The Patriots

by Sana Krasikov

A sweeping multigenerational debut novel about idealism, betrayal, and family secrets that takes us from Brooklyn in the 1930s to Soviet Russia to post-Cold War America

When the Great Depression hits, Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn College for what appears to be a plum job in Moscow—and the promise of love and independence. But once in Russia, she quickly becomes entangled in a country she can’t escape. Many years later, Florence’s son, Julian, will make the opposite journey, immigrating back to the United States. His work in the oil industry takes him on frequent visits to Moscow, and when he learns that Florence’s KGB file has been opened, he arranges a business trip to uncover the truth about his mother, and to convince his son, Lenny, who is trying to make his fortune in the new Russia, to return home. What he discovers is both chilling and heartbreaking: an untold story of what happened to a generation of Americans abandoned by their country.

The Patriots is a riveting evocation of the Cold War years, told with brilliant insight and extraordinary skill. Alternating between Florence’s and Julian’s perspectives, it is at once a mother-son story and a tale of two countries bound in a dialectic dance; a love story and a spy story; both a grand, old-fashioned epic and a contemporary novel of ideas. Through the history of one family moving back and forth between continents over three generations, The Patriots is a poignant tale of the power of love, the rewards and risks of friendship, and the secrets parents and children keep from one another.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Russia, Historical, Novels, Jewish, Literary Fiction

538 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2017

About the author

Sana Krasikov was born in Ukraine and grew up in the former Soviet republic of Georgia before immigrating to New York. She has since lived in Moscow and, more recently, Nairobi.
Her debut collection ONE MORE YEAR went on to be translated into eleven languages and selected for the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" Award. It won the 2009 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions prize.
To research her first novel, THE PATRIOTS, Sana traveled to the oil fields of Texas and KGB record warehouses in Moscow. Sana lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Always Pouting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another historical fiction that follows a family over generations and tries to incorporate their lives with the political shifts of the period. Florence leaves Brooklyn after the Great Depression to live in Russia and we follow her journey as well as her son's modern day journey back to Russia. There were a lot of good parts in the book and the writing had potential but I just did not enjoy the book. The transitions from one scene to the next were poorly done and Krasikov does not really know how to construct a story. The book is all over the place and there was a lot of unnecessary details like the whole arc with Florence's son and grandson which was clearly there just to fit the formula popular in historical fiction right now of children going back to find out what happened to their parents under fascist regimes. The author didn't really build any suspense or let the story develop, a lot of the books was just the reader being told everything we need to know with some actual story unfolding in between long paragraphs of the characters relating everything they want us to know. It's an okay book but I just couldn't get into it.

Also I felt like the author tried really hard to keep slipping in literary references, like I understand that you're well read but maybe you should spend more effort on how the story unfolds rather than showing us all how well read you are.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for those who like historical fiction. Florence leaves America for Russia in 1933. On the steamer heading east, she notices the immigrants heading back home like she was “watching an old Ellis Island film reel flipped by the Depression into reverse: masses of immigrants returning to the ship, being herded backwards through the great human warehouse as Lady Liberty waved them goodbye”.

This is a big book, taking on three generations from Florence through her grandson. The book isn't told in a linear fashion, but jumps forwards and backwards.

Florence is a sympathetic character. Foolhardy, big on ideas but not practical. Her decisions come back to haunt not only her and her son, Julian, who spends 7 years in an orphanage while his mother is sent to a work camp, but many others. Julian comes back to Russia to work for a partnership with a Russian oil company. Born in Russia, he is the only true American in mindset, as he struggles with the graft and corruption in the oil industry. He also struggles with the truths he learns about his mother. The only character I had no sympathy for was Leonard, her grandson. A real jerk who thinks he's better than he is, he returns to Russia trying to make his first million before he's 35.

Krasikov does a great job of describing each era, from the Stalin regime to 2008 with its capitalist overtones. She's done her research and it shows. The book alternates between a sly humor and then true fear. “Purges and politics aside, there was plenty of fun to be had in Moscow in 9134.” But the same bureaucracy that was made fun of in the earlier years becomes scary as hell just a few years later. And it's so interesting to see that the war years were the years the Russian Jews felt safe.

The author occasionally uses Julian to give the reader a sense of history, as with the story of Joseph Davies, the US Ambassador during the late 1930s. Some might not care for this approach, but I liked it. It gave you an unbiased sense of what Florence and Leon were dealing with. I learned a lot about The Soviet Union, especially the Stalin years. Extremely well written.

As an interesting little side note, the chapters are labeled with passport stamps, giving you the city and year. It’s a neat touch.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently on a small Russian kick in my reading and enjoying it very much. This is the story of a young, idealistic Jewish woman from Brooklyn named Florence Fein who goes to Russia in the early 1930s to pursue love and the hope for a better life. Reality soon hits her smack in the face in the form of hardship, deprivation, and prejudice but she is determined to stick with it and ignores the pleas of her family to return home. Her fascinating story is told in a third person narrative.

In contrast, her son, Julian Brink, tells his own story in the first person voice--bringing us into the world of modern day Russia as he travels there to do business and visit with his son, Lenny. Julian comes to a better understanding of his mother as he looks into the official record of her past and talks to his uncle Sidney.

Be prepared for a long, slow, bleak read. I honestly never felt compelled to return to reading after putting the book down for a few hours but in the end, I'm glad I read it. I was very touched by the life of Flora Solomonova Brink, a naive woman of ideals and political sympathies, blinded by principles, who makes many mistakes and pays the price. I thoroughly enjoyed the look at Russian life portrayed in the story and what it was like to live in fear of that pounding on the door in the middle of the night. A cautionary tale in many ways!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an arc of this book.

[Rebbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing itself is worthy of 5 stars, and right off the bat I will say that I won't be a bit surprised if this makes it on the bestseller list. This isn't at all farfetched, considering that it's written with visualizations in mind, perhaps as if it were meant to be a movie or something.

