Reviews with content warning for Rape - There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family

It was the title of There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children Until They Moved Back In which caught my attention. Sorry kids - no offence meant! These three dark novellas do not paint a happy picture of Russian life in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. Alcoholism, domestic abuse and violence of all sorts seem rife. The battle to survive daily deprivations and bureaucracy gone mad seems to have sapped any capacity for love, affection and decency from the characters depicted here. A biting look at surviving a brutal everyday environment.

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mdpenguin's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed all three of the stories. They were subtly clever and, though they generally dealt with a lot of painful things, they were somehow modestly comic. Each story is about someone dealing with economic and social deprivations and the despair that comes with it in a different way. There's a kind of manic madness underneath it all that kind of keeps the characters alive and moving despite everything they go through. And all of this is delivered in a kind of conversational way, as though the stories are being told around a dinner table. It all seems straight forward, though it isn't always so. Triumph and failure end up looking a lot alike for these characters who have so few options for a person, but not in any profound way. In stories like this that I have read in the past, there has usually been some message that the author wants to come across, turning them more or less into parables. But all three stories feel more like the author just wants to share the story, not make a point; like they're being told because telling stories is just how we relate to each other.

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charleyroxy's review

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challenging dark funny sad medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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