Our Country Friends sounds up-to-date in terms of being set in March 2020, where a group of friends and friends-of-friends gather in a country house to wait out the pandemic. It's a theme which is reinforced by the front cover, with a bubble surrounding the house, and also by the beginning which sees the chaotic lifestyle and manic driving of Russian-born novelist Sasha Senderovsky act as a metaphor for pandemic pandemonium.
However, for what it's worth I found that the amount of description slowed the pace down and made it difficult to maintain any interest or excitement in the story and understand the interdependencies of the characters (who are not particularly sympathetic). Perhaps more thought could have gone into characters such as The Actor (who has no real name or backstory) and leaving more to the imagination of the reader too.
However, for what it's worth I found that the amount of description slowed the pace down and made it difficult to maintain any interest or excitement in the story and understand the interdependencies of the characters (who are not particularly sympathetic). Perhaps more thought could have gone into characters such as The Actor (who has no real name or backstory) and leaving more to the imagination of the reader too.