A review by lisagray68
The Patriots by Sana Krasikov

4.0

I received this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. It took me a long time to read and was difficult for me, I'm not entirely sure why. The story revolves around Florence, a 2nd generation Russian American, who gets disillusioned by the American Dream and decides to go back to Russia against her family's wishes. She then, through a series of misadventures which I won't detail because of spoilers, lives her entire life there, through the Stalinist era and spouts the Party line of Communist Russia even though it never entirely works for her or her family. I think my problem was that I didn't really "get" Florence, and I didn't really like her either. But I get the feeling that this book is based on real history and wanted to get through it because it did teach me a lot about a period of history that I didn't know much about and found interesting. Sana Krasikov is a talented writer, although the subject matter wasn't my favorite topic. It's worth a read, especially if you are interested in Russian history or Russian/American Cold War history.