That takes a significant amount of talent, so props to the author for being able to pull it off. With that being said, I do think the book could've been quite a bit shorter. The book is 538 pages, and I found myself skimming over some pages that I felt were not integral to the plot and could've easily been omitted.

I get it, though. In some instances, books are written that way on purpose, so the reader can be sucked into that world and live there vicariously through the main characters. Each tidbit is meant to be savored.

But I just don't think that worked here. Perhaps it was the extreme naivete and idealism of the main character, Florence Fein. Imo, she didn't have enough realism to keep her grounded. Rather, her head-stuck-in-the-clouds liberal viewpoint (for that era) of making such a huge decision to leave her home country (the USA) for the precarious country of Russia lends credence to the idea that she didn't have the proper amount of life experience and foresight to make such a drastic decision.

Sure, people leave their native countries and trek across the world all the time, but they usually don't falsely believe they have it all figured out. Life doesn't work that way.

I did, however, deeply appreciate the fact that the author did such a superb job with showing the aftermath and long-term consequences that a single decision can make. We never know how our decisions will effect our children and grandchildren, especially if they're not even born yet.

I also liked how the author showed a different agenda in life (perhaps a different value set?) depending on the way you're raised not just by your family, but by the society in which you live. It can make it seem like parent and child are worlds apart in their views and opinions.

Overall, it's a 3.5 star read, and it might be a great choice for those who love historical fiction, and/or those who enjoy novels written from rare povs.

Thanks to netgalley.

[Christine Zibas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The point, my friend," Sidney said sharply, "is we're all leashed pretty tightly to the era we're living through. To the tyranny of our own time. Even me. Even you. We're none of us as free as we'd like to think. I'm not saying it as an excuse. But very few of us can push up against the weight of all that probability. And those that do -- who's to say their lives are any better for it?"


The novel goes on to show that Sidney, the brother of the main character, is reflecting on the life of his sister, Florence Fein, who "unpinned herself from one set of circumstances, only to be pinned down by another." For Florence, it was the hope (during the Depression-era environment of the United States) that Russia might offer a more promising future for her.

Of course, readers can easily imagine where that leads during the age of Stalin. Florence eventually is indicted for her "crimes" against Russia (despite pouring her heart and soul into building a new world), is sent to a Siberian labor camp, nearly dies, and is estranged from her only son for years. This is the story of that tale, alternately told by that very same son in more present times. So the historical novel switches back and forth between mother and son to provide a more fulsome overview.

Given what we now know happened to the idealistic Soviet experiment, it may seem hard to understand why anyone would choose to leave the US for the greener pastures of the Soviet Union. But that was a different time, a time in our own country when people were willing do anything for a little hope.

A favorite quote from the book reflects people on the move during the Depression, seeking a better life within their own country:

They arrived that summer moving south with the trains, like logs down a swollen river. Entire forests of people, felled, bound and piled, and now cast adrift into the rising water.

Florence seeks her own release from that rising water all around. Combining an adventurous spirit with the idealistic folly of youth, Florence leaves her Brooklyn home to make a new life. This story, however, is more than the imagining of one woman's tale; instead, it is a reflection of the larger sea-changes of history.

Brilliantly written, The Patriots is a captivating saga that surprised me with its relatability and depth. Life is seldom what we imagine it to be in our 20s. Perhaps that's a good thing, too. If we knew what lay ahead for us, would we have the courage to move forward?


Thanks to Good Reads and Spiegel & Grau for letting me read this fine work.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a work of multi generational historical fiction. It starts in the United States during the 1930s, in the depths of Depression. Florence is a starry eyed idealist who believes that the Soviet Union is a socialist utopia, while the US is a country of decadent capitalism. She emigrates to the USSR in 1934. She is soon disappointed, but pride prevents her from going back to the US. She believes that she can make the world better by staying in the USSR.
She is forced to become an informer by the NKVD(Soviet secret police). This story moves back and forth between her son, Yulik/Julian, herself and her grandson, Lenny. The story moves between 1930s USSR and present day Russia.
Some characters who interact with them:
Henry Robbins, a US Air Force pilot in the same labor camp as Florence
Sidney, Florence's brother
Essie, a friend of Florence from the ship journey to the USSR in 1934
Timur Kachak, commander of 150 labor camps in Perm, Siberia

Some quotes:
Release of thousands of USSR political prisoners--"Entire forests of people felled, bound and piled and now cast adrift into the rising water."
Yulik, talking about his time in orphanages--"Whenever I tell anyone that I spent ages six to thirteen, inside of public orphanages, they tend to arrange their face in a reaction I call the Purple Heart Ceremony."
The process of arresting and convicting political prisoners--"The prison cells were only the first stage of an operation whose ultimate aim was the harvesting and replenishment of slave labor."

There is sadness and a measure of redemption in this book. It is quite long, but reads well, once you are about 50 pages in. I read it in seven days. I recommend it to historical fiction fans.
I give 4 out 5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this book.

[Helene Jeppesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars.
This was the really beautiful and troublesome story of Florence, a Brooklyn girl who moves to Moscow in the 1930s because of a man and then ends up trapped in Russia. Meanwhile, her son is trying to find out information about his mother's story in today's world, in 2008, which means that we switch back and forth in time and only get the full picture in the end.
I think this story was important, but I also think it could've been shortened. Some passages were rather dragging which was a shame, because the underlying story was really very good and educating. "The Patriots" gives you a rare insight into the Russian regime during the Second World War and the ensuing decades. It's a story about identity and breaking your heritage, and Florence is a brave woman who's not afraid to try out her fortune in different ways than what is expected of her.
Definitely worth a read as long as you've got patience and stick to the story till the end.

[☮Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Patriots is a beautifully inspired epic of Florence Fein from Brooklyn, a career girl of Russian Jewish descent. Her job takes her to Cleveland to assist with a business deal between her American employer and a Russian company. Smitten with one of the Russians, she eventually trails him to the homeland. This begins her long story recounting the years 1932-1934 and up in Russia, turbulent years to put it mildly. She and her Jewish husband come through WWII virtually unscathed, safer there from persecution than perhaps anywhere else. But they are in Russia and so it does not remain safe for long. They are arrested for espionage and their little boy placed in an orphanage.

