60 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful beginning and end, problematic middle, September 16, 2007
I loved the beginning of this book. I loved its faint Yiddish inflections, the bravery of its main character, the world Amy Bloom places her in, the sadness driving her. But then my heart started to sink as I realized she was going to keep Lillian going, on a Homeric journey, meeting one character after another like an odyssey, never staying in one place very long, rushing too quickly forward, and giving each new character an aria about their lost love. While reading the first 50 pages, I wrote emails to friends and family telling everyone to rush to buy this...then wrote back to say never mind. Then she won me back in the last 40 pages or so. There were things I really admired in the writing and things that didn't work at all -- I'm surprised an editor didn't give Bloom better advice, particularly about the sexual element that so oddly (and off-puttingly, often) appears in every experience, and also about the way she runs off with characters instead of sticking to the point. Every character is different, but each has such similar stories to tell that I found them uninteresting (and unreal) very quickly. It's hard to tell, too, if Bloom, meant to leave the inflection behind once Lillian leaves New York, or if the writer simply lost her way. It seemed like a glaring mistake to me (if Lillian has learned the English language on her travels, if that were made clear, maybe the loss of the inflected narration would have made more sense). Still, I found chunks of this to be a page-turner and moving. But to link these adventures together into a novel doesn't hide the fact that Bloom really is a short story writer. All in all, this doesn't satisfy as a novel, though I have high regard for a lot in it.
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88 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Transport Yourself into the Brain and Life of a 22 year old Russian Immigrant., September 8, 2007
Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations:
1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these things aren't what you learned to do in church, and yet they must be done.
2. The book is full of fringe characters who live and barely survive in the time. She works as a seamstress, lives with cousins, sleeps on a couch, the floor, out in the wilderness, on a cot in jail, etc., over half the book. She meets prostitutes, men running away from the law, robbers, becomes friends with a gay man, spends time in a woman's correctional facility, etc. Overall, I felt that all of these characters seemed real for the time and you really are experiencing the world of the 1920s both in NYC and Alaska.
3. There were very frank and straight forward sexual experiences along the way. The feeling that it creates is that sex was almost less complicated and straight forward then than it is now. But we're a young, inexperienced girl from Russia who is desperate, has been married and likes men. So she is very submissive and doesn't worry too much about it when approached by men she likes. I've read that these scenes were a negative by some of the other reviewers. I would say that if you can handle an R rated movie, you can handle this and that for me, it added a human dimension that made you love and understand the main character, Lillian, very well. You have extreme sympathy for her and just shake your head at what she goes through and yet still moves positively ahead.
4. From time to time the author moves us away from our main character to tell the rest of the story of the life of one of the other main characters. It is a very satisfying, dot the i's, cross the t's experience. Each sub story finishes up within a few pages and yet we have this very fun synopsis of their life that makes us smile and doesn't leave us hanging like happens very often in this kind of book. Whatever happened to old so and so?
5. Many books have an obvious ending that we're planning on experiencing as we're moving forward. Although you will formulate a similar plan here, you will find that your plan won't be realized. And yet the ending is very satisfying as we zoom away from the main character and we have closure by the end of the book, even though the main goal of the main character is never satisfied. We're left with the feeling that life is really a series of coincidences that happen along the way and that your life, as much as you want to plan it out, is really more your ability to handle things as they happen, make adjustments and then be happy with what is given to you. Humans are resilient and capable of going through a lot of extreme situations and can still survive and even thrive.
6. Lillian has trudged on foot, boat, ship, train from NYC all the way through Alaska and up to Siberia to find her little lost daughter who may be still alive or more likely dead. But human instinct, that she-bear instinct, makes us do amazing and perhaps, stupid things. And yet the book is touching, wonderful and real. You have to wonder if some of the things she goes through could have really happened, and yet, you realize, deep down, that they did happen, as horrible as they seem from our protected, pampered perspective.
If you're a little squeamish about reality, sex, etc., perhaps you shouldn't read this book. But you'd be missing a very insightful and wonderful experience.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
~~~If you're thinking about reading this book..., May 23, 2010
...consider the following:
1) You're ok reading books that make a serious effort to historically locate human sexuality.
2) You recognize sex and desire are integral parts of our humanity and take many forms. This means you are comfortable reading scenes involving gay sex, sex as currency, and sex as love.
3) You're ok reading books that are not obviously character or plot driven. The best comparisons I can think of here are Jeanette Winterson or Tony Morrison. Bloom's language is not difficult but I want to warn you that the your particular reading psychology (taste) may work against you here. It is not surprising to me that so many readers had a difficult time trying to identify with Lillian. This book isn't about Lillian; Lillian is a vessel for a more general commentary the author is trying to make. I thought this was really obvious. Many readers are used to a more traditional book where the author does overtime to make the inner world of the protagonist alive so that the reader more easily identifies with the protagonist. Bloom doesn't really do anything like that. Lillian is what you make of her. Any conclusions or interpretations you take from her story are your entirely your own. Bloom makes no effort to push you any direction with regards to Lillian. Many readers find this disconcerting b/c they keep trying to force their expectations of how the book is supposed to read onto the text and become frustrated/disappointed that Lillian remains mysterious or that the book goes somewhere else. This can be observed in many other reviews for the book here.
4) You are ok with discontinuity in setting. Each location in the book is entirely new, independent of the previous ones, and contains its own set of characters. The author puts a strong emphasis on the hidden lives of the people around us and the strange places life can take us. I think this is where the true beauty of the book lies.
5) If you read some of the other reviews and felt that they were in any way ignorant/prudish/shallow you will probably love this book
6) The quality of the writing in this book is top notch. The metaphors and imagery are absolutely gorgeous and reflect Bloom's prodigious talent. I guarantee you will not be left unimpressed and this will become one of your favorite all-time books if you are ok with 1-5.
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I work at a bookstore in Seattle. Demographically I have found that overwhelming young (20's, 30's) liberal audiences enjoy this book.
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