Anna K: A Love Story

Russian Lit Meets Gossip Girl

It all started when Lolly secretly borrowed Steven's watch to replace the band as an anniversary gift. If Lolly hadn't taken the watch, maybe she never would have found out that he was cheating on her, and maybe Steven never would have called his sister Anna to come to the city help him get her back. Maybe if none of that had happened, Anna never would have met Vronsky that day at Central Station, and maybe none of what happened after that would ever have happened.
Or. Maybe it was always going to be. Maybe Anna and Vronsky were always going to meet, and maybe it all happened exactly as it should have.

Admittedly, I have not read many retellings of literary classics, but I have read a lot of classics and watched a lot of modern teen shows. This mashup of the two is absolute brilliance. On receiving this book, I couldn't believe how long it was, with such small print (I mean, I shouldn't have been surprised when Anna Karenina was over 800 pages long, but still...). I was worried that I would never get through it, mostly because I don't read a whole lot of modern teen real-world fiction.
I could not have been more wrong. From page one, Anna K. is so delightfully enthralling, I was instantly fascinated by this microcosm of insanely rich, well connected and vapid teenagers.

At first I thought that there was no way I would like many of the characters in this book, but a little way in I realised that that wasn't the case. Lolly, who at first appears pathetically shallow and frivolous somehow developed into a young girl I could see real value in, someone who is entirely dedicated to the things she sees as important and works hard until she achieves them. Steven, who starts out decidedly badly, shifted in my view from selfish, thoughtless and wasteful to being a product of his environment, doing his best to keep his head up in a family that expects too much from him.
Dustin, Anna and Kimmie each go through their own character arcs, and I liked getting to know each one as they got to know themselves.

I enjoy reading about people who are very different to me, and finding the value in the things that seem unfathomable from an outside viewpoint. For instance, reading Anna K. has helped me to look into the lives of the unimaginably rich, and to see how some of the things that look to us like frivolity and stupidity can be significant and meaningful in their context. I guess what I am saying is that it's about perspective, and looking into their lives through their eyes to understand how for instance, someone with reasonably unlimited money and resources can still feel pain and fear and loss, and even need. The amount of money someone has in their bank account means nothing in the face of those things. We are all human, from the wealthiest CEO in New York, to the dirty homeless man sleeping in Central Station.

The core love story itself is something that I really enjoyed, knowing that it is straight out of a classic. The love-at-first-sight dreaminess of Anna and Vronsky's relationship is incredibly cheesy, but holds that classical charm that modern fiction often shies away from for fear of being unrealistic, corny and love-dovey. A little fairytale romance is perfect every once in a while.

In terms of the social setting, I find the whole idea of these teenagers who are more or less independent of their wealthy and distracted parents a little bit (read a lot) distressing. The way they are living in their own mini society, ruled not by any real-world consequences, but instead relying on their own convoluted morality code which changes and shifts constantly. The idea of young people out there living with no fallbacks, no restraints, doing whatever feels right and acceptable in the moment - which in this case means spending as much money as they can get away with, doing Molly and LSD, smoking marijuana and drinking as often and as much as they please, stepping out on their boyfriends and girlfriends within reason so it doesn't really count as cheating. Oof. So stressful.

My only actual complaint about the book is that near the end, there was a lot of montage writing. This was present through the whole book on a smaller level, the author taking a step back from the characters and describing what they did and what they said without interacting with them personally. In general, I liked her use of this technique, as it can propel the story forward when it needs a push, and I can imagine she wanted to cover a lot more ground that she could scene by scene, translating an 800+ page book into a 300 page novel. Near the end though, there was more and more scenes that were scanned over, never stopping in with the characters in real time, and It just felt a little rushed and lacking the personal details that the book previously had.

Overall, I really loved Anna K. For me it was the perfect balance of silly fun and genuine story. The setting was genuinely fun, and the characters were beautifully flawed-yet-loveable.
There really isn't a better way to describe this than to say it's like reading Gossip Girl meets Russian Lit. I would highly recommend this as a summer read!