I much enjoyed Florence's story, alternated with a narration from her son Julian, who became an American. There was a third story of Julian's son Lenny, who resides in Moscow, and a visit from Julian, which I felt added very little to the story and almost, in fact, ruined it all for me. The book is over 500 pages and jumps around a great deal between countries and between timelines. This is a lethal combination for me and I felt like giving up on it many times. I'm glad to have finished though because it turned out to be a lesson in loyalties, faith, forgiveness, perseverance, promises kept, and much more.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

[Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Patriots by Sana Krasikov follows Florence Fein, a young Jewish American, on her journey to communist Russia in 1930s. Without going into details and giving away too many spoilers, I would mention that Florence is going on a treacherous road of disillusionment. She'd be trapped and gradually broken down by the totalitarian system. Parts of the novel also follow Florence's son and grandson, but the story never deviates from its main theme of individual bondage under the totalitarian rule.

What separates The Patriots from any other historical fiction is how beautifully it's written. I can see why writers and critters alike are raving about it. The back cover features accolades from Robert Olen Butler, Yann Martel, and Khaled Hosseini. As a reader, you'd be hard pressed to open a random page and not find an exquisitely written passage. Checking Ms. Krasikov biography, I see that she grew up in the former Soviet Union. I'm not sure when she came to America or whether English is her first language, but she is a master wordsmith. The book is well researched and full of little details that only the natives would know. I can tell that Ms. Krasikov's background helped her to bring life into different time periods of the Soviet era.

I would strongly recommend the novel to anyone interested in the subject and the time period, as well as to any lover of literary works of fiction.

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic work of historical fiction that looks at three generations and their complicated relationships with Russia. Though I do think WWII was glossed over too much, this is a compelling story with great characters. I read it several years ago now and I still think about it all the time - the mark of a fantastic book, in my eyes.

See my full review on Booktube!

[DeB]

Partway through "The Patriots", I came to realize that I was feeling apprehensive. Why? Well, the history is quite familiar, the dramatic effect on the family saga was therefore sadly muted and the constant shift between eras disrupted any small chance of my bonding with the Jewish family featured. A Jew travelling into Stalin's Russia is not going to be a cheerful tale, no matter how idealistic Florence Fein, the novel's main protagonist, might be.

Having recently read Second Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...), The Patriots cannot begin to compare to the voices of the Soviets who lived, believed in, suffered and continue to love the puzzle of their country.

If you are a novice to Russian history and prepared to slog through this long, detailed novel, you'll likely learn a lot.

However, I just don't find it sufficiently interesting. No rating and not finishing,

[Barbara (The Bibliophage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Patriots is historical fiction at its best. The story is told from three perspectives: Florence, her son Julian, and his son Lenny. They each have lived part of their lives in Russia, and part in the U.S. Florence moved to Russia from Brooklyn in the 1930s and got trapped under Stalin and Lenin's regimes. Julian (whose Russian given name is Yulik) was born in Soviet Russia, emigrated to America later, and still works in Russia sometimes. These two characters tell the bulk of the story.

It's 500 pages of complex, in-depth, well-edited language and word pictures. Krasikov doesn't use florid language, but builds layers of description. I felt as if I was inside the tiny rooms in the communal apartments. Or struggling with the conflict between freedom and political principals.

The themes are relevant today, despite much of the action taking place in the mid-twentieth century. How far are you willing to go to defend your family when you have no weapons? When you're well and truly trapped, is there any way to ease the burden?

I learned a lot about this time and place in history, and came to know all the main characters well. Krasikov is a master of this genre.

Thanks to Random House, Spiegel & Grau, and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Book Riot Community]

Sweeping multigenerational sagas are my jam, and this debut novel rings all my bells. It starts in NYC during the Great Depression, when Florence Fein leaves for a promising job in Moscow. But things are a lot more complicated than they seemed, and Florence ends up staying. Years later, her son Jacob travels to the US, but continues to work in Moscow while investigating his mother’s recently opened KGB file to learn more about her. What he discovers is part of a greater story of distrust and secrecy between the two countries. This poignant story of family, love, and secrets is a stunner.

Backlist bump: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak



Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Baba Flora didn’t regret her life. And neither do I. She had a front seat on history.”

I thought my jaw might drop. “Is that what she called it?”

“She always said, ‘The only way to learn who you are is to leave home’."

Rich is characters and history, the reader watches the strange twists and turns of fate for one family. As Florence Fein falls in with left leaning student groups at her city college in Brooklyn in the 1930’s, she is driven to leave her free American middle class life on a cloud of idealism. The Russia she finds changes through the years, and the girlish ideals she had dies along with her future. When she finds love and has a child with a fellow American expat, too she finds herself in trouble and soon, sent to a work camp. The novel follows Florence from her girlish beginnings and her reasons for going to Russia, and everything that leads up to her troubles. Too the reader is dropped into her son Julian’s time in the orphanage, her emigration to America and his return as a successful businessman as he tries to research his mother’s past. Julian’s son Lenny has a different vision of Russia and his opportunistic there. Just as idealistic as his Baba Flora once was, Julian and his son clash- as each of their understandings of Russia differ drastically.

Early on in the orphanage Julian thinks he can save his mother through a ‘redeeming future.’ “I’d never bought the line my parents were enemies, a word I could associate only with German fascists. Yet I also knew they were not true Russians.” It was easier to imagine they had made mistakes, ones Russian born people never would. He wants nothing more than to be the best Russian he can, to salvage any dignity lost through his parents carelessness. Julian goes on to work hard, to join in, but will it all be for not? Just how great can he be, if there is a cap on greatness due to his American, Jewish heritage? Just what is a real “Muscovite”? These are things he will discover as he grows up. Is his mother an enemy of Russia or not? It is the not knowing that so confuses Julian and sets the stage for his future.

