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elizalucinda's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting subject matter, but Very scattered writing.
ta4taful's review against another edition
4.0
This lady has had a very interesting life. Definitely would recommend
psalmcat's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating. I have a clearer understanding of her fairy-tales now. What a horrific childhood she--and so many others like her--had under Stalin's insanity and Soviet ridiculousness. Sleeping under a table in a room with people who mostly hated her and her mother: insane.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
5.0
Well, this does explain some of those wonderful stories that Petrushevskaya writes.
Petrushevskaya's memoir is about her early years - her family's fall from grace, her birth, her life during war time. She lived as a half feral child for several years. But like in her stories, her use of language is beautiful and her comments on life searing.
"We ate glue in secret because of the rumor that it was flavored with real cherries" (22) she writes describing how scare food was, especially for her family with members imprisoned under the regime. It is so bad that at night, she is sent to the garbage pail in the kitchen to take the leavings left by the other family. One night she sees two dolls left by the garbage - her own dolls and horse were nothing really (her horse was made out of cardboard). She stares rapt - "Now, I know what a doll means to a girl: It is her tame goddess" she writes just before she reveals she had to leave these two goddesses.
The memoir is like her short fiction - magical, powerful, shocking, provoking, and a wonder.
Petrushevskaya's memoir is about her early years - her family's fall from grace, her birth, her life during war time. She lived as a half feral child for several years. But like in her stories, her use of language is beautiful and her comments on life searing.
"We ate glue in secret because of the rumor that it was flavored with real cherries" (22) she writes describing how scare food was, especially for her family with members imprisoned under the regime. It is so bad that at night, she is sent to the garbage pail in the kitchen to take the leavings left by the other family. One night she sees two dolls left by the garbage - her own dolls and horse were nothing really (her horse was made out of cardboard). She stares rapt - "Now, I know what a doll means to a girl: It is her tame goddess" she writes just before she reveals she had to leave these two goddesses.
The memoir is like her short fiction - magical, powerful, shocking, provoking, and a wonder.
sophronisba's review against another edition
4.0
This morning I got up early to bake banana bread for my son's first day back to school, and when the banana bread went into the oven I started this book and finished it shortly after my son finished his slice of bread. Which is to say, first, that this is a slim but compelling memoir and second, reading the bulk of it when it was dark outside and no one else was awake heightened the book's fairy-tale quality. At moments it felt very much like reading a memoir by the Little Match Girl, albeit a Little Match Girl who has been transported to Soviet Russia.
It's an interesting book, but a bit unformed -- it feels more like a conversation with the author than a constructed book, and like a conversation, it meanders. I really wavered between three and four stars because although I did find it pretty gripping, I was never sure exactly where the author was going. It's impressionistic to a fault, at least for me; I wanted a stronger through line.
It's an interesting book, but a bit unformed -- it feels more like a conversation with the author than a constructed book, and like a conversation, it meanders. I really wavered between three and four stars because although I did find it pretty gripping, I was never sure exactly where the author was going. It's impressionistic to a fault, at least for me; I wanted a stronger through line.
icameheretoread's review against another edition
4.0
This was fascinating. Petrushevskaya turned what could be considered by some to be a nightmare of a childhood into a triumph, letting it shape her amazingly creative storytelling. She is an inspiration.
elisabethl's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to this and valued it more than the 3 stars would suggest. Still, I wanted more connectivity between the episodes she recounted. Sometimes I found it hard to reconcile the misery and neglect with other elements of later life privilege and choice. It isn’t that I doubt them just that I would like to better understand how she got from point a to point b.
saraleacock's review against another edition
3.0
This book was not what I expected. It wasn't bad, but it was just a collection of memories and little vignettes of her life rather than any kind of actual autobiography. There wasn't as much about Communist Russia as I had hoped either.
ursulamonarch's review against another edition
This is a starkly and matter-of-factly brutal book. On one hand, it goes a long way to explaining the author's short stories, but on the other hand, it's as far from maudlin as possible. The author doesn't seem to expend any sentimentality on her early circumstances.