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3.12 AVERAGE
3.12 AVERAGE
Words fall short in describing the gripping writing style of Irina Reyn.
I had no expectation of this book when I first ordered it and this was before I read Leo Tolstoy's Anna K. With the story of Anna K in Irina's beautiful words, I was captivated from the first page, from the opening sentence, to the very last page. She knows so well how to tell a story, how to draw you in, how to draw such vivid images of the characters in this book. Anna is self-doomed - she lives in the past and she longs for her passing youth and beauty. She loves David, I think, not so much for David and only David, as for the idea of David, or rather, idea of a handsome American man loving her for her mesmerizing beauty.
Oh the gripping story of the sexy, the sophisticated, the elegant Anna. The longings and yearnings of Anna for so much: for lost opportunities, for passage of time and her fading youth and beauty, for her home in Russia, for her Mr. Darcy, her Heathcliff or her Romeo in her life. Irina pointedly describes these longings. These are the essential elements that make up the complex Anna K. Never has my own longing for the years gone by and fear of the few remaining ones in fleet been better articulated. I loved Anna at once because I could immediately identify with her on all levels.
Of all her yearnings, Anna K’s longest struggle is with time, that voice that beckons us to hurry and slow down at the same time, and never lets up, no matter what blow we suffer in this world and what tragedies befall us. It ticks away indefinitely. I can relate acutely to Anna’s emotions with time, as Reyn writes “Her relationship with time, once so affectionate, lovingly doled out on the abacus, was now openly hostile. How could there be no going back? Anna thought.” (pg.167)
In this context, we see Anna’s constant agony in dealing with the reality of our finite time on this earth. This subtle quiet passing of the weeks, months, and years – and the older we get, the more distinctly we remember our childhood and more tightly we long to revive and relive our youth. It is the trick we play with ourselves by thinking that 35 is really awfully young when we pass the mark whereas the same age seemed awfully old when our parents reached it – not a place we could see ourselves anytime soon.
The slow onset of attraction, which does not materialize further, between Lev and Anna, happens at the very end. Reyn develops her two complex characters, Lev and Anna, all the while in parallel and separately. Anna by now has built imaginary doubts about David’s love and devotion and feels ever so alienated by her world. Lev, in utter loneliness for not communicating with his own Vasilisa, feels disgust and lust towards Anna. They have a brief encounter towards the very end of Anna’s story. That is the end of Anna Karenina’s story. Why does there have to be an end to every story?
For all her beauty and grace, Anna feels unloved and insecure. She is wanted and envied by all, and yet she feels threatened in her love affair to David. David who knows Anna is the only woman for her. The unexpressed thoughts, the unspoken words, they steal Anna away from us as much as her own illusions about life and happiness.
I finished this book in 48 hours. I cannot recommend it highly enough. A bow of praise and gratitude for Irina. May she write many more books in the future.
I had no expectation of this book when I first ordered it and this was before I read Leo Tolstoy's Anna K. With the story of Anna K in Irina's beautiful words, I was captivated from the first page, from the opening sentence, to the very last page. She knows so well how to tell a story, how to draw you in, how to draw such vivid images of the characters in this book. Anna is self-doomed - she lives in the past and she longs for her passing youth and beauty. She loves David, I think, not so much for David and only David, as for the idea of David, or rather, idea of a handsome American man loving her for her mesmerizing beauty.
Oh the gripping story of the sexy, the sophisticated, the elegant Anna. The longings and yearnings of Anna for so much: for lost opportunities, for passage of time and her fading youth and beauty, for her home in Russia, for her Mr. Darcy, her Heathcliff or her Romeo in her life. Irina pointedly describes these longings. These are the essential elements that make up the complex Anna K. Never has my own longing for the years gone by and fear of the few remaining ones in fleet been better articulated. I loved Anna at once because I could immediately identify with her on all levels.
Of all her yearnings, Anna K’s longest struggle is with time, that voice that beckons us to hurry and slow down at the same time, and never lets up, no matter what blow we suffer in this world and what tragedies befall us. It ticks away indefinitely. I can relate acutely to Anna’s emotions with time, as Reyn writes “Her relationship with time, once so affectionate, lovingly doled out on the abacus, was now openly hostile. How could there be no going back? Anna thought.” (pg.167)
In this context, we see Anna’s constant agony in dealing with the reality of our finite time on this earth. This subtle quiet passing of the weeks, months, and years – and the older we get, the more distinctly we remember our childhood and more tightly we long to revive and relive our youth. It is the trick we play with ourselves by thinking that 35 is really awfully young when we pass the mark whereas the same age seemed awfully old when our parents reached it – not a place we could see ourselves anytime soon.
The slow onset of attraction, which does not materialize further, between Lev and Anna, happens at the very end. Reyn develops her two complex characters, Lev and Anna, all the while in parallel and separately. Anna by now has built imaginary doubts about David’s love and devotion and feels ever so alienated by her world. Lev, in utter loneliness for not communicating with his own Vasilisa, feels disgust and lust towards Anna. They have a brief encounter towards the very end of Anna’s story. That is the end of Anna Karenina’s story. Why does there have to be an end to every story?
For all her beauty and grace, Anna feels unloved and insecure. She is wanted and envied by all, and yet she feels threatened in her love affair to David. David who knows Anna is the only woman for her. The unexpressed thoughts, the unspoken words, they steal Anna away from us as much as her own illusions about life and happiness.