What of Florence? Are all her friends, husband just co-conspirators or is it a narrative that is convenient to fictionalize in order to imprison the innocent? Were the very things Flora commit her heart to, abandon her own American comfort and family for her own undoing? “Suppressions and omissions were an unshakable habit of hers, as they are of so many who carry on unreciprocated romances with doomed causes.” The story of each character is tragic and doomed from the start. I spent a lot of time cringing at Florence’s naivete about her place in Russia. Florence starts with her head in the clouds and ends it broken and without hope. What a heck of a way to wake up to yourself, and the country you are in.

How easily the life of her son, and future grandson are shaped by choices she made before either were thought of. Florence ends up costing her loved ones so very much, the most for her son Julian. People turn on each other, eyes and ears are everywhere and before long one has to wonder if they are guilty, and of what? Culture shock, what exactly freedom means from one place to another, how countries are different, how they are the same, at 560 pages the reader is taken through a changing Russia. It’s easy to see how a young impressionable person can be caught up in a fight that isn’t quite their own, how a hunger to be a part of changing history can hook someone. When betraying others is the only way to save yourself, and your family- how far do you go? Do you dig your own grave in throwing dirt on others? This novel is staggering, I felt the push and pull of each character’s emotional state and it isn’t an easy novel. Half the time, just like the characters, you don’t know who to trust or where you stand. With The Patriots, the reader is able to sneak into Russia and live under the radar during changing times without capture, unlike our poor family within. I won’t ruin this with any spoilers. Yes, read it!

Publication Date: January 24, 2017

Random House Publishing Group- Random House

Spiegal and Grau

[Martie Nees Record · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC books are given before publication to professional reviewers for free in exchange for an honest review. I missed the publication deadline on “The Patriots,” and did not remember I owned the book until I saw a review of it in the NYT (which I did not read for fear of influencing my own review). I do hope my review, being written after publication, will still assist with this book’s sales, for this is historical fiction at its finest. The story revolves around a Jewish girl, from Brooklyn who lived in Russia from 1933 to 1979. The author, Sana Krasiko, moved between voices and decades. The story is linear except for the prologue, which takes place in the 1950s. After that the story of the mother, which is told chronologically and in the third person, begins. However, her story is punctuated by the first-person voice of her 60-year old son, who narrates in the year 2008. I enjoyed this writing style— it kept the prose fresh while showing the different views of the times. Both mother and son lived in Russia for parts of their lives. In the 1930s, when most were immigrating to the US, our heroine was leaving New York for the Old World. She remained trapped there under Lenin and Stalin’s rule. She was sent to a prison camp. The son was forced to live in orphanages until his mother was released in the 1950s. But before all this happened, she was romanticizing the possibilities of creating a better life in Russia. Looking at today’s news, this book could hardly feel more relevant to this reviewer. I shyly admit that I did not know that Putin was once a KGB officer.

In this novel, our Russian bound teen originally wanted to go to an elite American Women’s College. However, the family finances stood in the way, as her father's business suffered from the depression. She thus entered the co-ed world of NYC’s free public college education. It was here that she discovered other Jewish students arguing Marxism-Leninism and Communism vs. Capitalism. Her desire for pearls was replaced with a passion for political activism favoring socialized states. Think Barbara Streisand in “The Way We Were.” She graduated, and in her first job met and fell in love with a Russian man who was in the US for only a few months. To the horror of her family, she booked passage on a steamliner to Russia. She told her family that she was off to pursue her dream job and that she would be gone for one year, maybe two. In reality, she was really going to meet up with her Russian lover. Once she arrived and finally located her man, he rejected her. It appears that he was worldlier than she was, informing her to go home for she was in way over her head and that the USSR does not at all resemble a US college campus. Her pride would not let her return home. Besides, “Purges and politics aside, there was plenty of fun to be had in Moscow in 1934.” (One of the nice things about reviewing after publication is that I now can use quotes, unlike pre-publication.)

Eventually, she met a new young man. They married and had a child. Ironically, her husband was also a New Yorker who sympathized in Communist theories. In the early days of her marriage, her American passport was confiscated, which she demanded be returned to her. This was the beginning of her troubles with the secret police. Her confusion and fear during interrogations were shown when she informed on her best friend, another American girl that she met on the steamliner to Russia. Between non-stop questions with little time to think, she betrayed her friend in order to save her own family. In the long run she fails at this too. Despite her efforts to keep her family safe, her husband was shot, and she was imprisoned as a spy in a Holocaust-like concentration camp (think Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice”), being worked to death while covered with scabs from scurvy among other deadly ailments. These scenes were very hard to read. But, what was even harder, for me, was reading how her own US Embassy would not let her through the gates. It seems the US considered Americans in Russia as “pinko” traitors.

Still, before her imprisonment, she appeared happy to live in an apartment that held 12 people, with a common outhouse and a common kitchen where one had to hide their food for fear of stealing. These so-called apartments had no privacy or any conveniences at all. Even the light bulb in the entrance way was stolen so frequently that the residents were perpetually in the dark. While reading about the living conditions in “Patriots,” I had images of when the book and movie character “Dr. Yuri Zhivago” returned after the war to learn that his once-grand Moscow house had been divided into tenements. Her contentment to live this manner left her son, as well as this American reviewer, very confused about how easily she adjusted when “She had grown up on the elm-lined streets of Flat-bush, Brooklyn, debated… at Erasmus Hall High, studied mathematics among the first emancipated coeds at Brooklyn College, tuned in to Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats, and watched Cagney kiss Harlow on the projection screen at the Paramount.” How and why did this phenomenon happen?

Even in 1979, she refused to leave Russia to come to the US with her now grown son and his young family. She insisted that her life was in Russia, and that this was the country where she belonged. Mother and son had many issues around this subject. The reader knows that the real problem was as a 6-year old boy, her son, had no understanding that his mother didn’t abandon him, but was forcibly taken away from him. To make matters worse, the grown son was furious when he explained this to her and she replied that Russia takes care of their children.

