Many of the characters who populate Krasikov's stories are mostly women, some are new to America; some still live in the former Soviet Union, in Georgia or Russia; and some have returned to Russia to find a country they barely recognize and people they no longer understand. Mothers leave children behind; children abandon their parents. Almost all of them look to love to repair their lives, and when love isn't really there, they attempt to make do with relationships that substitute for love. One More Year is made up of stories of people who hold out hope, despite the odds, that life will be kind to them.
I really wanted to fall in love with this book, and while I liked some of the stories, it didn't do as much for me overall as I had hoped.
As it says above from the book flap most of the characters in the stories are in some kind of transition or upheaval in their lives. Some of these stories, like Better Half, really worked for me. You could sense the characters uncertainty and understand their actions. To get all this across in the few pages of a short story is impressive.
Some others, like Companion, didn't work quite as well. I felt like I didn't know the characters at all, and their actions and loyalties didn't make much sense to me.
The author is at work on her first novel, and while I wasn't blown away with the short stories, I will keep an eye out for the novel. 3 stars
Order One More Year: Stories
by Sana Krasikov
I really wanted to fall in love with this book, and while I liked some of the stories, it didn't do as much for me overall as I had hoped.
As it says above from the book flap most of the characters in the stories are in some kind of transition or upheaval in their lives. Some of these stories, like Better Half, really worked for me. You could sense the characters uncertainty and understand their actions. To get all this across in the few pages of a short story is impressive.
Some others, like Companion, didn't work quite as well. I felt like I didn't know the characters at all, and their actions and loyalties didn't make much sense to me.
The author is at work on her first novel, and while I wasn't blown away with the short stories, I will keep an eye out for the novel. 3 stars
Order One More Year: Stories
by Sana Krasikov
2 comments:
I am going to be reading this one this year at some point. I am sorry it wasn't quite as good as you hoped it would be, but it sounds like you enjoyed enough of it to make it worth trying. Thanks for your great review, Melissa.
The fact that there are stories set in the republic of Georgia interests me greatly as this was one of my favorite places to visit.
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