Scan barcode
rhalfie29's review
5.0
I hugely enjoyed this - the sanguine voice of the lead provided a wry, relatable commentary on a part of modern history I'm only sketchily familiar with, and then the UK scenes were an interesting twist on 80s Britain, casting it in a new light as if viewed from outside. I liked the subtlety of never naming Milena's country, leaving this veil of secrecy which matched the sinister air of her compatriot minders and observers. She was a tough, appealing lead character who I felt connected to, so combined with the unique place & time setting, made this a great, bittersweet romantic read. Recommended.
janinagnes's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
lilibetbombshell's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a romance. For the record, this isn’t a romantic book in any sense of the word. But, just like the title implies, it is a love story–just not the love story between a boy and a girl (though a boy and a girl do fall in love, I suppose).
Iron Curtain: A Love Story is about Milena, one of communism’s Red Princesses, and though one might be tricked into thinking this is a traditional love story, it’s not. Milena is in love with one thing and one thing only, and that is her homeland, behind the Iron Curtain. That’s the genius behind this whole book, a communist Cold War twist on “There’s no place like home”.
Milena Urbanska ran away from her communist homeland not because she hated communism and wanted to defect; no, she ran away because she was young, she had witnessed something traumatizing when she was younger that had shifted some of her thinking, she didn’t want to be forced into marriage at her parent’s hands, she didn’t want to be a politiburo wife, and she was sick of being who she was and of everyone knowing everything about her and constantly being a subject of conversation across the country. So she decides to slip away to England and marry the young Irish poet she had fallen in love with when he was in her country a few years prior, even though she hates the western world. She’s hoping their love and his poetry fame will make up for living in a Capitalist society.
But best laid plans…
England is both everything she thought it might be and nothing like she knew it would be. She hates it. There’s only two things she loves about England: fresh vegetables and her in-laws. At first, she’s deliriously in love with her husband, too. But in Thatcher-era England, being poor was more than a kick in the teeth, and it didn’t help that Milena’s husband seemed to fancy himself a man who ran on Lady Luck and whimsy.
This novel is full of a specific type of ennui I love: A sense of listlessness, of not knowing what to do with oneself. It’s the feeling of being in some kind of suspended state between two choices or situations you’ve been presented with but not being able to determine which is the lesser of two evils. You hate your life, but either not enough to leave it or you’re too stubborn to give up just yet.
I’m a sucker for Cold War-era fiction. Well, I’m a sucker for Russian historical fiction in general. I loved the research and detail put into this book, both on the Russian and British sides. It couldn’t have been easy researching everything from Thatcher economics to Russian Nationalism and how one could fly from the USSR to Cuba and how many different stops they could make while doing so.
Vesna Goldworthy’s characters blaze to life, each so distinct in voice, style, and worldview they not only form the unshakeable framework for this novel but they also create the ebb and flow around Milena, moving her around in that suspended state, all making impacts large and small on her life and decisions as they go.
I can’t say anything else about this book other than it was a tremendously lovely read that I highly recommend.
I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction/Political Fiction/Satire/5 Star Reads
Iron Curtain: A Love Story is about Milena, one of communism’s Red Princesses, and though one might be tricked into thinking this is a traditional love story, it’s not. Milena is in love with one thing and one thing only, and that is her homeland, behind the Iron Curtain. That’s the genius behind this whole book, a communist Cold War twist on “There’s no place like home”.
Milena Urbanska ran away from her communist homeland not because she hated communism and wanted to defect; no, she ran away because she was young, she had witnessed something traumatizing when she was younger that had shifted some of her thinking, she didn’t want to be forced into marriage at her parent’s hands, she didn’t want to be a politiburo wife, and she was sick of being who she was and of everyone knowing everything about her and constantly being a subject of conversation across the country. So she decides to slip away to England and marry the young Irish poet she had fallen in love with when he was in her country a few years prior, even though she hates the western world. She’s hoping their love and his poetry fame will make up for living in a Capitalist society.
But best laid plans…
England is both everything she thought it might be and nothing like she knew it would be. She hates it. There’s only two things she loves about England: fresh vegetables and her in-laws. At first, she’s deliriously in love with her husband, too. But in Thatcher-era England, being poor was more than a kick in the teeth, and it didn’t help that Milena’s husband seemed to fancy himself a man who ran on Lady Luck and whimsy.
This novel is full of a specific type of ennui I love: A sense of listlessness, of not knowing what to do with oneself. It’s the feeling of being in some kind of suspended state between two choices or situations you’ve been presented with but not being able to determine which is the lesser of two evils. You hate your life, but either not enough to leave it or you’re too stubborn to give up just yet.
I’m a sucker for Cold War-era fiction. Well, I’m a sucker for Russian historical fiction in general. I loved the research and detail put into this book, both on the Russian and British sides. It couldn’t have been easy researching everything from Thatcher economics to Russian Nationalism and how one could fly from the USSR to Cuba and how many different stops they could make while doing so.
