A Mountain of Crumbs
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Review
This is a rich experience - a personal journey paralleled by huge national challenges and ending in a deeply satisfying portrait of peace in america --Frank McCourt
The story of a young person of sparkling intelligence, full of curiosity about the world, struggling to grow and blossom under a duplicitous, censorious, and unrelentingly mean-minded social system. An enthralling read --J M Coetzee
An exquisitely wrought, tender memoir of growing up in the Soviet Union... Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist's gift for threading motives around the heart of a story, following its plot with a light touch and unwavering honesty
--New York Times
'It is a bittersweet tale of life in the former Soviet Union, rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more.' -- Guardian
'This moving memoir made me cry'
--The New York Times
`rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more'
--Daily Telegraph
`'A Mountain of Crumbs' is written above all with an almost painful tenderness that brought a lump to my throat more than once ... Gorokhova's memoir looks back with love at the lost world of the dacha, of mushroom-picking in the forest, and the utterly reassuring homeland contained within her mother's apple-print polyester dress. Her prose brims with an elegiac emotion and sensuality which even Turgenev, in his own European exile, might have envied.' -- Spectator
`Combining Gorokhova's fantastic eye for an image with her acute sense for the absurd, 'A Mountain of Crumbs: growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain' elegantly dramatises the bewildering chasm between the projected, glittering idealism of the Soviet Union and its drab, quotidian reality.' -- Metro
`An exquisitely moving memoir detailing Gorokhova's experiences of growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Her story of oppression and hope is described in distinctive poetical prose.' -- Marie Claire
`Despite the specificity of the memoir, the themes and characters have universality - a domineering mother, a rebellious child, finding passion and beauty in the surprising places. A celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and oppression.' -- Easy Living
`In this gently delightful memoir, Elena Gorokhova recounts her coming of age in Russia during 1960s and 1970s ... There's a wonderful cosy intimacy to her writing; her use of the present tense keeps it fresh and unburdened ... I loved reading 'A Mountain of Crumbs'. Gorokhova is a fine writer with a delicate, sensitive touch, whose voice in nonetheless fearless and clarion. I hope there's a sequel. After coming of age comes surely that other great memoir, coming to America.'
-- The Sunday Times
`Her richly detailed story explores the reality of her politically subversive passions for language and freedom in a fearful, failing society that distrusted its citizens and repressed individuality.' -- Saga
`It takes talent to write a good memoir and Gorokhova has more than most. Fascinating anecdotes show us her mother's youth, and her own recollections spring to life with an artist's eye for those details that can conjure a mood or a moment. The privations, oppressions and joys are all described with shining curiosity in this captivating book.' -- WBQ
`Gorokhova's beautiful understated portrait of her childhood ... her evocation of her formidable mother - who asks Stalin personally for funds for a maternity ward, and gets them - is among the memorable gems of her deceptively masterful tale.' --Sunday Times
The story of a young person of sparkling intelligence, full of curiosity about the world, struggling to grow and blossom under a duplicitous, censorious, and unrelentingly mean-minded social system. An enthralling read --J M Coetzee
An exquisitely wrought, tender memoir of growing up in the Soviet Union... Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist's gift for threading motives around the heart of a story, following its plot with a light touch and unwavering honesty
--New York Times
'It is a bittersweet tale of life in the former Soviet Union, rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more.' -- Guardian
'This moving memoir made me cry'
--The New York Times
`rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more'
--Daily Telegraph
`'A Mountain of Crumbs' is written above all with an almost painful tenderness that brought a lump to my throat more than once ... Gorokhova's memoir looks back with love at the lost world of the dacha, of mushroom-picking in the forest, and the utterly reassuring homeland contained within her mother's apple-print polyester dress. Her prose brims with an elegiac emotion and sensuality which even Turgenev, in his own European exile, might have envied.' -- Spectator
`Combining Gorokhova's fantastic eye for an image with her acute sense for the absurd, 'A Mountain of Crumbs: growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain' elegantly dramatises the bewildering chasm between the projected, glittering idealism of the Soviet Union and its drab, quotidian reality.' -- Metro
`An exquisitely moving memoir detailing Gorokhova's experiences of growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Her story of oppression and hope is described in distinctive poetical prose.' -- Marie Claire
`Despite the specificity of the memoir, the themes and characters have universality - a domineering mother, a rebellious child, finding passion and beauty in the surprising places. A celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and oppression.' -- Easy Living
`In this gently delightful memoir, Elena Gorokhova recounts her coming of age in Russia during 1960s and 1970s ... There's a wonderful cosy intimacy to her writing; her use of the present tense keeps it fresh and unburdened ... I loved reading 'A Mountain of Crumbs'. Gorokhova is a fine writer with a delicate, sensitive touch, whose voice in nonetheless fearless and clarion. I hope there's a sequel. After coming of age comes surely that other great memoir, coming to America.'
