Leaving Leningrad: The True Adventures of a Soviet Emigre (HBI Series on Jewish Women) [Hardcover]

Ludmila Shtern (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584651008 | ISBN-13: 978-1584651000 | Publication Date: July 1, 2001 | Edition: 1st

A nostalgic and humorous memoir of life under communism and capitalism.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Educated as a geologist, Shtern emigrated from the Soviet Union with her husband and daughter in 1975. This autobiographical novel follows Tatyana Dargis (aka Shtern) from her colorful Soviet childhood, where she grew up in a family of intellectuals muzzled by the regime, through the romance of meeting her husband; the red tape of emigration; and the search for work and home once they reached the U.S. An exceptional storyteller, Shtern chooses perfect anecdotes that connect readers to Tatyana's character and growth while providing rich social background and commentary on both Soviet and American life. Best of all, Shtern is hilarious. Her comedy is wry, brash, tinged with neuroticism, and self-deprecating, and it almost always serves to illuminate larger truths--her recounted struggle to impress her future husband with romantic extravagances and rare books gives readers an almost cinematic glimpse of 1960s Leningrad. Readers will delight in Shtern's outrageous, intelligent wit in stories that illuminate, through her specific Soviet history, the increasingly common experience of resettling across borders. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"An exceptional storyteller, Shtern chooses perfect anecdotes that connect readers to Tatyana's character and growth while providing rich social background and commentary on both Soviet and American life. Best of all, Shtern is hilarious. Her comedy is wry, brash, tinged with neuroticism, and self-deprecating, and it almost always serves to illuminate larger truths her recounted struggle to impress her future husband with romantic extravagances and rare books gives readers an almost cinematic glimpse of 1960s Leningrad. Readers will delight in Shtern's outrageous, intelligent wit in stories that illuminate, through her specific Soviet history, the increasingly common experience of resettling across borders."--Booklist

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Brandeis; 1st edition (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584651008
• ISBN-13: 978-1584651000
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,209,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars mildly humorous, March 10, 2007

By 

Miriam Kairey (Eatontown, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leaving Leningrad: The True Adventures of a Soviet Emigre (HBI Series on Jewish Women) (Hardcover)

This was neither a great or terrible book. The author deals with the oppressions of living under the Soviet regime light-heartedly. This is a new angle compared to other books I have read on the subject. It is not particularly well written. I had to go back and reread certain parts to figure out what she was talking about. Also, I thought I was buying a book on a Jewish topic, and in fact the author is not Jewish, her husband is.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Vignettes of Soviet and American Life, October 21, 2001

By 

Daniel Kagan (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leaving Leningrad: The True Adventures of a Soviet Emigre (HBI Series on Jewish Women) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book greatly. Not so much an autobiography as a series of vignettes, Leaving Leningrad is very easy and entertaining reading. The witty personality of the author shines through every page so that by the end of the book you feel you know her well. You also feel you have seen what it must have been like to live in the Soviet Union in the 60's and 70's - not from the commonly available perspective of an academic or a dissident, but from the point of view of the ordinary everyday working stiff. That's what makes the book not only light and fun, but also enlightening. Read it in an evening (that's all it takes) and I'm sure you'll be glad you did. I was.