When Nina Sankovitch's eldest sister Anne-Marie died of bile duct cancer in May of 2005, life as she knew it became bereft of meaning, her days filled with sorrow and endless internal inquiry as to why tragedy had struck her family. Desperate to preserve her sister's memory and find solace in her absence, Nina proposed to her family in October of 2008 that she would read a book a day for an entire year. Her purpose: to heal herself through connectivity and commiseration with the joys and sorrows of human interest stories, while honoring the Sankovitch family's deep-seated passion for literature.
"Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" is introspective, nostalgic, philosophical, and wonderfully lyrical, recounting books of Nina's past, books she reads throughout her project, and stunning stories of her Belarusian roots as she forges ahead through one novel after another in the quest for quietude and life affirmation. She muses on life, death, love and relationships, raising children, and history and legacies, keeping her sense of humor about her while accruing Zen-like realizations along the way. In the end, she preserves her sister's memory beautifully, exhibiting adulation and gratefulness for having her in her life. One gets exactly what they want from this memoir - lots of self-reflection, strength through adversity, and powerful personal stories. At the finish, the reader truly feels as if they know Nina and have grown to love her and her extended family.
When she began what she dubbed "The 365 Project" and launched its corresponding website (readallday.org), Sankovitch chose to read books that were an inch in width, assuring her that she would be reading no more than 250-300 pages total and could finish it in just a matter of a few hours (she can read 70 pages per hour), leaving her plenty of time to write a review of what she'd just read and attend to other matters (housework, children, etc.). She read many places but one of her favorite spots was an old chair in her living room that had been reupholstered over the years with a dark purple fabric, a chair that always carried the faint smell of cat urine from a beloved pet having repeatedly marked it as its own in years past.
Coincidentally, "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" is a pat 222 pages, making it easy for someone who can match Sankovitch's reading velocity to finish it in just over three hours' time. Though I don't read as expeditiously as she does, I was enraptured by her journey and found myself glued to her memoir all throughout the day, finishing it in two days time between meeting the demands of two small children and a house in constant need of cleaning. My "purple chair" ended up being my bed, my couch, a sofa at the library, and a park bench.
Sankovitch provides her reading list in its entirety in the back of her book (all 365 of them!), putting into action her stance on the importance of sharing books with others. She says: "My book-a-day project affected not only my life but those of everyone with whom I shared my reading. I spread the gratification of reading through discussing books, much as authors create bliss by writing them. What a gift, to share the joy and the comfort and the wisdom! Everything I shared, I found first through the simple act of sitting down in my purple chair and reading a book." (pg. 211) As a result, I have now added several titles to my "to be read" list (which grows larger by the day - ack!) due to the loving and often moving explications she gives on the stories' central themes ("The Assault" by Harry Mulisch is an example that immediately comes to mind).
Bottom line: Poignant and meditative, "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" is an exquisite homage to a beloved woman, encouraging healing and cogitation through one's passions. Sankovitch is bound to inspire many who read this work, whether it is the motivation to find their own bliss, or simply the recommendation and subsequent power and enjoyment of a great book.
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