Lena or suspended time ... or the conquest of space ...

HISTORY IN BRIEF ** !!! **
"Is happiness as the paste which they make bread, which rises and then sat back soon? Here I am again deserted, Vassili is again on the Base". In the North Siberian Lena lives mostly alone, her husband Vasya being pilot air in the military and regular mission. So each round trips Vasya, Lena wrote her sadness or joy in the letters she sends to Mitya and Varia, an old man and an old woman who raised after the death of his parents.
Lena adapts gradually this life and this love intermittently, but habits are disrupted when Vasya announces his major new project: his or her name in the legend of the Soviet conquest of space becoming cosmonaut .. .

** MY OPINION **
A little skeptical at first of my reading ° _O because this is not the kind that novel I usually read. I found it a bit school style, especially in the dialogues, unnatural and the limit of caricature !! ... Then I was captivated by this sincere and passionate love story, especially by history the conquest of space by the Soviets. The details behind the scenes of this battle between the USSR and the United States, the story of these unknown men propelled to glory, all this was very interested, especially since I've never seen this theme in another novel.

Alternating between letters of Lena and the story of their receipt by Mitya Varia and I liked, especially when Varia Lena takes metaphors in their literal meaning, which obviously generates misunderstandings ... A pleasant and easy romance to read, which allowed me to discover the history of space exploration of light and more anecdotal than in textbooks.

The son of pages, I could feel the loneliness of Lena and the coldness of the polar lands of Russia. I admit that from time to time, I found quite heavy and ponderous monologues, loneliness and the "depression" of Lena. At times the story, I felt that everything was dark, cold, motionless, as time was suspended ... a lack of action ... movement ...

Overall, a great discovery, for a novel that is unusual !! ...