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Richard Derus's Reviews > Snow in May: Stories
Snow in May: Stories
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Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up in honor of flashes of real talent
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA LIBRARYTHING EARLY REVIEWERS. THANK YOU.
My Review: Stories about Russian life, that transport you to a time and place, yet leave you wondering what the hell it is that you just read. Do people in this capitalist society have empathy enough to spare for those whose lives are like theirs but poorer? Love Italian Style, or In Line for Bananas made me wonder. A woman whose inner life is whirling away as she stands in a Soviet-era line to get necessities, planning, dreaming, wondering if she dares to fuck a footballer visiting from Italy...Rumba, the meditations of a man teaching a gifted but very recalcitrant student to dance, trying to persuade better consistency and sign both their tickets out of the hellish poverty gripping them; or Snow in May, a kid's complete failure to focus on a very important piano recital looming before his fantasizing eyes.
Set in Magadan, a former Stalinist gulag town, or featuring characters from it, The stories interlink in ways I found unsatisfying. Too little cohesion to form a novel, too much to be a collection (which should give an overview of an author's interests and intentions, not just develop the same ones), it was a well-written but poorly thought out presentation of an interesting talent's capabilities.
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA LIBRARYTHING EARLY REVIEWERS. THANK YOU.
My Review: Stories about Russian life, that transport you to a time and place, yet leave you wondering what the hell it is that you just read. Do people in this capitalist society have empathy enough to spare for those whose lives are like theirs but poorer? Love Italian Style, or In Line for Bananas made me wonder. A woman whose inner life is whirling away as she stands in a Soviet-era line to get necessities, planning, dreaming, wondering if she dares to fuck a footballer visiting from Italy...Rumba, the meditations of a man teaching a gifted but very recalcitrant student to dance, trying to persuade better consistency and sign both their tickets out of the hellish poverty gripping them; or Snow in May, a kid's complete failure to focus on a very important piano recital looming before his fantasizing eyes.
Set in Magadan, a former Stalinist gulag town, or featuring characters from it, The stories interlink in ways I found unsatisfying. Too little cohesion to form a novel, too much to be a collection (which should give an overview of an author's interests and intentions, not just develop the same ones), it was a well-written but poorly thought out presentation of an interesting talent's capabilities.
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