The People's Act Of Love

One of the books I read over the weekend was The People's Act Of Love by James Meeks. He has immersed himself in the history of Russia and writes about little known religious sects called castrates, Siberian prison escapees taking along their "cow" for food (also known as a newbie convict) and assorted other oddities. As I was reading this I took this to be a slightly altered or dreamlike view of reality and was startled to learn that these incidents were taken from real historical events. Having said that, there is a morose otherworldliness about this book that is appealing and very Russian in tone.