Reviews

Memories - From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi

eleanorfranzen's review

Teffi was an extremely popular writer in early twentieth-century Russia, producing plays, journalism, short stories, and little satirical sketches called feuilletons. In 1918, as the Russian Civil War was in full swing, she embarked on what was meant to be a short reading tour in the southern provinces, but never came home: the political situation deteriorated fast and she ended up bouncing between cities for over a year before finally taking ship for Constantinople. Memories is about that long flight. Bits of it are very funny, like the women who take advantage of emigration panic to get cut-price fabric and a decent haircut (no one else is out and about!) Much of it is chilling: one of Teffi’s early events in a theatre ends with the women of the town calling to her from the audience, “God bless you, sweetheart… we hope you get out.” She usually doesn’t portray graphic violence, but there’s a terrible two days in a town run by a sadistic female commissar: on a walk to the river, Teffi and her fixer see dogs gnawing on body parts. Memories gives the impression of someone walking a mental tightrope. It’s not that Teffi doesn’t know or care what’s going on; it’s that the only way to keep sane is to brush lightly over the horrors. Before leaving Russia for good, she climbs a hill in Novorossiysk that holds a gallows and thinks about the last hours of a female anarchist named Ksenya G who was murdered there, a brilliant and moving parallel to her own symbolic impending “death” in exile. Memories reads fast and easy yet sticks in the mind. Very worthwhile.

bumpyandfriend's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

slackdad's review against another edition

5.0

An almost casual account of her flight through Russia to eventual safe exile in France. This breezy, cocktail-story tone conceals the deadly seriousness of her plight and all its terror and uncertainty. It illustrates the randomness, the chaos and the fear of the refugee.

coreydholt's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

libellus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

carmenx9's review against another edition

5.0

"A joke is not so funny when you're living inside it. It begins to seem more like a tragedy"

Quietly devastating is one of my favourite ways to describe something, but nothing's deserved it as aptly as Teffi's memoir of fleeing the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution. Her breezy descriptions of the mundane and ridiculous aspects of refugee life are humorous in their honesty and make the ultimate acceptance that she and her fellow travelers will never be able to return home hit all the harder.

erboe501's review against another edition

4.0

I picked this up earlier in the year when the Russia-Ukraine war was in its earlier stages. So it is particularly poignant to read about a refugee from Bolshevik Russia fleeing to Ukraine 100 years ago. Teffi is a wonderful writer. Poetic, insightful. Able to infuse humor into awful situations. I learned more about the late 1920s Russian situation through the must humane of lenses. I would like to read more of Teffi in the future, and would recommend this to anyone curious about the conflict or interested in a Russian woman's relationship with her literary fame/authorship. It was also deeply sad to know that Teffi would never realize her dream to return home to a stable free Russia.

myrthekorf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

krobart's review against another edition

4.0

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/review-1357-memories-from-moscow-to-the-black-sea/

brendan_h's review against another edition

5.0

This book is so damn good.