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A review by attytheresa
The Patriots by Sana Krasikov
4.0
Incredible novel telling the story of American Jews who go to Russia in the early 1930s as idealistic socialists looking to live in and contribute to the future only to be essentially trapped in the Soviet Union, unable to leave, surviving (or not) Stalin, WWII, 2 pogroms, the Gulag, not entering the US again until 1978. Story primarily is about - and from the viewpoint of - Florence Fein, the American-born daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants living in Brooklyn. It alternates narrative with that of her son who, during a 2008 business trip to Moscow, is able to read his mother'secret KGB file recently unsealed.
It is a harrowing story, leaving you admiring Florence's incredible ability to survive. But that survival cost her, too, and she is not likeable or admirable. I never understood her idealism, her political and social yearnings that led to her leaving the US in the first place, let alone had her making the decision time and again to stay in Russia (there was a man she followed at first - but that quickly ended and still she stayed). That may be less a weakness in the writing than in my ability to understand her ideology. The only glimmering of real empathy I had was with her belief that there was more equality for woman under Soviet socialism than in the US in the 1930s, and her yearning for that.
But oh does it present an incredible story set behind 'The Iron Curtain', what we called the Soviet Union during the early part of my life! BTW, the USA is not shown in a flattering or good light any more than the Soviet Union or today's Russia do.
This is my book with from a favorite prompt from a previous challenge (2 time periods) for the Pop Sugar 2018 Reading Challenge and for 2018 ATY #47. book where main character is a different religious (Jewish) identity than me.
It is a harrowing story, leaving you admiring Florence's incredible ability to survive. But that survival cost her, too, and she is not likeable or admirable. I never understood her idealism, her political and social yearnings that led to her leaving the US in the first place, let alone had her making the decision time and again to stay in Russia (there was a man she followed at first - but that quickly ended and still she stayed). That may be less a weakness in the writing than in my ability to understand her ideology. The only glimmering of real empathy I had was with her belief that there was more equality for woman under Soviet socialism than in the US in the 1930s, and her yearning for that.
But oh does it present an incredible story set behind 'The Iron Curtain', what we called the Soviet Union during the early part of my life! BTW, the USA is not shown in a flattering or good light any more than the Soviet Union or today's Russia do.
This is my book with from a favorite prompt from a previous challenge (2 time periods) for the Pop Sugar 2018 Reading Challenge and for 2018 ATY #47. book where main character is a different religious (Jewish) identity than me.