Eventually, she does leave for America with her son, most likely to be with her grandson who she adored. Sill, mother and son never got along. Until her last breath, she wished she stayed in Russia. “Maybe I would have been less hard on my mother had she been another ordinary Russian afflicted with that national form of Stockholm syndrome they call patriotism. But she wasn’t. She was, like I am now, an American….What I could not abide was her unwillingness to condemn the very system that had destroyed our family.” Sadly, what the son didn’t know was that when Stalin’s purges began, she decided it was time to go home. But, by then it was way too late.

Dare I say that this multi-generational saga will become a classic? The reader will go through the history of the pre-Cold War, Cold War, and post-Cold War told as a mother-son story. Once I finished the book, I wondered how the author’s own roots influenced her writing. Krasiko is a Jewish woman who was born in Ukraine and grew up in the former Soviet republic of Georgia before coming to New York. Her character of the mother was so complex that I couldn’t help but wonder if she was a real person. Or maybe, my thoughts are due to the author’s talent?

The book ends with the mother’s younger brother giving her now almost senior citizen son possible clarity on his Mom’s stubbornness, finally answering the how and why of the phenomenon of a typical Brooklyn girl becoming a loyal Communist party member. Maybe it had nothing to do with Russia at all but rather her guilt. In her decision to leave for the USSR she had hurt all those that she loved. It began with her family back in Brooklyn. Then it ended the life of her best friend, another 20-year old Brooklyn girl who also had dreams of a better world, as well as ending the life of her husband. And clearly hurting her son in all stages of his life. Unfortunately, her youthful optimism backfired on her. The uncle suggested that just maybe, his sister felt as if she didn’t deserve the comforts of America or a good life anymore? She was a living epitome of a sad Russian poem. Before Stalin became a Bolshevik revolutionary he was a poet. This book makes it clear that although Stalin is long dead his cruelty lives on.

Find all my reviews at https://books6259.wordpress.com/

[Sherwood Smith]

Years ago I used to walk on the beach at low tide every morning with my little daughter and our rescue dog. In spring and in fall, I’d look out over the Pacific, and began to perceive the migrating birds in three patterns: closest to the ground leaped, swooped, and dived the gulls and other sand birds, busy going about daily life as they scavenged the sand and the surf, and squabbled with one another.

Then there were the middle layer birds, out there flying over Catalina Island and the tankers dotting the horizon like placid square marine creatures. These were the short-hop birds, flying for a day and coming in to roost for a while at bird sanctuaries and other areas that humans hadn’t cemented over.

Then, way high up, impossibly high, so they were barely dots, were the long distance birds, soaring so high and apparently covering thousands of miles before alighting for a season.

I thought of these layers as I read this elegantly written, brilliantly observed novel that felt like a memoir, its details resonating with truth in every detail, every passion, and every grimly horrific event, with memoirs and biographies I’ve read.

In 1930, after the Great Depression hits, Florence leaves the USA for Moscow, high-minded in her determination to do something great for humanity. And what could be greater than Lenin’s revolution freeing the worker? But what she slams into, of course, is the horror of Stalinist Russia, unflinchingly depicted, as she negotiates work, culture clash, relationships. And love.

As her tale swaps with that of her son Julian, whose memories of labor camps and then of American plenty make him an outsider in both paradigms as he searches for his mother’s reasons for casting such a long shadow over his and his son’s life, we also obtain a glimpse of Russian life and how the heinousness of one power-monger can cast a shadow of evil not only over his own time, but generations after. I could only think, Timely, much?


Florence, as an old woman, refuses to live with her real name on her apartment mail box; in her retirement home, she endures bedsores and neglect rather than make trouble. She sticks to her survival mode to the last day of her life, so very different from the loving, passionate, high-minded young woman who went eastward so many decades ago, but that is not the sum of her life. Far from it.

This book is not about black and white, but the many, many shades in between. America versus Moscow in the political arena, and yet there is still trade. Individuals from both sides still manage to find moments of love, as well as betrayal.

Systematic cruelty occurs because of ideological determination, because of fear, because of angry relish for taking out one’s own hatreds on the helpless. And then there are the many types of non-personhood, from political to cultural to interpersonal: another layer is the Jewish experience, east and west, in the twentieth century.

It is not an easy book to read. It moves back and forth in time, shifting from omniscient narrator to first person, and of course there is the unflinching content, so well written that one cannot escape the heart-strike of intense emotional engagement that one can when reading awkward prose full of predictable cliché—clunky fragments in paragraph form—the oily ease of purple sentimentality.

As I read, I kept marking extraordinarily insightful lines and sharply realized, elegant writing until I looked back over a stack too numerous to count.

Summing it up brings me back to my birds, as I am visually oriented: the complexity of all three levels merges into a whole that depicts, in its myriad details, the inexorability of migratory experience—life moving on.

It comes to no easy conclusions, though for me, at least, the reward—besides admiration of sheer craft—was in the deeply earned appreciation for the skein of family, loyalty, and finally, keeping trust in the little things that, cumulatively, add up to greatness.

Copy provided by NetGalley

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

No way !!!
Ms Krasikov chose a very complicated subject. A very long period of time to deal with, and she wanted to touch everything in the process of writing this book - Stalin, Putin, cold war, second world war ( just a bit), gulag, spionage, communism, juddaism, petrol, russians, americans, Roosevelt. Such a book is doomed from the start, or you are some sort of the next Tolstoi.
I found it good in the beginning, it got me hooked and wanted to read it. I like the idea of family sagas with history intertwined. But after reading third of the book, the rest was just a superficial read just as the writing. I mean, one could basically read the beginning of each paragraph and get some notion of what is happening. And that was enough.
In the beginning, I put this book in my shelf for "european literature", knowing that Ms Krasnikov was born in Ukraine. During my read, i changed the shelves and placed it in the "north-american literature" where actually this author lives most of the time (based on the Internet). A few non russian authors I read could write about Russia and USSR and the Soviets, and Sara Krasnikov is not one of them. Read "The noise of time" by Julian Barnes and then this one.
This one is a superficial presentation of facts and actions, little to no introspection. Long dialogues which lead to nothing. No emotion whatsoever. A perfect novel for the big masses who want quantity and less quality.
And as for the main character - i could put a hashtag to it - #mimimi
I think you have to be russian, think russian and live russian to be able to write a project like this one. There is no compromise to that. Or maybe it is an american novel, because it is more about americans in Russia? Or maybe it is about jews, because it is about jews who emigrate from USA to live in Russia ? Or is it about oil?

[Oreoandlucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a touching story about a young American woman who travels to Soviet Russia and it not allowed to leave. She meets an American man who is going through the same thing and has a child with him. When both of them are accused of being traitors, they are sent to prison camps and their son is raised in an orphanage.

This story is very sad but the author is able to convey hope in her writing. This book contains a lot of information that is not often spoken about in history classes about the Soviet Union and the relationship between the United States and Russia at that time. So much of this book shines a light on the injustices that many in Soviet citizens suffered. Readers will easily see the hypocrisy that Flora, and later Lenny, refuse to see and will see parallels in both the Soviet and American political systems. I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this book to review and I really enjoyed reading the novel but I was a bit frustrated when the book ended and I was still left with unanswered questions. That being said, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a great historical novel.

[Nonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Being somewhat familiar with the very real subject of young Americans (and Europeans) leaving the West to go build a 'bright future" in the USSR in the early 1930's, I find this book well researched and well written. The story of the times depicted in the US, USSR and modern day Russia is told through the sights of several characters Their narratives are braided together skillfully to paint a clear picture without belaboring the described subjects or exhausting the reader. Thank you, NetGalley, for the privilege of reading it early.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I went back and tried this book again. Sometimes, for whatever reason, reading a book on the Kindle doesn't always work for me.

I very nearly gave this a 5 star review. There were sections that were just so brilliantly written and engaging that I couldn't put it down and I felt the absolute terror the main characters experienced as Jews during the Stalin Era. It quite honestly was some of the most chilling, edge of your seat suspense I have read in I can't even remember how long. As a student of Russian history, I learned so many things about this time period and what made it even more interesting to me was how it was told from an young, American girl who strongly believed in socialism and how the great Russian Revolution brought that social experiment to life. I truly couldn't imagine sailing across the Atlantic, en route to the Soviet Union, casting away my life during the 30s!

What didn't work for me was the current day side of the story portrayed by Florence's son and grandson. I enjoyed her son's perspective in how it related to what he remembered about growing up and his time in the orphanages due to his mother being in a Soviet Labor camp, but the present day Russia part where he was working on behalf of an oil company was kind of boring and lost on me. I think it was there to illustrate how things are "run" in Russia today, but it just wasn't as interesting.

I sincerely hope the author chooses to write another book as I will be anxiously waiting to read it!

[Jovi Ene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atunci când plonjezi într-o carte fără să știi nimic despre ea, riști destul de mult și poți avea surprize de toate felurile. Așa mi s-a întâmplat și cu romanul de peste 700 de pagini al Sanei Krasikov, o tânără scriitoare născută în Ucraina care trăiește în SUA, o carte neașteptat de bună și cu o temă foarte complexă.
Subiectul de aici se țese, pe mai multe planuri temporale, în jurul americanilor care au plecat în anii 1920-30 din țara natală, atrași de mirajul egalității și prosperității promise de tânăra URSS. Numai că, peste ei, au venit rapid și epurările, și foametea, și războiul, și acuzațiile de spionaj, și închisorile sau lagărele din Siberia. Aceasta este și povestea, foarte bine scrisă și plină de informații istorice reale, lui Florence Fein, una dintre americancele idealiste, dar care a fost apoi uitată chiar de americani.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent most of the final 50 or so pages of this book on a cold winter day in Northern Japan, after a long day at work, trapped in a snowbound train with no movement in sight. Outside of the obvious parallels with the book’s Russian climate, the irritation and at times incandescent rage I felt in my icebound predicament dovetailed nicely with my overall feeling about “The Patriots” and it’s primary character Flora in particular.
Flora was born in the USA but moves to Russia in her early 20’s to follow her political ideals and help push the revolution forward. This being really 1930’s Russia, there were still many things not known yet about Stalin’s Russia so ok. Despite abandoning her friends and family who begged her to stay, I get it. A little selfish, but I still get it.
Once she sets foot in Russia however, my god does she become not only self indulgent, whiny, and insufferable, she also begins to show an absolute callous disregard for the health or well being of anyone around her. The speed at which she’ll betray someone to advance her own wants and needs is quite breathtaking. As is the number of times she does this throughout the book. There are times when this catches up to her and herself of someone she loves gets hurt. During these moments, the author almost leads us to believe that we should have some sympathy for the downfall of poor Flora.
Fuck her. I read a lot of dark books last year with some seemingly irredeemable characters but none of them match the nihilism and self pity of this character. Even at the very end, with all the things she’s been through, no lessons are seemingly learned. She was a traitorous (in every sense of the word), deceitful, horrible character with in my opinion, zero redeeming qualities. Particularly when considering some of the brave and courageous people that inhabited her world and suffered the consequences of her cowardice.
There is also a parallel story about her son that moves back and forth in time in conjunction with her story but it’s relatively uninteresting.
More than the outrageously awful character of Flora, the book suffers from some inconsistent writing. For example, there’s a stream of consciousness scene where Flora is thinking about her son and repeatedly switches between his English and Russian names. Now I’m not a mom, and perhaps when speaking, one might choose for whatever reason to use two different names for your child depending on who you’re speaking with. But to herself? It seemed like sloppy writing. This name switching occurs among the thoughts of other characters as well. In addition to being confusing, it just seems unnatural.
This book also seriously needed some editing. At over 600 pages, the book seems to drag the most when Krasikov inserts herself as an omniscient narrator. Why for example do we need a lengthy dissertation on two obscure Jewish poets of the 30’s? Tangentially yes, it kind of, sort of, ties into an important scene to follow but certainly didn’t need the chapter length deep dive it got. The less said about her lengthy and angry screed about FDR and his anti-American, communist loving, disdain for Americans abroad, the better.
All that being said, there are some really interesting pieces here. Sadly, they are surrounded by too many wordy and uninteresting ones. The two things I take away from “The Patriots” are: It was a time intensive commitment. I finished it.

