Scan barcode
sophronisba's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Larissa and Natasha, in particular, are well-conceived characters and Kuznetsova's rendering of them was pitch-perfect. Having said that, I don't think this book was particularly memorable or said anything particularly new. Compelling enough while I was reading it, but not a book I will often think of in the future.
tessalitwish's review
4.0
It has been a while since I’ve picked a book up and basically didn’t put it down again until I was done. I loved every SINGLE character, but it was truly hard to resist Larissa and her deadpan humor and stark but loving observations and criticisms of people and life in general.
Brief summary:
New Yorker actress Natasha is a new mother with a lot of ambivalence about a lot of things. Over Skype, she asks her grandmother (Larissa, in Kiev) to tell her the story of her family during WWII and the events that led to Larissa’s grandmother’s death.
Both stories were fascinating. The parallels of Larissa/Misha/Bogdor and Natasha/Yuri/Stas made this book fun to read, which is probably not the best adjective to use given a lot of the subject matter that this book tackles- but that’s why I’m a reader and not a writer.
I most strongly connected with Natasha’s struggle as a new mother. I also felt a lot of ambivalence about my newborn (I remember calling him an “amorphous blob with no personality- which is pretty close to “human puddle”) that has since gone away and been replaced with an insane amount of love and amazement. Here’s a section from the book that I resonated with big time:
“She’s come such a long way from the human puddle I gave birth to, though she’s got a long, long way to go. And yet, there are so many things my daughter can do that I wish I could—sleeping through the wild street sounds, facing the brutal, cold world with absolute wonder, smiling for no reason at all—but I have unlearned all of her survival skills, and one day, she will unlearn them, too, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Honorable mention to the cover design- I loved it and thought it captured the book perfectly.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the review copy!
Brief summary:
New Yorker actress Natasha is a new mother with a lot of ambivalence about a lot of things. Over Skype, she asks her grandmother (Larissa, in Kiev) to tell her the story of her family during WWII and the events that led to Larissa’s grandmother’s death.
Both stories were fascinating. The parallels of Larissa/Misha/Bogdor and Natasha/Yuri/Stas made this book fun to read, which is probably not the best adjective to use given a lot of the subject matter that this book tackles- but that’s why I’m a reader and not a writer.
I most strongly connected with Natasha’s struggle as a new mother. I also felt a lot of ambivalence about my newborn (I remember calling him an “amorphous blob with no personality- which is pretty close to “human puddle”) that has since gone away and been replaced with an insane amount of love and amazement. Here’s a section from the book that I resonated with big time:
“She’s come such a long way from the human puddle I gave birth to, though she’s got a long, long way to go. And yet, there are so many things my daughter can do that I wish I could—sleeping through the wild street sounds, facing the brutal, cold world with absolute wonder, smiling for no reason at all—but I have unlearned all of her survival skills, and one day, she will unlearn them, too, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Honorable mention to the cover design- I loved it and thought it captured the book perfectly.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the review copy!
dfparizeau's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
leigh_ann_15_deaf's review
4.0
I'm not sure I like any of the characters much, though their lives and stories are pretty interesting. I like the author's writing style. The foreshadowing and parallelism are great.
I am a little bothered by the characters casual and/or insulting statements of homophobia, antisemitism, victim-blaming (examples: Larissa derisively thinking of Stas as a feminine homosexual; Natasha's writing and putting on a "comedy" play of a Hassidic pedophile; and young Larissa resents and blames Bogdan aged 15 for selling his body to bring her family a little extra food). Although the victim-blaming I reference eases up later in the novel, it still bothers me that it was never really resolved.
I am a little bothered by the characters casual and/or insulting statements of homophobia, antisemitism, victim-blaming (examples: Larissa derisively thinking of Stas as a feminine homosexual; Natasha's writing and putting on a "comedy" play of a Hassidic pedophile; and young Larissa resents and blames Bogdan aged 15 for selling his body to bring her family a little extra food). Although the victim-blaming I reference eases up later in the novel, it still bothers me that it was never really resolved.
sadpear's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
More...