The Firebird is not a character-driven novel. Ilya, the protagonist, is a familiar type of Lackey hero. A sensitive young man in a prosaic home environment, his dreams of escape parallel those of many adolescents.

Ilya is clever and his insights into those around him are usually accurate. When he fears for his life from the next beating, he designs a plan to avoid it. His father has failed to name an heir and thus left his successor to be determined by a sort of survival-of-the-fittest contest in the fights between brothers. Ivan will not bother to interfere if Ilya continues to be beaten to a pulp. But the boy knows the Tsar's rudimentary conscience will not let him allow an idiot to be picked on, so he feigns brain damage and acts out the role.

This also allows Ilya to act outrageously and to observe things that...