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canaanmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
The writing here is just wonderful. But instead of me going on about it I'll just let you read for yourselves. Frida was raised in the USA and has just returned to Odessa Ukraine for the first time as an adult:
'A bottle of Coca-Cola awaited in the trunk of Volk’s burgundy Volvo. It was practically steaming. From a vest pocket, Volk retrieved a stack of Dixie cups. Sveta Russian-dolled out the cups on the sun-blazed hood of the car, pouring until the brim caught the froth. They toasted in the parking lot. It was a superb parking lot. There was no painted grid delineating individual spaces, and the cars were strewn about as if abandoned by a giant child called to tea.
Frida squinted into the distance gulping her strange drink. It was a syrup made from the fur of an old grizzly, cooked up in a cauldron on the outskirts of town by a lady who mixed cat food into everything she touched and blotted the sores on her ankles with cotton balls that got stuck under her fingernails only to fall into the cauldron that had to stand on the open flame for many a day and be constantly stirred, the last ingredient being a mysterious powder responsible for the torturous effect: With the first sip, Frida almost choked and quit drinking, but a moment later the papillae of her devastated tongue were pleading for another wash of nuance murder.'
'A bottle of Coca-Cola awaited in the trunk of Volk’s burgundy Volvo. It was practically steaming. From a vest pocket, Volk retrieved a stack of Dixie cups. Sveta Russian-dolled out the cups on the sun-blazed hood of the car, pouring until the brim caught the froth. They toasted in the parking lot. It was a superb parking lot. There was no painted grid delineating individual spaces, and the cars were strewn about as if abandoned by a giant child called to tea.
Frida squinted into the distance gulping her strange drink. It was a syrup made from the fur of an old grizzly, cooked up in a cauldron on the outskirts of town by a lady who mixed cat food into everything she touched and blotted the sores on her ankles with cotton balls that got stuck under her fingernails only to fall into the cauldron that had to stand on the open flame for many a day and be constantly stirred, the last ingredient being a mysterious powder responsible for the torturous effect: With the first sip, Frida almost choked and quit drinking, but a moment later the papillae of her devastated tongue were pleading for another wash of nuance murder.'
common_household_mom's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
marinaraydun's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
erincampbell87's review against another edition
4.0
It's clear that I like this kind of thing - those stories that examine what it means to belong, what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to feel at home, how our family influences our comfort and assimilation into a place or a personality - but this is an expert debut, despite my predication to love it. Akhtiorskaya has updated the typical coming to America immigrant tale by examining if it is ever completely possible to leave the past behind.
This is a darkly humorous novel that is neither kind nor cruel to its characters, but instead, seemingly quite objective. Although comparisons to Gary Shteyngart will probably chase Akhtiorskaya until she writes a novel that doesn't rely on their shared history as Soviet emigres, it's an apt comparison - Akhtiorskaya's humorous but loving skewering of her fictional relatives and their culture owes a little to Shteygart's satirical look at what Soviet American immigrants can and can't leave behind, but her portrayal is more objective and gentle; its tinge of dispair and regret isn't bathed in quite as many layers of satire. In this novel, although the progress to be found in leaving one's homeland is more explicitly mythical, the characters are painted less as strivers and more as earnest but tragically flawed, slightly muddling and confused people in search of what they believe is best.
The narrative lacks plot, which didn't bother me until the end, when I felt as if the richly drawn characters left me too soon and left their own conflicts in need of sewing up. The complex character studies left me curious about the characters' motivations and futures in a way that the end did not entirely satisfy.
This is a darkly humorous novel that is neither kind nor cruel to its characters, but instead, seemingly quite objective. Although comparisons to Gary Shteyngart will probably chase Akhtiorskaya until she writes a novel that doesn't rely on their shared history as Soviet emigres, it's an apt comparison - Akhtiorskaya's humorous but loving skewering of her fictional relatives and their culture owes a little to Shteygart's satirical look at what Soviet American immigrants can and can't leave behind, but her portrayal is more objective and gentle; its tinge of dispair and regret isn't bathed in quite as many layers of satire. In this novel, although the progress to be found in leaving one's homeland is more explicitly mythical, the characters are painted less as strivers and more as earnest but tragically flawed, slightly muddling and confused people in search of what they believe is best.
The narrative lacks plot, which didn't bother me until the end, when I felt as if the richly drawn characters left me too soon and left their own conflicts in need of sewing up. The complex character studies left me curious about the characters' motivations and futures in a way that the end did not entirely satisfy.
pianorunner421's review against another edition
1.0
I am leaving this on my READ list only so I can leave a review. I am so disappointed in this book that I powered through at least 50 more pages than I should have just trying to make myself like it. The writing style is horrendous. This is not "literature" or "artistically crafted phrase" it is incomprehensible. I find it ironic that one line (out of 129 pages only this one phrase grabbed my attention) "her prose was as incomprehensible as contemporary poetry". This sums up this book. Except, I would say I have read plenty of contemporary poetry that was way more entertaining and comprehensible than this book. The critics must have been wowed by the sheer number of words in a sentence paying no mind to the fact that they didn't make sense together and contained little to no punctuation. Do not be fooled - this is not an entertaining, or even a thought provoking book. There was nothing about it that made me laugh. I am an avid reader who is not afraid of multi-syllabic words and complex sentences, but I do want them to actually tell a story. If there is a plot in this one it isn't revealed in the first 140 pages.
cami19's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
nic_m_hud's review against another edition
1.0
I gave it 173 pages before I admitted defeat. Not sure exactly why this book was on so many "best of" lists. There have got to be better contemporary Russian American authors out there.
gr8reader's review against another edition
1.0
I read this book for book club and I hope that the dissuasion will improve my liking of this book. I frequently found myself re-reading paragraphs or pages when I discovered that I was not paying attention to what I was reading.
oceanlistener's review against another edition
2.0
While there are some brilliant scenes and some very funny bits, overall this book was a big let down. The characters made no actions, were in no situations, or had any interactions with other characters that made sense or rang true. The scenes didn't link together into an actual story. Rather, it read more like random bits that the author couldn't flesh out into a collection of related short stories OR an actual novel.
Maybe if I were an Ukrainian emigre to Brighton Beach, I'd be in on the joke and would have enjoyed it. Good on those people. But there's not much that's universal in this book.
Maybe if I were an Ukrainian emigre to Brighton Beach, I'd be in on the joke and would have enjoyed it. Good on those people. But there's not much that's universal in this book.
schellenbergk's review against another edition
Several good bits of writing and scenes don't compensate for the rambling, unstructured whole. It never coheres into a novel, and finally it just stops.