Away

published	2007 by Random House
binding	Hardcover
isbn	9781400063567
description	Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroy...more [close] Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable. [close]
date added	03-27-07 edit book

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AWAY A NOVEL	1	09/18/2007 01:06PM
AWAY A NOVEL	1	09/18/2007 01:06PM
AWAY A NOVEL	1	09/18/2007 01:06PM

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2008)

Ewurama rated it:

11/30/07

Read in September, 2007

The review is long overdue on this, but here goes…

I wanted to *love* this book. I’d come off a string of just-okay books and was very much in the mood for something epic and heartwarming (or heartrending) and memorable. It was well-reviewed and the storyline sounded promising, so I was excited to read it. Briefly, the book is about a young Russian woman, Lillian Leyb, who escapes to NYC after her family is massacred in a pogrom only to journey back to Siberia (!) upon discovering that...more The review is long overdue on this, but here goes…

I wanted to *love* this book. I’d come off a string of just-okay books and was very much in the mood for something epic and heartwarming (or heartrending) and memorable. It was well-reviewed and the storyline sounded promising, so I was excited to read it. Briefly, the book is about a young Russian woman, Lillian Leyb, who escapes to NYC after her family is massacred in a pogrom only to journey back to Siberia (!) upon discovering that her young daughter may actually be alive there.

The first disappointment for me was with the author’s writing style. This is not to say that she is a bad writer, but she has a way of putting things that sometimes stops me in my tracks—not in a “wow, that’s so beautiful let me re-read it” sort of way but in a “wait, who/what is she talking about now?” kind of way that made it hard to just get wrapped up in the story.

Beyond that, the story never really tied together the way I hoped it would. The author’s background is in short story writing, that seemed very evident in this book, her first novel. Lillian’s encounters with different characters felt like discreet short stories, but if I’m not reading a short story collection, I want all the parts of the book to hang together well. The novel’s disjointedness kept it from having that epic, sweeping feel that I was expecting and hoping for. I did feel, though, that I might enjoy reading one of Bloom’s story collections.

I expected to like Lillian more as well, but she proved only to be a protagonist (as opposed to a heroine) for me. And because I often found her dull (in both senses) and not especially endearing or relatable, the more fascinating characters in the book caught my eye. I was okay with them not being realistic because I had established going into the book that it just wasn’t that type of story, and I was willing to roll with it. (I’m mean, she’s a woman traveling alone to SIBERIA to look for her daughter in a time with no phones, no e-mail, no four-wheel drive, no Polarfleece, and I don’t even think she gets frostbite. Okay, maybe she does, but you know what I mean. Finding a 5 year old in a Siberian snowstorm has got to be even more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack, but whatever. I’m willing to work with an author who wants to begin with an unrealistic premise—but make it work!)

So, I often found the other characters (an enterprising prostitute with visions of world domination named Gumdrop Brown; a con-woman named Chinky Chang—sorry, that’s really her name—from a family of grifters) more interesting than Lillian herself and wanted to follow them through the rest of the book instead of her. (Come on, you guys! Don’t you want to read about them?? Gumdrop!) Of course, some of that has to do with the fact that Lillian is on a journey which necessitates leaving some of these people behind unless she wants to lead a giant ragtag caravan all the way to Siberia; but I think that’s part of the author’s challenge: you can leave readers wanting more—but don’t make them want a whole different book.

She also sleeps (wink) with a passel of dudes (and non-dudes, come to think of it) to keep herself out of trouble. That got kind of old. It felt like the author’s lazy shorthand way of showing us how desperate, determined, and in love with her daughter Lillian was. She would do anything…over and over. Okay. Got it.

(My review is cut off b/c it's too long! See Part 2 saved under the other version of the book I've listed.)...less

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

3 comments

Doug rated it:

01/26/08

Read in September, 2007

recommended to Doug by: NYTimes and EW
recommends it for: Unsqueamish

Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations:

1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these thi...more Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations:

1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these things aren't what you learned to do in church, and yet they must be done.

2. The book is full of fringe characters who live and barely survive in the time. She works as a seamstress, lives with cousins, sleeps on a couch, the floor, out in the wilderness, on a cot in jail, etc., over half the book. She meets prostitutes, men running away from the law, robbers, becomes friends with a gay man, spends time in a woman's correctional facility, etc. Overall, I felt that all of these characters seemed real for the time and you really are experiencing the world of the 1920s both in NYC and Alaska.

3. There were very frank and straight forward sexual experiences along the way. The feeling that it creates is that sex was almost less complicated and straight forward then than it is now. But we're a young, inexperienced girl from Russia who is desperate, has been married and likes men. So she is very submissive and doesn't worry too much about it when approached by men she likes. I've read that these scenes were a negative by some of the other reviewers. I would say that if you can handle an R rated movie, you can handle this and that for me, it added a human dimension that made you love and understand the main character, Lillian, very well. You have extreme sympathy for her and just shake your head at what she goes through and yet still moves positively ahead.

4. From time to time the author moves us away from our main character to tell the rest of the story of the life of one of the other main characters. It is a very satisfying, dot the i's, cross the t's experience. Each sub story finishes up within a few pages and yet we have this very fun synopsis of their life that makes us smile and doesn't leave us hanging like happens very often in this kind of book. Whatever happened to old so and so?

5. Many books have an obvious ending that we're planning on experiencing as we're moving forward. Although you will formulate a similar plan here, you will find that your plan won't be realized. And yet the ending is very satisfying as we zoom away from the main character and we have closure by the end of the book, even though the main goal of the main character is never satisfied. We're left with the feeling that life is really a series of coincidences that happen along the way and that your life, as much as you want to plan it out, is really more your ability to handle things as they happen, make adjustments and then be happy with what is given to you. Humans are resilient and capable of going through a lot of extreme situations and can still survive and even thrive.

6. Lillian has trudged on foot, boat, ship, train from NYC all the way through Alaska and up to Siberia to find her little lost daughter who may be still alive or more likely dead. But human instinct, that she-bear instinct, makes us do amazing and perhaps, stupid things. And yet the book is touching, wonderful and real. You have to wonder if some of the things she goes through could have really happened, and yet, you realize, deep down, that they did happen, as horrible as they seem from our protected, pampered perspective.

If you're a little squeamish about reality, sex, etc., perhaps you shouldn't read this book. But you'd be missing a very insightful and wonderful experience....less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

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