I finished this book in 48 hours. I cannot recommend it highly enough. A bow of praise and gratitude for Irina. May she write many more books in the future.
This was a mostly good book. The first thing I look at in any retelling or update is if it works against the original. There were a lot of parts of this that worked very well in bringing Anna Karenina to a tight knit Jewish community in the 21st century, but there were several puzzling choices that stood better without the comparison. I never thought anyone could adequately update Tolstoy's brick sized tome in less than two hundred and fifty pages, but Reyn didn't do too bad.
I looked forward to reading this and am sad that I didn't like it. Didn't like Anna at all. I thought the author describing her boobs (and the words used) not once but twice in the few pages I read was really weird.
Like reading a train wreck. Even though I enjoyed reading it and didn't necessarily get bored, it was too...cosmopolitan, too glossy, too precocious. Too New York. There's a reason I live in rural, mountainous NC: I don't care for the glamorous lifestyle, pricetags, and pretention. I didn't like a single character. So why did I like it, I ask myself. Honestly, I don't know, but I kind of did. It was horrifying, but secretly gratifying to peer in at this mess.
I didn't have a lot of sympathy for the main character, but the depiction of the immigrant experience is very interesting.
I've never read Anna Karenina. This novel is a modern twist on a character based on the Anna Karenina of Tolstoy's imagination. Here's what I liked.
The idea that the character can be placed anywere in time anywhere in the world and still be believable.
The milieu of the characters and the Russian Jewish immigrant community of the NY boroughs, of which I am a product.
The fact that not all readers of this novel will have an inkling of the "inside jokes" written herein. Things like, zakuski, or the way Russian Jewish immigrant women tend to wear overpriced, underquality ostentatious clothes that don't fit their bodies, or how Russian Jewish immigrant men are sort of selfish but protective, how business schemes are always just that: schemes.
Here's what I didn't like:
The story hit too close to home for me. It was as if I was sitting with my mom and she was basically telling me the story of someone we know. As I said, I know the community, lived in it, and still find myself there when I visit my family.
I didnt like how the characterization of Jewish Americans within the Russian Jewish immigrant community are there to "visit, but would never buy a home there" type of mentality.
But then again, maybe it hit too close to home for me. Coming out of this, I feel a bit depressed. And, I have no interest in reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. If in the original character, she is as selfish and myopic as in this novel, then she is not someone I'd want to get to know.
Then again, maybe it hit me too close to home.
The idea that the character can be placed anywere in time anywhere in the world and still be believable.
The milieu of the characters and the Russian Jewish immigrant community of the NY boroughs, of which I am a product.
The fact that not all readers of this novel will have an inkling of the "inside jokes" written herein. Things like, zakuski, or the way Russian Jewish immigrant women tend to wear overpriced, underquality ostentatious clothes that don't fit their bodies, or how Russian Jewish immigrant men are sort of selfish but protective, how business schemes are always just that: schemes.
Here's what I didn't like:
The story hit too close to home for me. It was as if I was sitting with my mom and she was basically telling me the story of someone we know. As I said, I know the community, lived in it, and still find myself there when I visit my family.
I didnt like how the characterization of Jewish Americans within the Russian Jewish immigrant community are there to "visit, but would never buy a home there" type of mentality.
But then again, maybe it hit too close to home for me. Coming out of this, I feel a bit depressed. And, I have no interest in reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. If in the original character, she is as selfish and myopic as in this novel, then she is not someone I'd want to get to know.
Then again, maybe it hit me too close to home.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this book would have been a lot more meaningful if I'd actually read Anna Karenina already. But as it was, it was a very interesting story, well written and entertaining. And it made me want to read the original even more than I wanted to before!
It's rare that a modern retelling can be better than the original. To be honest, I'm not sure that's what happened here, but I do know that I don't feel like I need to go read Anna Karenina now, and that's a cool thing.
Anna, a 30-something New Yorker in the Jewish Russian immigrant community, finally settles down because she feels like she's supposed to. Alex K. seems nice enough, he's financially stable, and it'll finally get her mother off her back. Of course, no sooner is she settled than she meets David, who's dating her cousin Katia, who's being pursued by Lev. It's a modern soap opera fraught with the tensions of both unrequited and unacceptable love.
Anna is the kind of woman you'd love to hate, but you can't quite muster up enough feeling for her to do so. Which, actually, is part of this story's brilliance - drawing an unlikable protagonist while keeping the reader engaged is difficult to do, but I think Irina Reyn does it very well. The tragedy at the end of the book is quietly devastating, all the more so because of its realism.
Anna, a 30-something New Yorker in the Jewish Russian immigrant community, finally settles down because she feels like she's supposed to. Alex K. seems nice enough, he's financially stable, and it'll finally get her mother off her back. Of course, no sooner is she settled than she meets David, who's dating her cousin Katia, who's being pursued by Lev. It's a modern soap opera fraught with the tensions of both unrequited and unacceptable love.
Anna is the kind of woman you'd love to hate, but you can't quite muster up enough feeling for her to do so. Which, actually, is part of this story's brilliance - drawing an unlikable protagonist while keeping the reader engaged is difficult to do, but I think Irina Reyn does it very well. The tragedy at the end of the book is quietly devastating, all the more so because of its realism.
Anna K is intriguing to me because she's from the Soviet Union. Also, the ethic neighborhood of Rego Park is also interesting.