[Robbi Leah Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for honest review.
Favorite a Quotes:
1. "it hardly seems fair......Fair is a place where pigs win ribbons, sweetheart"
2."You have a saying in America: Waterboarding is not torture, and a blow job is not sex."
This is the first time I have read about Stalin years in Russia and Americans leaving to find work during the depression. It was interesting history starting in 1930s to 2008. I was appalled by all country's in the earlier part of the book.
This book takes you on a journey with a young American girl. Florence leaves America for what she had heard was a better country (Russia) because they had, in her perception, finished the revolution and were now building a new improved Russia.
This tale also goes back and forth from Florence, her grown son Julian, who eventually went to America to work in oil and to his grown son Lenny, who left America to find his fortune in Russia. I guess this shows that lives go in cycles and how much has Russia really changed since Julian left.
The characters were interesting and some fun. In my opinion, I wasn't to fond of Florence, she seemed to be only out for herself and made some unwise choices that hurt her son, her husband Leon and several others. 1934 was the good year and then it all falls apart. We learn about the Jews raising money for Russia during the war and what happens to the Jews afterwards. Her only redeeming factor is she will never quit.
I would recommend for any historical fiction or history readers.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very compelling story about a woman who I think is misguided in believing she can make a difference in Russia not knowing what really is happening there but becomes entangled with the government that she can't leave and realizes Russia is not what she thought it was. This book made me think of some of what is happening in the world today and what could happen in the near future.

I do think this book was way too long and I wanted to read only about Florence. Going back and forth between her story and her son's was confusing. There were too many names to remember and if I had to stop reading in the middle of a chapter I didn't know who was talking. So I sometimes lost track of what I was reading. I think the book could have been half as long. Sometimes I wanted to just give up. It is beautifully written but just too long. If you like historical fiction, this is a good read.

[Lorilin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Patriots is a sweeping, multi-generational saga that focuses mainly on two characters. First, American-born Florence Fein travels to Russia in the 1930s. Despite her good (and almost unbelievably naive) intentions, she gets herself in a whole lot of trouble while living there. She's accused of serious betrayals, and though she goes to great lengths to save herself, in the end, she is separated from her son and sent away to a labor camp. The second main character is Florence's Russian-born son, Julian, who lives in the U.S. but decides to travel back to Russia in 2008 in order to better understand his mother's troubled past.

Let me start off by saying that plenty of people are going to love this book. If you are really into historical fiction, this is your jam. For me, however, reading this book was torture. It took me three days to get through the first 25 pages. At the 100-page mark, I was still bored stiff--and there were 450 pages left to go...

The weird thing is that I actually liked Florence, and even Julian, most of the time. The story is technically full of adventure. Love, betrayal, torture, murder, family conflict, and more are thrown into the mix. But, dear Lord, the storytelling is so dull. The pace is slow, slow, slow. Things do pick up at the end, but getting there is such a painful slog.

I'm giving the book three stars because the premise is interesting and the characters are somewhat engaging. But, ugh, I'm so glad to be done with this one.

ARC provided by publisher through Net Galley and Amazon Vine.

See more of my book reviews at www.BugBugBooks.com!

[Brona's Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish after 53 pgs and reading several reviews on here that had the same problems I did - it was boring, it told rather than showed, an annoying unconvincing protagonist, some lovely phrases & sentences at times but uneven.

Good intentions, interesting premise that simply couldn't maintain my interest. Life's too short to read a book that's not working for you after all!
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! Highly recommended if you like historical fiction and 20th century Russian history.

[Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I can begin to write a review of enough skill to explain how I felt about The Patriots. It has my mind in a whirlwind, but I shall try.

I've been both fascinated with and mystified by Russia since I first went there at age 16. I don't think you can truly put your finger on what Russia and to be Russian is, but The Patriots explores this the most successfully of any book I've ever read.

There are three main characters. The first is Florence. This is a young woman who left the so-called Land of the Free, for "a place where the future was already being lived". She is an idealist to the bone and it is through her eyes that we see the USSR in all its forms, from privileged foreigner to prison camp. This is used to explore hypocrisy, ever changing policy and the fear under which people lived, but we also see a determined loyalty from her - almost no matter what. The condemnation of communism and acceptance of capitalism is far from unequivocal. I would have liked to see another side of this - her brother's experience of McCarthyism is (too) lightly touched upon.

The second character is Florence's son, Julian. We witness his childhood in two children's homes in the USSR; briefly, his young adulthood as a promising scholar stopped in his tracks because of Jewish quotas; and, in the reverse of his mother's emigration, having moved to America, we see him on a visit to Moscow for work. His perspective shows us a criminality in big business, a business, paradoxically all but state-owned in which its major players literally have someone detained to ensure the financial result they desire. But more significant, at least to me, is the reader's vision of Florence through his eyes.

"And then, a second surprise: for the first time in my adult life I was not leaping to become my mother’s judge, or her defense attorney. For so many years, those had been the only two roles I could play. Prosecutor was the default—there was always an abundance of her qualities to criticize and impugn—but the prosecutor’s costume could be instantly traded for the defender’s if, and only if, I was in the docket along with her. Neither posture carried much meaning now.

The clock on the nightstand read 2:37. On the wall above hung a winter scene by Savrasov—crows roosting in naked branches. There was no denying the grief that had come upon me, a grief almost greater than that which possessed me the day of her funeral sixteen years before. I mourned now because when she had been alive I had not understood her. To the end, she frustrated my understanding, defied it with her own silences, her suppressions and elisions. Not about her past in the camps, per se. I was careful not to probe too hard into her tour through the bowels of hell, respecting her silence on the subject. No, what I blamed her for was another kind of silence. What I could not abide was her unwillingness to condemn the very system that had destroyed our family. Her refusal to impugn the evil that had deprived me of a father and left me motherless in those years when a boy most needs a mother’s love.

