A review by johndiconsiglio
The Unamericans: Stories by Molly Antopol

3.0

A pleasant story collection, the author’s debut, tracing displaced people from Belarus to Brooklyn and Tel Aviv to Kiev. Her characters are ex-rebels, one-time McCarthy-defiers & Eastern European dissidents now trapped in pedestrian lives. “My Grandmother Tells Me This Story” is the best. The themes are daring, the prose (too) mannered. Many entries end on jarring false-notes, perhaps a hallmark of young writers. Oddity: She often writes from a man’s perspective, which felt unconvincing. A-for-effort, though.