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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Good read. Liked the main character and learned a lot about Ukrainian history.
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
4.5
This is a very emotional story of one family's experience in Ukraine dating back to the 1930s when an uncle of the author disappeared, along with hundreds of thousands of other during Stalin's reign of terror. The memoir is Victoria Belim's long and difficult search into exactly what happened and also to understand what caused her own father to take his life many years later.
This memoir gives you a truly terrifying insight into exactly how difficult it was to live during those times and, indeed, much more recent periods of Soviet rule in Ukraine. It certainly gives you a good look at the resilience and bravery of those still battling the Russians today.
When I think of how little it takes to upset our equilibrium here in the UK (a lack of petrol for a few days, no tomatoes for a week, the Internet crashed for 24 hours) you begin to realise just how very little we understand about Ukrainian mentality and it certainly made me aware of how tough these people truly are. If Zelensky says they will win then it'd be a brave person who would bet against them.
I found this a fascinating look at life in one small part of Ukraine and its people. I knocked off half a star because there were times that the narrator's Russian accent became quite difficult to understand.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in current or past Ukrainian history or even someone who is interested in any foreign political history.
Thankyou to Netgalley for the ARC audio version of this book.
This is a very emotional story of one family's experience in Ukraine dating back to the 1930s when an uncle of the author disappeared, along with hundreds of thousands of other during Stalin's reign of terror. The memoir is Victoria Belim's long and difficult search into exactly what happened and also to understand what caused her own father to take his life many years later.
This memoir gives you a truly terrifying insight into exactly how difficult it was to live during those times and, indeed, much more recent periods of Soviet rule in Ukraine. It certainly gives you a good look at the resilience and bravery of those still battling the Russians today.
When I think of how little it takes to upset our equilibrium here in the UK (a lack of petrol for a few days, no tomatoes for a week, the Internet crashed for 24 hours) you begin to realise just how very little we understand about Ukrainian mentality and it certainly made me aware of how tough these people truly are. If Zelensky says they will win then it'd be a brave person who would bet against them.
I found this a fascinating look at life in one small part of Ukraine and its people. I knocked off half a star because there were times that the narrator's Russian accent became quite difficult to understand.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in current or past Ukrainian history or even someone who is interested in any foreign political history.
Thankyou to Netgalley for the ARC audio version of this book.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- a woman returns to her native ukraine to reconnect with her roots following russia's invasion of crimea in 2014, uncovering a family mystery that she is determined to solve
- for me this book was the literary equivalent of "this song seems like it is much more fun to sing than to listen to"
- (so i guess....this book seems like it was much more impactful to write than it was to read)
- for a memoir i found it kind of detached- i just didn't get a lot of emotion from the narrator (the author)
- between uncovering tiny tidbits about the mystery of nikodim, we get long passages about gardening and bureaucracy that were simply not engaging in the slightest
- the last 50 or so pages were the best part of the book- reflecting on all the different people, family or not, that she connected with across her journey, coming to terms with her father's death,
reconnecting with her uncle - i also liked the descriptions of different pieces of ukranian culture- the rushnyky, the easter meal and traditions.
**review of an arc that i received via goodreads giveaways**
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
sad
informative
medium-paced
I read this memoir to learn more about Ukrainian history. I did, and I also learned a little about how some Ukrainians dealt with the 2014 Russian invasion and the annexation of Crimea. But I learned more about how the how and why the author's family kept secrets for a generation or more.
Author Victoria Belim was born and raised in Ukraine, land left the country when she was 15. Now an American citizen, she returned to Ukraine in 2014, a year of turmoil for the country. Russia had annexed Crimea and was supporting separatist fighters on Ukraine's eastern borders. She stayed with her grandmother Valentina in the village of Bereh, near the city of Poltava, in a search for her roots. There is tension between the two, as Valentina is more concerned with her garden than with the author's questions about her family.
The highlights of the book for me were two: learning more about ordinary, country life in Ukraine; and discovering more about Ukraine's rich textile heritage. There are some very interesting segments on rushnyk, traditional embroidered towels associated with vital events like birth, marriage and death. The author meets a fascinating older woman named Pani Olga, who despite poverty and war, is recording and preserving this precious textile heritage. In another fascinating chapter the author travels with Pani Olga to an embroidery school in Reshetylivka, where she meets the master embroiderer Nadia Vakulenko, who is fighting to preserve the country's unique tradition of white-on-white embroidery.
Textiles have always been markers of identity and culture, and the war Russia is waging against Ukraine is as much a war about identity as about empire. I was disappointed that the author did not explore this aspect more deeply in her memoir. But this disappointment is my own fault--Belim is clear from the beginning that this is a very personal memoir about her family, and not about any endangered traditions. And it is a family memoir, complete with a genealogical chart, which I had to refer back to frequently. If you are interested in one woman's heart felt excavation of several generations of family, then this book is for you. But while I am glad I read it, I kept wanting more historical and cultural context, rather than an individual's family anecdotes.
Author Victoria Belim was born and raised in Ukraine, land left the country when she was 15. Now an American citizen, she returned to Ukraine in 2014, a year of turmoil for the country. Russia had annexed Crimea and was supporting separatist fighters on Ukraine's eastern borders. She stayed with her grandmother Valentina in the village of Bereh, near the city of Poltava, in a search for her roots. There is tension between the two, as Valentina is more concerned with her garden than with the author's questions about her family.
The highlights of the book for me were two: learning more about ordinary, country life in Ukraine; and discovering more about Ukraine's rich textile heritage. There are some very interesting segments on rushnyk, traditional embroidered towels associated with vital events like birth, marriage and death. The author meets a fascinating older woman named Pani Olga, who despite poverty and war, is recording and preserving this precious textile heritage. In another fascinating chapter the author travels with Pani Olga to an embroidery school in Reshetylivka, where she meets the master embroiderer Nadia Vakulenko, who is fighting to preserve the country's unique tradition of white-on-white embroidery.
Textiles have always been markers of identity and culture, and the war Russia is waging against Ukraine is as much a war about identity as about empire. I was disappointed that the author did not explore this aspect more deeply in her memoir. But this disappointment is my own fault--Belim is clear from the beginning that this is a very personal memoir about her family, and not about any endangered traditions. And it is a family memoir, complete with a genealogical chart, which I had to refer back to frequently. If you are interested in one woman's heart felt excavation of several generations of family, then this book is for you. But while I am glad I read it, I kept wanting more historical and cultural context, rather than an individual's family anecdotes.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced