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ssminski 's review for:
The Shadow Land
by Elizabeth Kostova
"The Shadow Land"begins with Alexandra Boyd, a young 20-something that decides to drop everything in her life in the US and go to Bulgaria to teach English. In the taxi to her hotel, she accidentally gets stuck with the bag of an elderly couple that simply says the name Stoyan Lazarov, containing an urn with ashes. And thus starts an odyssey of sorts, with Alex desperately seeking the couple to return their loved one, accompanied by a mysteriously helpful and fun taxi driver/ex-cop/poet and social activist (yeah, that's a resume and a half) named Bobby. They travel across all of Bulgaria, following clues from a motley assortment of characters while being alternatively cajoled and harassed by persons unknown who, under no circumstances, want the past to be unburied.
Interspersed with this wild ride are memories of Alex's past with her eccentric parents and wild brother in the Carolinian mountains. These memories gradually reveal a deeper picture of Alex's motives for finding the family of Lazarov, as well as what drives her.
I am probably in the minority here, but Kostova's debut effort "The Historian" was not my favorite. I found it bogged down in details, and while it had a beautifully haunting landscape, I couldn't get through it. However, strangely enough, "The Shadow Land" blew me away. Alex and Bobby have an engaging and believable friendship, the landscape is amazingly rendered, and the unstable political landscape was extremely interesting to learn about. Reading this book in 2017-2018 seemed especially, particularly timely, and I think Kostova must have drawn quite a bit on current events and climate.
My issues with this book are not minor, but are certainly overshadowed by the "pros." Alex's forays down memory lane with her brother Jack, while helpful in understanding her character, were clunky, not satisfying, and frankly unnecessary in their frequency. It took the reader out of the moment in Bulgaria, and the ending was unsatisfactory- essentially nonexistent. Alex could have told this story to Bobby in a series of conversations and that would have been just as successful, if not more.
However again, I sincerely hope that no one avoids this book for that reason. The Bulgarian scenery, quirky friendship, and haunting portrayal of political atrocities make it worth the read.
Interspersed with this wild ride are memories of Alex's past with her eccentric parents and wild brother in the Carolinian mountains. These memories gradually reveal a deeper picture of Alex's motives for finding the family of Lazarov, as well as what drives her.
I am probably in the minority here, but Kostova's debut effort "The Historian" was not my favorite. I found it bogged down in details, and while it had a beautifully haunting landscape, I couldn't get through it. However, strangely enough, "The Shadow Land" blew me away. Alex and Bobby have an engaging and believable friendship, the landscape is amazingly rendered, and the unstable political landscape was extremely interesting to learn about. Reading this book in 2017-2018 seemed especially, particularly timely, and I think Kostova must have drawn quite a bit on current events and climate.
My issues with this book are not minor, but are certainly overshadowed by the "pros." Alex's forays down memory lane with her brother Jack, while helpful in understanding her character, were clunky, not satisfying, and frankly unnecessary in their frequency. It took the reader out of the moment in Bulgaria, and the ending was unsatisfactory- essentially nonexistent. Alex could have told this story to Bobby in a series of conversations and that would have been just as successful, if not more.
However again, I sincerely hope that no one avoids this book for that reason. The Bulgarian scenery, quirky friendship, and haunting portrayal of political atrocities make it worth the read.