Reviews

I had to put this aside for awhile but I knew I'd love it...and I did! She is probably my favorite female writer of all time, her voice never fails to make my soul blaze with joy? wonder? a weeping, gulping thankfulness to be alive? I can't explain it. Even when she's writing about filth, and bedbugs, and being abandoned over and over again. No...ESPECIALLY when she writes about these things.

mkmoore's review

Go to review page

1.0

Not as good as it sounds. A lot gets lost in translation.

giantarms's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I sure do wish somebody would tell me what her family did to put them on the outs. Probably her family felt the same way? I really don't know.

An engaging, if disjointed read.

laura_pc's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny slow-paced

3.0

mnm1015's review against another edition

Go to review page

sad medium-paced

1.0

awahle's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This felt so very disjointed. The "chapters" felt like stories she wanted to tell about her life, but they didn't seem connected to each other at all - and I usually like that style. Perhaps talking about herself in the first person in some chapters and using third person in others contributed to the feeling that they had little to do with another.
I was hoping for more about life in the Metropol Hotel itself (after reading A Gentleman in Moscow), but I did learn a lot about life in Russia during and after WW2. I can't imagine going through the trash of the other family in a communal apartment in order to make a soup from potato skins and fish bones.

I'm curious about her fairy tales and may hunt them down, but I'm not in a hurry to do so.
I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

More...