Good book. Eland lived in Russia and made it to US. Memoir. ( )

This wonderful memoir full of humor, wit, and wisdom is set in the Soviet Union during the 1950's and 1960's. Decades of rule by a repressive state led to form of governance in which the people and the rulers acted as if all was well, while knowing that their rigid ideological system had failed. Yet rich individual and family lives carried on. Gorokhova combines good writing with refreshing honesty. ( )

A memoir of childhood in the Soviet Union from the perspective of 30 years as an emigré in the USA. Starts of well but soon descends into syrupy sentimentality and imagined set pieces designed to illustrate aspects of Soviet life. Far from the Turgenev she felt forced to read. ( )

This book was even better than I'd expected. Elena Gorokhova writes about her life in this book, about how it was growing up in Russia during the 60's and 70's. She starts by telling a little about her grandparents, uncles and other relatives, and then introduces her self as a baby, as a child unwanted at first by her father.

The imagery is powerful. She describes her apartment and other surroundings, a small 2 room place with cement floors, halls stinking of urine, and bland, plain food. Even though her mother is highly educated, an anatomy professor, this is how they live. And how most others live as well. Long lines of people stand waiting for rolls of toilet paper and bread. There are only 2 kinds of nail polish available anywhere. Anything above and beyond one's basic needs is evil, capitalist, materialist, Western.... and prohibited. Citizens are not allowed to even carry foreign currency. If they are caught carrying foreign money they are arrested. Many books are banned. And new buildings are rickety, w/doorknobs missing and elevators that barely work.

One of my favorite parts of the book was in the beginning , when Lena is taking English lessons. Both Lena and her tutor are baffled by the word "privacy" . They look it up in the dictionary and find synonyms, such as 'isolation', but still the meaning of it eludes them. The concept is not a Russian one. And it is many years before she learns what the meaning and value of it is.

I loved Elena's writing style too. And it was fascinating to me to get an insider's Russian view of America. ( )

This was a tender insightful memoir of Elena Gorokhova growing up in 1960's Leningrad. ( )