A review by mdpenguin
There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back in: Three Novellas about Family by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

dark emotional funny informative sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed all three of the stories. They were subtly clever and, though they generally dealt with a lot of painful things, they were somehow modestly comic. Each story is about someone dealing with economic and social deprivations and the despair that comes with it in a different way. There's a kind of manic madness underneath it all that kind of keeps the characters alive and moving despite everything they go through. And all of this is delivered in a kind of conversational way, as though the stories are being told around a dinner table. It all seems straight forward, though it isn't always so. Triumph and failure end up looking a lot alike for these characters who have so few options for a person, but not in any profound way. In stories like this that I have read in the past, there has usually been some message that the author wants to come across, turning them more or less into parables. But all three stories feel more like the author just wants to share the story, not make a point; like they're being told because telling stories is just how we relate to each other. 
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