My Life at First Try: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Soviet Union, Uncle Michael, Uncle Grisha (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This blazingly fast and funny semi-autobiographical novel follows a Russian man's comically earnest pursuit of the American dream. As a child, Alex, living in 1950s Siberia with his parents and grandparents, sees a picture of his American-born second cousin, Annie, and he believes he has found his destiny. Throughout his formative sexual experiences, he fantasizes about Annie, who embodies the exoticness of Western culture and the wholesomeness of the American dream. By the late 1970s, when Alex's parents decide to decamp for the U.S., Alex packs up his wife and their young daughter, too, and after the trio land in upstate New York, Alex goes to work at the IBM-like HAL Corporation while his wife, Lyuba, an internist, takes longer to settle in. At first, Alex is content with his new freedom-loving democratic identity, but as his children grow and Lyuba becomes more independent the dream begins to lose its sheen. The novel is hilarious, eye-opening and, by the end, a little depressing. It's tough not to have Alex's buoyant energy rub off on the reader. (Dec.)
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From School Library Journal

This debut novel presented in brief stories of fewer than 1000 words is a semiautobiographical account of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Alex, from his childhood in Communist Russia during the 1950s through the present day when he is in his midfifties, settled in Upstate New York with a wife and two daughters. Snapshots of Alex are presented as he goes through typical schoolboy antics and falls in love at an early age with his cousin Annie, whose family has moved to America. Alex goes to college, works briefly as a movie extra, is enlisted in the military, and finally marries a doctor named Lyuba, who reminds him of Annie. They immigrate to America in the 1980s, and he finally gets to meet Annie, who has no idea about his long-standing obsession with her. Against a backdrop of such historical events as the demise of Soviet communism, Alex deals with losing his job, raising children, and struggling with a writing career. There is little character development and even less plot or intrigue in this sketchy record of events. The novel reads more like a family blog and offers few tangible rewards.—David A. Beronä, Plymouth State Univ., NH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (November 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158243400X
• ISBN-13: 978-1582434001
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #229,877 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll like it!, November 10, 2008

By	M. Nisman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the sea of books, it's too easy to overlook the yet unknown author (I
am sure he won't remain unknown for long). I am so glad that I risked
my hard-yearned pennies to buy "My Life at First Try." I found that this
book is truly a marriage of exquisite language and a racing plot. It's
like a great dinner for everyone: pizza for the kids, truffles for the
high-brow, salad for the vegetarians and a raw steak for down-to-earth
guests.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, heartfelt and true., November 29, 2008

By	R. Seeber (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My Life At First Try is an intimate read, successful in grounding the reader in Alex's world as he comes of age, and then comes into middle age, and, finally, arrives at late middle age. The story moves at a clip due to the short chapters (it is a novel-in-flashes, meaning most of the chapters are under 1000 words), and yet one gets the feeling that each word, phrase, sentence is falling carefully from the narrator's tongue. There is no fluff in this book, just heartfelt experience rendered in a beautiful, economic prose. What I especially loved were the truths inherent in the narrator's responses to life, whether he's facing communist bureacracy, American work ethics, family politics or the travails of his own heart. I would recommend this book to anyone.

4.0 out of 5 stars Is This Poetry or Fact?, June 2, 2009

By	Dan Sakach "Truth Seeker" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

The designated genre is "Novel". But the title suggest a memoir or biography. Each chapter begins with a date stamp parallel with the author's life. Events are linked by recurrent themes such as Alex's fond attraction to his American cousin Annie or his dreadful paranoia over life in post Stalinist Soviet Union. Is this memoir or something else?

Alex writes in the first person. It is obvious that Alex is a fictional character through which the author conveys his own life story. So what we have here is real memory treated as fiction.

There are some simple reasons why books are written this way. First biography is too constraining, and without some celebrity status, biography attracts few readers. Another, fiction opens the floodgates of imagination. It exaggerates, omits, and indulges. The novelist is free to pull together by hook or crook the loose strands of his plot. Almost impossible to do in biography.

All that aside, I was impressed by Budman's metaphoric poetry. Here is an example from his description of a wild ride on a motor cycle.

"I feel on the higher level of consciousness like a French Aristocrat about to be guillotined, and on the lower, down-to-earth level, like fish about to be gutted."

The dichotomy reminds me of those subtle levels of awareness found in the Kabbalah. Simultaneous peaks and valleys. Moments where we explore life's complex emotions on our "first try" at living. He refers to the chapters as his "songs". Some work better than others. Overall the book moves nimbly and is a pleasure to re-read because of this poetry.