I am not a crybaby. I am not one to nurse old wounds. Others suffered more, God knows. It would have been enough for me if she had said, just one time, Yes, what they did to you, to me, to our family��that was unforgivable. But she did not say those words, and her muteness—her apologism for the system that she insisted—to me!—“would always take care of the children”—became a second, no less painful, abandonment. In the sixties and seventies, when I was compulsively reading samizdat, I wanted her to be as cynical and disillusioned as I was. I wanted her to be angry for the miseries that she had endured: the murder of her husband, the forcible separation from her child, seven years of bondage and humiliation and hunger. That all this failed to enrage her infuriated me all the more. For it left me to carry the anger for both of us."

The part of this that really personally resonated with me was "I mourned now because when she had been alive I had not understood her." but in truth, it is all powerful. It is so insightful, so suddenly self-aware, like Krasikov sees right to the heart of the human condition.

The third character is Julian's son, Lenny. He embodies disillusionment. He has taken Florence's path, abandoning America for modern Russia but has found himself abandoned by employers, babied by a woman he can't quite shake off who seems to see dollar signs when she looks at him. The family he has chosen for himself are eccentrics and alcoholics, a money launderer who proudly details how he siphons off electricity and heating and an able-bodied lothario who somehow or other has wangled himself an invalid's pension. I found Lenny rather snide for my taste, like a forty-something teenager. Happily he gets the least airtime. I didn't get much from his POV, but I suppose he brings The Patriots full circle in a sense.

Other reviews have complained that they found The Patriots long-winded and a dull read. I can't agree. I kept finding myself coming back to it, neglecting the other book on my "currently reading" shelf. I can only think that these readers were looking for a book that was plot-driven - which it's not - and were disappointed to find instead an exploration of nationality and identity. It's a shame, because they've missed out on not just a fascinating read, but on some rather exquisite writing. I don't think there's a single chapter where I haven't highlighted at least a phrase or two. It's clear that Sana Krasikov is one to watch.

[TS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to thank First To Read for an advanced copy of Sana Krasikov for an advanced copy of The Patriots A Novel. This is honestly the first Russian historical fiction book I have ever read. I usually tend to stick to English, Scottish and American historical fiction. It is with a saddened heart that I have to add that with the holidays and all the hussle and bustle I have about 50-75 more pages to read! I am pleading with First to Read to extend my loan! If that is not possible, I will definitely be sitting in Barnes and Noble with a nice cup of Vanilla Chi to finish up this book! When I finally had some "me" time sat down to finish up this novel, the dreaded pop up said my loan had expired. :( However, this book will not go unfinished.
This has to be one of the most well researched, well written, well developed story line, plot and characters I have ever read! I have forgotten all about Russian history from my school age years so of course I researched many of the events that unfolded within the story. Not only did I fall in love with all of the characters in the story, but I felt as if I were right there next to them.
The story starts in the 1930's when Florence leaves Brooklyn to go to her ancestral home of Russia in hopes of better employment, love, independence and all those things we imagine must be better on the other side. Through actions, acquaintances, decisions she finds herself unable to leave Russia. The story weaves her son who needs to visit Moscow for his job in the Oil business and his journey is very different from his mothers. With this visit to Moscow, Julian has the opportunity to open his mother's files and learn about her life she was always so hesitant to speak about with him. Then there is Lenny, Florence's grandson, who in so many way is just like his grandmother. Lenny who lives in Russia, trying to make his fortune in the New Russia! Julian has plans of his own, wanting his son to return to America with him.
I found this book hard to put down, hard not to research in further detail the time periods and leaders involved in this story. I truly loved the characters and how the decisions and actions of Florence, affected not only her son, but also her grandson. I look forward to reading the last few pages! I do hope I am granted access for an extension. This is definitely a book that calls to you to read one more chapter, into the early morning!
I give this book a definite 5 ***** Stars. Highly recommend reading it if you enjoy historical fiction and if you enjoy learning! I look forward to reading more from this talented author as well!

[Cian O hAnnrachainn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before anyone knew how wretched life would become under communism, several naive American idealists thought that the Marxist philosophy represented a paradise on earth. Author Sana Krasikov takes off from that point and creates a riveting novel in the process.

THE PATRIOTS interweaves the narratives of Florence, a progressive Jewish girl from New York, and that of her adult son after her death. Florence becomes involved in a pro-Russian group during her time at university in the height of the Great Depression, falling so in love with all she thinks it will be that she emigrates. The reader knows ahead of time that all did not run according to plan, due to a well-placed prologue that piques the interest. A knowledge of history would give you a clue as well, but you do not need to be up on the subject to enjoy the novel.

Florence's son Julian has business in Russia, during Putin's first term, and while he deals with his family's past and the emotional scars inflicted, he is also trying to convince his own son to leave Russia and find a future in a country that is not a massive criminal enterprise.

The reader follows Florence's journey into what will become hell as Stalin wrests power and gradually turns on the Jews who thought the pogroms were relics from the Tsarist era. Her tale is one of survival that comes at a high cost, a slow descent that proves captivating to a reader's interest.

At the same time, Julian wrestles with his own ghosts as a child tossed into an orphanage after his parents were caught up in Stalin's paranoia. His involvement in a petroleum industry deal begins to mirror some of his mother's choices, and he will face his own dilemma on whether or not to cooperate with powers beyond his control.

The author on occasion becomes the omniscient narrator but the overall style of the book is one of pure storytelling. As a work of historical fiction, THE PATRIOTS brings you into a foreign place that is made less foreign with Julian's modern-era narrative, thus tying the past and present together. What makes the book particularly compelling is Florence's determination to live when the world around her grows increasingly bizarre and contradictory, when a positive action taken at one point becomes an act of treason when viewed several years later.

I would highly recommend this book.