Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.