-- The Sunday Times
`Her richly detailed story explores the reality of her politically subversive passions for language and freedom in a fearful, failing society that distrusted its citizens and repressed individuality.' -- Saga
`It takes talent to write a good memoir and Gorokhova has more than most. Fascinating anecdotes show us her mother's youth, and her own recollections spring to life with an artist's eye for those details that can conjure a mood or a moment. The privations, oppressions and joys are all described with shining curiosity in this captivating book.' -- WBQ
`Gorokhova's beautiful understated portrait of her childhood ... her evocation of her formidable mother - who asks Stalin personally for funds for a maternity ward, and gets them - is among the memorable gems of her deceptively masterful tale.' --Sunday Times
Book Description
A mesmerising memoir of a childhood in Soviet Russia
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
This book describes the author's life whilst growing up as a slightly rebellious teenager in Soviet Russia in the 1960s. It's extremely well written, very funny in places and an excellent way to learn about life in cold war Russia. Some of the scenes (such as the restaurant with the 20 page menu but only beef stroganoff available) remind me of (quite recent) travels in Eastern Europe. These comic moments are skillfully interspersed with tales of true hardship and poverty.
The author is to be congratulated for writing a book set in this era which is neither anti-capitalist nor anti-communist: it reads as an honest report of how life was, and about her perceptions of the West, without making any moral judgements about the relative merits of each system.
This book has made me want to read Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov and the other "subversive" Russian writers she mentions (and to visit Russia!).
The author is to be congratulated for writing a book set in this era which is neither anti-capitalist nor anti-communist: it reads as an honest report of how life was, and about her perceptions of the West, without making any moral judgements about the relative merits of each system.
This book has made me want to read Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov and the other "subversive" Russian writers she mentions (and to visit Russia!).
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm married to a Russian woman who was brought up in St Petersberg at roughly the same period. The book rings very true.
It's interesting to compare the time it takes for this Russian woman to start questioning the tenets of communist orthodoxy and how long it seemed to take the Chinese. In "Wild Swans" the author seems to have swallowed the message whole until well past adolescence, whereas here there is a healthy dose of doubt from an early age.
A useful book, I think, which offsets the extraordinary ignorance of British reviewers as to the mind set of the Russian people.
It's interesting to compare the time it takes for this Russian woman to start questioning the tenets of communist orthodoxy and how long it seemed to take the Chinese. In "Wild Swans" the author seems to have swallowed the message whole until well past adolescence, whereas here there is a healthy dose of doubt from an early age.
A useful book, I think, which offsets the extraordinary ignorance of British reviewers as to the mind set of the Russian people.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book follows Elena Gorokova as she grown up in post-Stalinist Russia, and describes the way of life in this closed, paranoid, Communist society.
Gorokova produces what seems to be a honest picture of her life behind the iron curtain, her family and the after-effects of living under Stalin. Things that seem far away now are brought closer by her intimate descriptions - Like her father losing his teeth because of starvation, and her Soviet mother's stranglehold on her daughters.
I found I instantly warmed to the narrating voice in this book. Gorokova writes in a sensitive, feminine, descriptive way which feels natural and honest. At times this book is dry and humorous, other times melancholy, but it is always interesting and enlighteing. I have read a lot about the Soviet Union and Russia, but never come across this kind of perspective - Female, and written post-emigration to the United States, with all the hinsight and wisdom that brings.
Gorokova produces what seems to be a honest picture of her life behind the iron curtain, her family and the after-effects of living under Stalin. Things that seem far away now are brought closer by her intimate descriptions - Like her father losing his teeth because of starvation, and her Soviet mother's stranglehold on her daughters.
I found I instantly warmed to the narrating voice in this book. Gorokova writes in a sensitive, feminine, descriptive way which feels natural and honest. At times this book is dry and humorous, other times melancholy, but it is always interesting and enlighteing. I have read a lot about the Soviet Union and Russia, but never come across this kind of perspective - Female, and written post-emigration to the United States, with all the hinsight and wisdom that brings.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Don't miss this one - brilliant!
The author records what it was like growing up in the Soviet Union by recounting snap shot images of a life heavily influenced by the past and by the strictures of the Communist... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Hils T
Wonderful prose
A brilliant and sometimes heartbreaking account of life in Russia. Although Stalin had gone the state pretended to believe that Communism was succesful. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kannonball
Great insight into Soviet life
This was a well written modern inside view of the soviet system. I liked the small details of everyday life best. Read more
Published 20 months ago by C. Gilhooly
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