Foreign Brides: Stories [Paperback]

Elena Lappin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Picador USA (1980)
• ASIN: B000N75CHQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dull and unappealing stories, September 8, 2004

By 

Manola Sommerfeld (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foreign Brides (Hardcover)

The common denominator for all the short stories in the book is that the main character is always a foreign bride.

To me there was something dull and unappealing in the stories. Perhaps because the first story set the tone: the bride is too young to know what she is doing, and marries the groom in a whim and then regrets is dearly. I must admit that the story was well written, because it transmitted the sense of defeat and despair that a young woman in a foreign country and a loveless marriage must feel.

One of the stories, Black Train, has an interesting passage: "All émigrés have the same basic story to tell: there is that small death when they leave their home country, there is that short-lived euphoria when it looks like they've been blessed with a chance to rewrite their scripts in a free society, and then comes the life-long sadness once they realize that they have made an irreversible choice to cut themselves off from their roots. They can appear successful and lead exciting lives - but they will always feel like second-class citizens, wherever they are. And that huge void inside will never, ever be filled."

This got me thinking, because i am an émigré, yet i don't subscribe to those thoughts. Maybe if i had left my country for political reasons, and could never go back, but in this day and age, where you can be on the opposite corner of the world in a matter of hours, where's the trouble? As time goes by, boundaries blur and distances shorten. This reminds me of a long-forgotten song, titled "My Country, my shoes".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Defintiely not a Must-Buy, December 30, 2001

By 

A reader (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foreign Brides (Hardcover)

Good, but not especially memorable stories of women who made foreign marriages: either Americans who married non-Americans, or non-Americans who married into American families. I read the book several months ago, and none of the stories remains clear in my mind. Worth a trip to the library, but don't bother to buy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars almost great, short stories too dang short, December 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Foreign Brides: Stories (Paperback)

I have a foreign bride, Jewish Ukrainian and I'm Jewish American, so I was drawn to the title. I found the writing quite good and stories sometimes hilarious. But any of the stories could be more developed into something a bit meatier. The first and last story are connected and cleverly done. I like her general attitude about marriage: it might be a bit haphazard, but it can be an anchor for our lives and fulfilling despite the apparent randomness of mate selection. I liked it.