You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by vidaiste
Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena
4.0
This book was very familiar, somehow very heart-warming despite the smaller and bigger tragedies depicted by Ikstena.
It follows two narratives: a mother and a daughter, both of which are affected by the regime and their relationship with each other and the surroundings. I really enjoyed the symbolism of small acts of kindness keeping them together physically and apart, the small luxuries that most of our parents talk about to this day: taking a bath, buying a hard to find fruit or vegetable, going mushrooming.
And I think one of the narratives that hit closest to home was rebellion and mental illness. I am not entirely sure how I fell about the daughter's view on saving her mother. She is just a child, a child born to somone who has always depended on her for a will to live. However, looking at how the story culminates - freedom as salvation for those ill. It almost overshadows the mother's deep-rooted issues. And it made me question - was she perceived as ill, made ill or born ill? And I think that is a question we ask ouselves all the time. It broke my heart to think that could have been better off if she just made it to after the Baltic Way. Yet looking at what we still see now, i doubt that our perceptions of people such as her have changed much.
And so I was left with this emptiness after I finished reading:
No clear climax, twist or resolution, just an ending which, often in life, is not entirely satisfying. I think that was the point. It definitely makes you think.
[also a bit annoyed how mother's milk becomes soviet milk in English, but that's just my personal opinion]
It follows two narratives: a mother and a daughter, both of which are affected by the regime and their relationship with each other and the surroundings. I really enjoyed the symbolism of small acts of kindness keeping them together physically and apart, the small luxuries that most of our parents talk about to this day: taking a bath, buying a hard to find fruit or vegetable, going mushrooming.
And I think one of the narratives that hit closest to home was rebellion and mental illness. I am not entirely sure how I fell about the daughter's view on saving her mother. She is just a child, a child born to somone who has always depended on her for a will to live. However, looking at how the story culminates - freedom as salvation for those ill. It almost overshadows the mother's deep-rooted issues. And it made me question - was she perceived as ill, made ill or born ill? And I think that is a question we ask ouselves all the time. It broke my heart to think that could have been better off if she just made it to after the Baltic Way. Yet looking at what we still see now, i doubt that our perceptions of people such as her have changed much.
And so I was left with this emptiness after I finished reading:
No clear climax, twist or resolution, just an ending which, often in life, is not entirely satisfying. I think that was the point. It definitely makes you think.
[also a bit annoyed how mother's milk becomes soviet milk in English, but that's just my personal opinion]