Parts 1 and 2

[Melanie]

First impressions?

[Melanie]

Oh my word that is a harsh story. I fear I may need counselling and shall type a bit more when I am on the computer tomorrow.

[Melanie]

So after sleeping a night very badly on this book (the characters dared to haunt my dreams), I shall attempt to summarise my feelings. You know that Aliide has something to hide right from the beginning and obviously Zara has too. A lot of the domestic references to what Aliide does the drying of herbs, the pickling, the storing etc. reminded me so much of my grandmother. This just as a side note. I liked the contrast of Aliide's quiet industry to do all this work (it's just her, so she does not need all this stuff just for herself, but habits of a lifetime are hard to break) to the machinations of her thoughts. When we get to the flashbacks to WWII, we see this younger side of Aliide which is both different to the older Aliide but oddly the woman she will become is already clear.
The bits of Zara's story and her ending up in Berlin, man that was a punch to the gut and also the things that happened to Aliide, Ingel and Zara's mother as a kid, holy cow. That was almost to much to bear.
I don't normally read books like this anymore, because they haunt me for a long time, and I feel that the characters will visit me for a few weeks in my sleep.
Still, it is a well crafted book, maybe a bit slow moving in the first two parts at times, but I have a feeling this will speed up now in the rest of the book. I think the slowness is deliberate though, if you ever handwound a skein of wool into a ball, you know how hard it can be to unpick any snags, knots etc. in the wool and how impossible it can seem to ever get a ball of wool, you can knit with. This very much reminded me of it.

[Susan]

I read the first two parts with the help of google (My knowledge of Estonia and the Baltic countries during WWII is slim at best) to help me understand the politics of Estonia, Russia and Germany.
This story is harsh. There is no sugar coating or romanticizing how hard it was during the war and the post war Soviet occupation. The writing is so strong, I feel as if i’m in the room with the characters.
I find Aliide and Zara’s story’s to be running parallel-for Aliide she had no control of her person or body during the war or post war and Zara, in our contemporary world, has lost control of her rights and body.
As for Aliide, I find her choices reprehensible. Also, Aliide and Ingel sacrificed Ingel’s daughter to protect the man they loved. Or did they protect him, Hans, in order for all of them to survive? I wonder what we would do, if we found ourselves in a similar situation in order to survive?

[Britta]

Just finished the first 2 parts. I've read Oksanen before, so I knew that I'd have to brace myself for some pretty heavy punches in the gut. Violence, abuse, sexual assault, Oksanen doesn't sugarcoat. (Maybe the week after the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings was not the best time to start this book, but thats just a side note). The writing (at least in the German translation) is not quite my style, it feels very detached to me. But Aliide is a very interesting character, and I agree with Mel that you can already see the woman she will become.

[Jo]

I find it so interesting how this book has such different covers. My copy is the one with Purge in red letters, a woman at the front and a man running in the background, it definitely makes it out to be a thriller. The cover I saw on Mel’s video of the woman in a headscarf, however, makes the book look much more of a historical novel. It seems to me to be both but it’s funny how my expectations were formed just from this cover.

I must admit I have been almost ‘fear reading’, especially after hearing what happened to Zara and Aiide, I can’t read it at night and find myself having to take breaks fairly frequently. I knew the history but vaguely, I hadn’t given it as much thought as perhaps I should have but this does remind me of the Herta Muller, just far more realistic and straightforward, the terror and the doing what you have to do to get by is still there though.

I don’t understand why Aiide has such little feeling for her sister and her niece but I think the drive to survive surmounts everything especially after what she’s been through. I think the fact that this is translated isn’t obvious in the reading and I’m very intrigued to see how the truths that are hidden emerge in the second half.

[Marie]

I have just finished part 2 and think this is really very good so far. It is taking me a long time to read, though. I can only digest it in small chunks. Even when the narrative isn’t explicitly traumatic, there’s a horrible foreboding about the whole thing that’s difficult to sit down with for long. I hope we get to learn more of Zara’s story soon.

[Candace]

Yes I agree, I was so disappointed in Aliide and in her extreme jealousy that made her completely delusional. It was also horrifying and heartbreaking what the soldiers did to the girls, people in the village, to their dog... everything really.

I’m definitely waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jo, good point about the covers. They do give us preconceived notions!

I am wondering if the author is using the fly to symbolize something. I think the translation is really well written.

[Beatrizmallow]

I'm really "liking" this book, not that that is the appropriate word to discuss this book... I'm reading the Spanish translation which has some issues that luckily are not affecting my reading experience. Part two with the flashback I found particularly interesting, because I don't think I knew anything about Estonia during the Soviet regime. I look forward to see where it goes.