing windows and cleaning. In the front door walks Nellie as the last line in the book and somehow it feels right.