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A review by scarletohhara
My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky
3.0
More like 3.5 stars for making book about a tedious woman like Margarita Ivanovich such a quick and easy read.
Rita is a racist, tiresome, talkative and a mentally unstable woman; Tschingis is a calm man with a reassuring presence; Nina is a puzzling, weak woman whose friendship with Rita, the wife of the man she had a baby with is the weirdest relationship I’ve read about; Vera is a mean little girl who grows up to like Maxim; and Max is the weak yet smart boy who figures out how to live with his mad grandmother and still care for her - how these protagonists get together in this book is still strange to me.
I read this because it was an easy read and I was curious how the narration would flow, but the book ended with too many loose ends tied together very quickly in the last few pages.
Questions like where was Tschingis Tschingisovich from, what language did he speak, why did he still live with Rita when he loved Nina, why would Nina allow Rita so much freedom in her life when she had everything going for her - these questions linger though they aren’t really important for the central plot - central plot is how the mad Rita is still strong enough to plough through life with the added responsibility of Nina, Vera and the child Tschingis.
Either that, or I lost the plot and just enjoyed the book - one of these.
(spoiler - Max’s Mom, Maya slept with his Dad who was married already and died of a ruptured appendix coz she wasn’t taken to the hospital on time)
Rita is a racist, tiresome, talkative and a mentally unstable woman; Tschingis is a calm man with a reassuring presence; Nina is a puzzling, weak woman whose friendship with Rita, the wife of the man she had a baby with is the weirdest relationship I’ve read about; Vera is a mean little girl who grows up to like Maxim; and Max is the weak yet smart boy who figures out how to live with his mad grandmother and still care for her - how these protagonists get together in this book is still strange to me.
I read this because it was an easy read and I was curious how the narration would flow, but the book ended with too many loose ends tied together very quickly in the last few pages.
Questions like where was Tschingis Tschingisovich from, what language did he speak, why did he still live with Rita when he loved Nina, why would Nina allow Rita so much freedom in her life when she had everything going for her - these questions linger though they aren’t really important for the central plot - central plot is how the mad Rita is still strong enough to plough through life with the added responsibility of Nina, Vera and the child Tschingis.
Either that, or I lost the plot and just enjoyed the book - one of these.
(spoiler - Max’s Mom, Maya slept with his Dad who was married already and died of a ruptured appendix coz she wasn’t taken to the hospital on time)