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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This delightfully funny family memoir tells many versions of family stories about the author's unusual dirt-phobic grandmother and her shiny American vacuum cleaner sent her by a relative which she wrapped up and enshrined in an unused bathroom--because it got dirty during use and she couldn't abide anything dirty in her house. Along the way, the book also explores family dynamics, the incredible binding power of family story/myth, and the variable nature of family memory. Every bit as original and fun as it sounds.
Having recieved this book in the mail from my university's Hillel House, I didn't really know what I was getting into but I suspected it would be jewish. Translated from hebrew, My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family Memoir discusses Meir Shalev's grandmother and extended family and their experiences as part of the second Aliyah to Israel. Jumping around, Shalev claims that this is a story of a vacuum cleaner, and not the entire family. However, focusing on the life of the vacuum cleaner, or "sveeperrr" as Shalev's grandmother called it, Shalev introduces the reader to his grandparents, uncles, and other members of his family.
I found My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner to be a delightful book that could be read in one afternoon. However, the nonlinear stories of family, which added to the mystery of the novel, did leave me lost in places, leading me to reread portions of the story.
I found My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner to be a delightful book that could be read in one afternoon. However, the nonlinear stories of family, which added to the mystery of the novel, did leave me lost in places, leading me to reread portions of the story.