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jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
4 out of 5 stars.
All of these snow days are helping me tear through audio books while I work.
AWAY did a good job of keeping my attention. I had read a story collection by Bloom several years ago and had been meaning to read something else by her and am glad that I finally did.
All of these snow days are helping me tear through audio books while I work.
AWAY did a good job of keeping my attention. I had read a story collection by Bloom several years ago and had been meaning to read something else by her and am glad that I finally did.
lbarsk's review
4.0
Impressively written in the way that the story unfolds—you get not just Lillian's life but, in small flash-forwards that don't feel corny or over dramatic, the lives of those who matter to her as well. Really well woven together and a solid sense of both scene and characterization. I also really liked that Lillian was hardened and no-nonsense; refreshing to see a woman written that way and not at all judged for it by the author.
book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
Book on CD performed by Barbara Rosenblatt
3.5***
From the book jacket: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower east Side to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.
My reactions
It took me a while to get invested in Lillian’s story, but once her true odyssey to Siberia began I was completely hooked. Lillian is a complex character – naïve, pliable, opportunistic, determined, shrewd, compassionate, complacent, persistent, and maddeningly closed-off. She is used by others, and learns to use others. While hers is a very personal journey and one she mostly makes alone, she encounters a variety of other characters that help or hinder her.
The characters are colorful and richly drawn. I particularly liked the practical women who taught Lillian how to deal with difficult circumstances – Gumdrop, Fat Patty, and Chinky. However, I did think that some of the side stories that dealt with these characters detracted from the central plot. The novel takes place in 1924-1926, a time of jazz age flappers in the big city, but also a time when a woman traveling alone by train was easily victimized. Lillian endures setbacks that would break a weaker person, but the thought of her daughter pushes Lillian forward regardless of hardship. I must comment on the book jacket’s promised “panoramic scope” – I absolutely agree with this description.
The story line isn’t always linear, and since I was listening I didn’t have the visual clues of paragraph breaks to alert me to shifts in time or changed viewpoints. That was confusing in places. So, even though Barbara Rosenblatt is a marvelous narrator who performed the work beautifully, I would recommend reading vs. listening for this book.
3.5***
From the book jacket: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower east Side to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.
My reactions
It took me a while to get invested in Lillian’s story, but once her true odyssey to Siberia began I was completely hooked. Lillian is a complex character – naïve, pliable, opportunistic, determined, shrewd, compassionate, complacent, persistent, and maddeningly closed-off. She is used by others, and learns to use others. While hers is a very personal journey and one she mostly makes alone, she encounters a variety of other characters that help or hinder her.
The characters are colorful and richly drawn. I particularly liked the practical women who taught Lillian how to deal with difficult circumstances – Gumdrop, Fat Patty, and Chinky. However, I did think that some of the side stories that dealt with these characters detracted from the central plot. The novel takes place in 1924-1926, a time of jazz age flappers in the big city, but also a time when a woman traveling alone by train was easily victimized. Lillian endures setbacks that would break a weaker person, but the thought of her daughter pushes Lillian forward regardless of hardship. I must comment on the book jacket’s promised “panoramic scope” – I absolutely agree with this description.
The story line isn’t always linear, and since I was listening I didn’t have the visual clues of paragraph breaks to alert me to shifts in time or changed viewpoints. That was confusing in places. So, even though Barbara Rosenblatt is a marvelous narrator who performed the work beautifully, I would recommend reading vs. listening for this book.
lbro734's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
rampaginglibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
"an orphan, a widow, and the mother of a dead child, for which there's not even a special word"
A few years ago i read The Woman who Walked to Russia: a writer's search for a lost legend by Cassandra Pybus. Pybus was browsing a bookshop while traveling through Northern British Columbia when she first heard of Lillian Alling, a woman purported to have walked from New York to Alaska on her way to Siberia in 1927. There were bits and pieces of the legend to be found here and there that told how Lillian, a Russian immigrant, homesick, had haunted the New York Public Library hand copying maps and then somehow made her way across the country's railways to then follow the overland telegraph trail, on foot, through sub-arctic Canada and Alaska.
The splinters of this woman's saga took hold in Pybus' mind in a way that would not let her rest until she knew whole of the tale. Once she got back to her home in Australia she researched Alling and only found more pieces, ever more enticing. Eventually she decides to take her own road trip to try and retrace Lillian's steps and in the end it is not until she is on her flight back home that she incidentally finds the truth. It is an interesting narrative of one woman's search for another woman's single-minded journey that took me over some of the familiar territory of my youth.
