Away

Book Description

Critics

• A survival instinct

  Away by Amy Bloom 240pp Granta, £10.99 In her new novel Amy Bloom, previously a sharp chronicler of contemporary sensibility, reinvents herself as a romantic chronicler of 1920s America. Her heroine, Lilian Leyb, is also a confident mistress of reinv ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• To Russia, for Love

  It’s 1924, and Lillian Leyb, from Turov, Russia, has just made her way through Ellis Island to Manhattan. Life on the Lower East Side may be tough, but wily Lillian is prepared for it. When hungry, she steals what she thinks won’t be noticed (“She bo ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

• 

  Oedipus is a woman tryng to get back to Russia

  Story of the truly wandering Jew who escapes Russia and the pogroms leaving behind her murdered parents and husband and, she thinks, her 4 year old daughter. After finding a rather strange solution in the world of Yiddish theater on the lower east side (seamstress by day, mistress to a father and so ... (continue)

  Story of the truly wandering Jew who escapes Russia and the pogroms leaving behind her murdered parents and husband and, she thinks, her 4 year old daughter. After finding a rather strange solution in the world of Yiddish theater on the lower east side (seamstress by day, mistress to a father and son team by night, things are starting to settle when she hears that her daughter may be alive in Russia. The rest of the story is the woman's travels across the United States to Alaska and eventually Siberia. On the way she meets a variety of characters who are charming and surprising (the Chinese grifter and the black prostitute stand out). Seems a little farfetched at times (think "the road" by McCarthy but a little less dark), lots of pretty titilating sex scenes, but as our Jewish, Russian wanderer makes it across the States, you get to tag along and it is certainly worth the journey!

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  Gail Paris said on Mar 6, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  A short synopsis of the story: A young Jewish woman, Lillian, loses her entire family in a murderous Jewish pogrom during 1920's Russia. Thinking her young daughter also died, she immigrates to the U.S. in search of a better life. After carving out a niche for herself in NY, she finds out that Sophi ... (continue)

  A short synopsis of the story: A young Jewish woman, Lillian, loses her entire family in a murderous Jewish pogrom during 1920's Russia. Thinking her young daughter also died, she immigrates to the U.S. in search of a better life. After carving out a niche for herself in NY, she finds out that Sophie did not die, but was taken in by neighbors. Lillian takes on the daunting task of travelling back to Russia via the Bering Strait in order to reach Sophie.

  Oh my. I have led a sheltered life. I haven't been accosted by men for sexual favors in exchange for food, shelter, transportation, or other every day things that I take for granted. This was a gritty story, hard to read in places. At times, it put me in the mind of the Rolling Stones' lyrics "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need." At times the story was told from an omniscient point of view, so the reader had the luxury of knowing the fate of all the characters. It wasn't sewn up neatly, but competently. Lillian experienced staggering loss, but she also found great fulfillment.

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  Marion the librarian said on Jan 22, 2010 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (6)
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• English Books
• Hardcover 256 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1400063566
• ISBN-13: 9781400063567
• Publisher: Random House
• Pub date: Aug 21, 2007

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