Vesna Goldworthy’s characters blaze to life, each so distinct in voice, style, and worldview they not only form the unshakeable framework for this novel but they also create the ebb and flow around Milena, moving her around in that suspended state, all making impacts large and small on her life and decisions as they go.
I can’t say anything else about this book other than it was a tremendously lovely read that I highly recommend.
I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction/Political Fiction/Satire/5 Star Reads
lberestecki's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
jmatkinson1's review
4.0
Milena Orbansky is the privileged daughter of a hero of the revolution. Her life is one of luxury and indulgence, albeit within a communist state. Then she meets an English poet, over to perform at a festival, and her life changes. She falls deeply in love and escapes to the West. However life in 1980s London is not what she is used to and she begins to realise that there is a price to pay for freedom.
This is a really strong book. The decadence and rebellion of Milena's life in her home country is contrasted so sharply to realities of poverty in the free world. There is also a huge undercurrent on the theme of betrayal, Milena will not betray her country or her family but her husband has no such morals. It is obvious that the author has lived life in the communist bloc, the authenticity screams from the page.
This is a really strong book. The decadence and rebellion of Milena's life in her home country is contrasted so sharply to realities of poverty in the free world. There is also a huge undercurrent on the theme of betrayal, Milena will not betray her country or her family but her husband has no such morals. It is obvious that the author has lived life in the communist bloc, the authenticity screams from the page.
kiri_johnston's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bethanydark's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
nocto's review
fast-paced
5.0
I picked this up in Waterstones on Friday afternoon. It caught my eye because it was on the spy fiction table they often have in their branches, and I've noticed on several occasions that every single author on it appears to be male. On this occasion this wasn't actually the only female author name on the table, Kate Atkinson's Transcription was there too, and I loved that book. But that was enough to get me to pick the book up. After reading a few pages standing in the shop I wasn't convinced that the book would be great, but I liked it enough to buy it and take it home.
Once I got going though it was the kind of book I find it easy to keep reading. And it absorbed me enough that I'd finished it on the Sunday afternoon, and I don't usually read books that quickly these days.
The book didn't actually turn out to be a spy story, at least not in the way that I'd think of that genre, but I don't think the book was mis-shelved all the same. And shelving it with the love stories that it says it is wouldn't have been any more (or less) correct. It's certainly not your standard happy ever after romance. It's set between an (I think) unspecified Soviet Bloc country and London in the late 1980s. It's about the personal rather than the political but the political gets highlighted and detailed anyway. It's a 'show not tell' kind of thing I guess. The story is narrated by Milena Urbanska, who as the daughter of the vice-president of the unspecified country lives a very privileged life behind the iron curtain, and she details how she comes to end up in London, and how comparative awful that city is compared to what she is used to.
The details in the writing are just fabulous. I found the English parts of the story totally captivating. In one bit where she visits an old farmhouse in the country with no central heating, awful mattresses, terrible food, and the pets get all the luxuries the book just had the temperament of a certain kind of English people totally nailed. I was nodding along, yes, Milena, I've been there too and thought the same things.
Since the characters in the West were all totally believable to me, I'm willing to believe that the ones in the East are just as true to life. Nobody, even minor characters, had only one-dimension.
I really enjoyed the book, good writing, interesting plot and absorbing detail made for an unexpected page turner.
Once I got going though it was the kind of book I find it easy to keep reading. And it absorbed me enough that I'd finished it on the Sunday afternoon, and I don't usually read books that quickly these days.
The book didn't actually turn out to be a spy story, at least not in the way that I'd think of that genre, but I don't think the book was mis-shelved all the same. And shelving it with the love stories that it says it is wouldn't have been any more (or less) correct. It's certainly not your standard happy ever after romance. It's set between an (I think) unspecified Soviet Bloc country and London in the late 1980s. It's about the personal rather than the political but the political gets highlighted and detailed anyway. It's a 'show not tell' kind of thing I guess. The story is narrated by Milena Urbanska, who as the daughter of the vice-president of the unspecified country lives a very privileged life behind the iron curtain, and she details how she comes to end up in London, and how comparative awful that city is compared to what she is used to.
The details in the writing are just fabulous. I found the English parts of the story totally captivating. In one bit where she visits an old farmhouse in the country with no central heating, awful mattresses, terrible food, and the pets get all the luxuries the book just had the temperament of a certain kind of English people totally nailed. I was nodding along, yes, Milena, I've been there too and thought the same things.
Since the characters in the West were all totally believable to me, I'm willing to believe that the ones in the East are just as true to life. Nobody, even minor characters, had only one-dimension.
I really enjoyed the book, good writing, interesting plot and absorbing detail made for an unexpected page turner.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion