Reviews

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner

michaelnlibrarian's review against another edition

1.0

I just assumed the author of a book with this title and story would be Russian, but she went to Russia and observed things and then produced this. (According to an interview - http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/the-russian-dreambook-of-colour-flight-a-qa-with-gina-ochsner/). The book's premise is amusing but the characters I found annoying - it seemed more like an American's idea of Russians than Russians.

I am again reminded that even if someone is a award winning fiction writer a particular book may not work for you, the reader. I stopped after fifty pages. Enough!

booksatlunch's review against another edition

4.0

This was a nice read. I thought the premise was really interesting, and the characters were fleshed out really well. However, there were some moments where I was confused with what exactly was going on, as some of the characters and instances are a little - uhm- out of the ordinary, for lack of better terms. However, I think as long as you take a slow but steady pace the book is a great read.

mlytylr's review against another edition

5.0

there's something special about the mindset you're in, reading a novel about post-soviet russia, where you see a sentence like this:

"With each move of a chess piece, Tanya could hear their excited misery and terrible human longings amplified by the strange acoustics of the cafe: too old for the army, too young to retire, too beat up by life to find a job and keep it, too broke for a bottle."

-- and think, yes, that is a totally normal way to describe an outdoor chess tournament.