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squirrelsohno's review against another edition
It's not you, The UnAmericans, it's me.
sjgrodsky's review
4.0
Read for the Hadassah book group.
I agree that these stories are good stories and are skillfully written. But the stripped down nature of a short story does not appeal to me.
I started at the beginning and so was halfway through the third story in the book when I learned which stories the book group would be discussing. I read those. Then stopped reading.
Yet again I'm out of step with the received wisdom of the literati. I don't care for "The Great Gatsby" either, though I agree that the theme qualifies it for the short list of books that might deserve the "Great American Novel" descriptor.
I agree that these stories are good stories and are skillfully written. But the stripped down nature of a short story does not appeal to me.
I started at the beginning and so was halfway through the third story in the book when I learned which stories the book group would be discussing. I read those. Then stopped reading.
Yet again I'm out of step with the received wisdom of the literati. I don't care for "The Great Gatsby" either, though I agree that the theme qualifies it for the short list of books that might deserve the "Great American Novel" descriptor.
johndiconsiglio's review
3.0
A pleasant story collection, the author’s debut, tracing displaced people from Belarus to Brooklyn and Tel Aviv to Kiev. Her characters are ex-rebels, one-time McCarthy-defiers & Eastern European dissidents now trapped in pedestrian lives. “My Grandmother Tells Me This Story” is the best. The themes are daring, the prose (too) mannered. Many entries end on jarring false-notes, perhaps a hallmark of young writers. Oddity: She often writes from a man’s perspective, which felt unconvincing. A-for-effort, though.
ssmall's review
3.0
If you read all these short stories in one sitting they tend to blend into each other. There are gems of personal moments, but they might stand out more clearly if you pick up this book infrequently.
jdintr's review
4.0
The "UnAmericans" of the title is a loose thread of characters affected by the McCarthy Era, but what's amazing about Antopol's writing is the way she can tell multiple tales within the same story--themes that leap cultures and generations as they play out for the characters she has created.
I think my favorite story was the final one, "Retrospective." It's about the death of a grandmother who was a key cultural link to Soviet-era artists, but it's more than that, and it evolves into this beautiful portrait of a marriage--and then two marriages.
These are stories worth savoring--worth reading twice to get the hidden gems of wisdom and secret trails of plot.
I think my favorite story was the final one, "Retrospective." It's about the death of a grandmother who was a key cultural link to Soviet-era artists, but it's more than that, and it evolves into this beautiful portrait of a marriage--and then two marriages.
These are stories worth savoring--worth reading twice to get the hidden gems of wisdom and secret trails of plot.
moirastone's review against another edition
2.0
Better - that is, more technically accomplished - than my rating suggests. I remained largely unmoved, though, which is all about me.
altayyuce's review
5.0
My favorite story in this book is called “My Grandmother Tells This story”. The first line is:
“Some say the story begins in Europe, and your mother would no doubt interrupt and say it begins in New York, but that’s just because she can’t imagine the world before she entered it.”
Doesn’t that grab your attention, pull you into this conversation you didn’t know you were having? Antopol has a skill for this kind of thing.
If you want to know if this book is for you, skip right to that story, or go ahead and read the award winning story here:
https://ecotonemagazine.org/fiction/my-grandmother-tells-me-this-story/
“Some say the story begins in Europe, and your mother would no doubt interrupt and say it begins in New York, but that’s just because she can’t imagine the world before she entered it.”
Doesn’t that grab your attention, pull you into this conversation you didn’t know you were having? Antopol has a skill for this kind of thing.
If you want to know if this book is for you, skip right to that story, or go ahead and read the award winning story here:
https://ecotonemagazine.org/fiction/my-grandmother-tells-me-this-story/