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Katya = The Russlander
Katherine (Katya) Vogt is now an old woman living in Winnipeg, but the story of how she and her family came to Canada begins in Russia in 1910, on a wealthy Mennonite estate. Here they lived in a world bounded by the prosperity of their landlords and by the poverty and disgruntlement of the Russian workers who toil on the estate. But in the wake of the First World War, the...more
Hardcover, 364 pages
Published
August 11th 2004
by Milkweed Editions
(first published 2001)
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I have now read this book through twice with several years in between readings and I have to say... one of the best books I've ever read. Much of that is due to the fact that the book chronicles the events of a typical Mennonite family living in Russia during this time period. Eventhough most of my family had already left for Canada at this time, I still enjoyed reading about the lifestyle my ancestors would have been living had they never left.
I learned a great deal about the tradit...more
I learned a great deal about the tradit...more
Birdsell writes wonderful prose in this story of Katya, a Mennonite girl who escapes being slaughtered along with most of her other family during World War 1 in pre-communist Russia. I found this book started off rather slowly, but wound up being quite an interesting historical read.
I was really looking forward to this book but I was rather disappointed by it. The story is very good but I had a hard time getting into the book because of the way it is written. I think it's a shame; it could have been so much better!
A rather dour fictionalized account of German Mennonites in Russia. Well written, but very little to offer besides the straitforward narrative of heartship and war in Russia.
I read this book just after The Road. I was on holiday, and my husband was pleading with me to get ready, everyone was waiting for us in the lobby, but I just couldn't put the book down and had to finish it before supper! It starts off with meandering memories of a girl and her Mennonite family in Russia, and the community there. There are tensions between her father and the rich Mennonite family that owns the land. But when the Russian revolution starts, life becomes incredibly frightening....more
I could not get into this book. I read about 50 pages, and then gave up. It was boring, and I didn't care about any of the characters.
I loved this book. It has really stuck with me and I've read it 3 or 4 times now.
Liked this book. Especially liked the story set in Russia and the persecution there.
I've been wanting to read this novel for a long time. It deals with the daily lives of a Mennonite family in Russia just before the revolution after which their whole world changes and they must now deal with much suffering and ultimately severe brutality at the hands of anarchists & Bolsheviks. My grandparents were Mennonites who emigrated from Russia during the early 1920's and I wanted to get a better sense of how they lived, what they had to deal with and why they eventually decided to come...more
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How can you not like a book where everyone gets slaughtered?!
Actually this was not as painful to read as I anticipated - the story was gripping and the historical and cultural aspects were fascinating. It will be really interesting to contrast the Mennonites of this book with those in the next book I'm reading - A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews.
Actually this was not as painful to read as I anticipated - the story was gripping and the historical and cultural aspects were fascinating. It will be really interesting to contrast the Mennonites of this book with those in the next book I'm reading - A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews.
Has there been an ethnic group, religion or culture that has not faced indignity and injustice? This story recounts the horrors faced by Mennonites in Russia in a personal way. Made me wonder how it is that history continues to repeat itself, in one way or another, over and over and over again.
75 pages in and the book was not holding my interest at all. I can't even really tell you what happened!
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