Russian Tattoo by Elena Gorokhova

*This book was received through the Amazon Vine Program*

I read "A Mountain of Crumbs" and really enjoyed it.  So I was interested in seeing where the rest of Gorokhova's life went after she came to the United States on the arm of her new (stranger) husband.  Having studied English for most of the time she was in Russia, it is still quite the transition to a new culture.

In her previous memoir, Elena meets a young American man who says he will marry her and have an "open" relationship in order to bring her to the United States.  She isn't sure what she's signing up for, but quickly realizes that he is not the man she had thought he might be and that she is lonely and unsure of how to act in this new country.  Eventually they fall apart and she is able to meet another man who will become her husband and the father of her child.  As she transitions into a way of life here, her mother still worries about her though and eventually she has worries of her own as a mother that she must overcome in order to be more at peace with her life.

Elena was very much a worrier in this book.  She worried about everything.  And I can't say that I blame her.  She had a lot going on and felt very out of place and didn't have the support she apparently needed when she first moved.  Her first husband seemed distant and cold, but we are just getting her side of the story.  I do wonder if she ever reimbursed him the money he spent in bringing her to the United States, but I suppose at this point it doesn't matter.  Her mother was not as strongly written in this book either.  She was a sideline, a strife that was dealt with sometimes, and an endearing mother in others that the author recalled fondly. The same goes for her sister who is briefly mentioned.  Her husband gets a lot of detail though (the 2nd one) and I felt that he really was a good person.

I wasn't as engrossed in this one as I was the first.  It was somehow both lengthy and too short all at once.  The parts I wanted more detail on (transition to life in America, customs, etc.) there just didn't seem to be enough of, and those I didn't really care about (family members Dr. appointments) there was quite a bit of.  I thought her interactions with her family were interesting, but didn't need to know every kind of Dr. her mother had appointments at.  I was also surprised at how little time was spent on her daughter as I expected that to be a larger part of the book.  Really, the best detail though was her description of encountering a hamburger for the first time.  It made an impact and showed just how different life in the Soviet Union is from here.

I can't say that it was an exceptionally strong 2nd memoir, but it certainly was expressive writing.   It does what a memoir should; bring you the life of the writer.

Russian Tattoo
Copyright 2014
315 pages

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

Ok, we're going to ignore the fact that I thought this was a food memoir because of its cover. That's what I get for not actually reading the description. But I like regular memoirs too, so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. And this one, a tale of growing up in Russia, has some very interesting memories in it.

Elena Gorokhova was born to a Physician mother and her third husband. Her mother, having gone into the medical field as it was deemed a reliable profession, has a series of unfortunate marriages which results in two kids. Elena, and her sister Marina. Elena grows up in a typical Russian household (not quite peasant but not the highest class of society either) and from an early age has an interest in the English language. This combined with her sister's desired profession of acting provides her mother with quite a few fits as she'd rather have them be in the medical field or engineers. Still, they follow their dreams and Elena follow the path of learning English only to have it present her opportunities that might not have existed otherwise.

Since this is a memoir we get Elena's opinions on all her family with her bias. Her sister, she obviously adored and admired, I can't recall too much bad being said about her. Elena definitely seemed to look up to her. Her mother, she was a bit harsh on. Several times in the book she mentions wanting to get away from her mother, but yet I don't feel as if we ever had the reason fully explained. She didn't agree with some of Elena's choices, but no huge fights or other disagreements are shown to back up that relationship. Regardless, her mother sounds like a wonderful woman and accomplished a lot with her life. I found her part of the book the best. Elena's father was a bit more distant but he seemed doting and despite not really wanting kids, he clearly loved Elena. Other people move in and out of her life and appear in stories, but aren't given the kind of description her immediate family is. Excepting one marvelous uncle that she meets on vacation.

As a memoir, this one is fairly standard. The author has a different spin because she grew up in Russia, so to an American reader there is a lot of interest and difference when compared to growing up anywhere else. Just the thought of queuing up for toilet paper is amazing to me, but it was a reality for Elena. But she does spare a lot of the troubling aspects and focuses more on funny stories about teaching English or her vacation near Turkey, or random things like that. The history and Russian politics is more told through her mother's story, which is a shorter part of the book. Despite having all these different aspects though, I found the pace of the book kind of slow. The stories, while showing Elena's life, stretched on a bit too much and could have been made more concise. It wasn't that I wasn't interested in them. I was in the beginning, but when they stretched into describing different kinds of alcohol and other random details, it lost my attention a bit. And I wish we would have had a little more than the short epilogue on her adjustment to life in America. You can definitely tell that she studied English extensively though, in my opinion, this book is flawless in language except for normal things that any English writer would do.

I would probably give this book 3.5 stars. Elena clearly led an intriguing and unconventional (by American standards anyway) life and I just wish that we would have had the opportunity to learn more about certain areas of her life than read the massive amount of detail that was spent on others. However, the parts about her mother were excellent and definitely the best part of the book.

A Mountain of Crumbs
Copyright 2009
305 pages

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine program**

A memoir of food and longing, that's the sub-title of this book. And I think it's a very apt one. But it's also a book of history. I think I learned more about Russia from this book than I did in the few classes I took in college.

Anya grew up in Russia. But her mother, discontent with the way things were, finally left for the United States, and took Anya with her. Now, years later, Anya reflects on her time and of her parents and grandparents lives in Russia as well. Anya and her mother decide to cook through the dishes of Russia by decade. Starting with the decadent 1910's all the way up through the new millennium. Sadly, most of these decades are marked with hunger and shortage and encouraged a creative use of ingredients. But these are the same dishes that have Anya longing for the past.

Anya had a lot of complicated relationships. Probably the most important person in her life was her mother. They appeared to be constant companions and her mother is a very strong person. It was amazing how she was able to raise a child on so little and be brave enough to go to a new country on her own. Her father was a little less stellar and seemed to have a form of depression or drug addiction. And the way she made it sound was if that was a very common thing for men in Russia. Her grandfather was also an unusual type, being in the military he had a very strong pride in his country and some advantages that probably helped in their survival (or hindered it at times).

I had originally thought this book would be mostly about food. And it had some food included. Anya and her mother did a lot of cooking and reminiscing over food they ate while living in Russia. But I'd actually classify this book more of a history. It told of the different leaders and the living conditions under each. It also went into a little of how the military worked and the difference between classes of citizens despite the communist state. And of course there were the personal stories of Anya's life. The pace was decent, although when describing the politics it could drag a little bit sometimes. The little bit of the food that was described I have to say didn't sound very appetizing to me. Lots of mayonnaise, although it sounds as if Russian mayo is different than American. She did include some recipes, one for each decade, at the back of the book.

While I would have liked just a little more food, I thought this an informative memoir. It certainly opened up a bit of Russia from the perspective of someone who lived during some volatile times.

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking
Copyright 2013
334 pages