Away first appealed to me because i had read some of Amy Bloom's stories and liked her style. It was described as the story of a "dangerous, accidental heroine" whose family is slaughtered in a Russian pogrom and then comes to make a new life in America where she starts out in a yiddish theatre, moves on to the Jazz District of Seattle and then travels up through the Yukon. It somehow took me by surprise once Lillian Leyb hopped that train from New York and her story started resembling details of Lillian Alling's trek. At one point i had to flip to the acknowledgements in the back to find that Pybus' The Woman Who Walked to Russia was indeed mentioned. For me, making this woman flesh and blood and giving her motivations that i had previously not understood made both books all the more valuable (Lillian Leyb is looking for the daughter she had thought dead, but now believes alive.)
I'm not sure that calling this Lillian an accidental, dangerous heroine is entirely apt. She is not the most likable protagonist i have ever read. In many ways she has left her soul back with her dead loved ones in Russia (if she ever had it to begin with, sometimes it is a little difficult to tell~though perhaps that makes her tale all the more poignant.) It is a rather brutal novel to read but it is told with an honest and clear voice that i found enjoyable. I loved that Bloom told the fate of each person that had touched Lillian's life when she saw them for the last time, it was a touch of omniscience that did not seem out of place~that is quite a feat for a writer to pull off. With a few caveats i would recommend this one.
[bc:The Woman Who Walked to Russia: A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend|711141|The Woman Who Walked to Russia A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend|Cassandra Pybus|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1177531925s/711141.jpg|697406]
A few years ago i read The Woman who Walked to Russia: a writer's search for a lost legend by Cassandra Pybus. Pybus was browsing a bookshop while traveling through Northern British Columbia when she first heard of Lillian Alling, a woman purported to have walked from New York to Alaska on her way to Siberia in 1927. There were bits and pieces of the legend to be found here and there that told how Lillian, a Russian immigrant, homesick, had haunted the New York Public Library hand copying maps and then somehow made her way across the country's railways to then follow the overland telegraph trail, on foot, through sub-arctic Canada and Alaska.
The splinters of this woman's saga took hold in Pybus' mind in a way that would not let her rest until she knew whole of the tale. Once she got back to her home in Australia she researched Alling and only found more pieces, ever more enticing. Eventually she decides to take her own road trip to try and retrace Lillian's steps and in the end it is not until she is on her flight back home that she incidentally finds the truth. It is an interesting narrative of one woman's search for another woman's single-minded journey that took me over some of the familiar territory of my youth.
Away first appealed to me because i had read some of Amy Bloom's stories and liked her style. It was described as the story of a "dangerous, accidental heroine" whose family is slaughtered in a Russian pogrom and then comes to make a new life in America where she starts out in a yiddish theatre, moves on to the Jazz District of Seattle and then travels up through the Yukon. It somehow took me by surprise once Lillian Leyb hopped that train from New York and her story started resembling details of Lillian Alling's trek. At one point i had to flip to the acknowledgements in the back to find that Pybus' The Woman Who Walked to Russia was indeed mentioned. For me, making this woman flesh and blood and giving her motivations that i had previously not understood made both books all the more valuable (Lillian Leyb is looking for the daughter she had thought dead, but now believes alive.)
I'm not sure that calling this Lillian an accidental, dangerous heroine is entirely apt. She is not the most likable protagonist i have ever read. In many ways she has left her soul back with her dead loved ones in Russia (if she ever had it to begin with, sometimes it is a little difficult to tell~though perhaps that makes her tale all the more poignant.) It is a rather brutal novel to read but it is told with an honest and clear voice that i found enjoyable. I loved that Bloom told the fate of each person that had touched Lillian's life when she saw them for the last time, it was a touch of omniscience that did not seem out of place~that is quite a feat for a writer to pull off. With a few caveats i would recommend this one.
[bc:The Woman Who Walked to Russia: A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend|711141|The Woman Who Walked to Russia A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend|Cassandra Pybus|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1177531925s/711141.jpg|697406]
katzreads's review against another edition
4.0
Very enjoyable read. A bit depressing at times, but I really liked the way the author gave you closure for all the characters. Lillian may never have known what happened to the people who crossed her path throughout life, but the reader knows!
gemirving's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
emilywv's review against another edition
70 pages in: A Jewish immigrant flees Ukraine, circa 1924, after her family and friends are brutally killed in a Russian pogrom. In New York's Lower East Side, she works in the garment industry and finds security, if not love, in the arms and apartments of a Yiddish Theatre star who prefers men, and, later, in the arms of his father.
Not a terrible read; just not enough going on, plot- or style-wise, to earn any more of my precious pleasure-reading time. Plus, I just finished Everything is Illuminated, and I've had about as much heartbreaking-acts-of-Jewish-genocide literature as I can stomach just now.
Not a terrible read; just not enough going on, plot- or style-wise, to earn any more of my precious pleasure-reading time. Plus, I just finished Everything is Illuminated, and I've had about as much heartbreaking-acts-of-Jewish-genocide literature as I can stomach just now.
smudpu's review against another edition
5.0
A lovely epic tale that is under 300 pages. I loved the way she wove the story.