Status
Available
Publication
Columbia University Press (2019), 272 pages
Description
Klotsvog is a novel about being Jewish in the Soviet Union and the historical trauma of World War II-and it's a novel about the petty dramas and demons of one wonderfully vain woman. Maya Abramovna Klotsvog has had quite a life, and she wants you to know all about it. Selfish, garrulous, and thoroughly entertaining, she tells us where she came from, who she didn't get along with, and what became of all her husbands and lovers.In Klotsvog, Margarita Khemlin creates a first-person narrator who is both deeply self-absorbed and deeply compelling. From Maya's perspective, Khemlin unfurls a retelling of the Soviet Jewish experience that integrates the historical and the personal into her protagonist's vividly drawn inner and outer lives. Maya's life story flows as a long monologue, told in unfussy language dense with Khemlin's magnificently manipulated Soviet clichés and matter-of-fact descriptions of Soviet life. Born in a center of Jewish life in Ukraine, she spent the war in evacuation in Kazakhstan. She has few friends but several husbands, and her relationships with her relatives are strained at best. The war looms over Klotsvog, and the trauma runs deep, as do the ambiguities and ambivalences of Jewish identity. Lisa Hayden's masterful translation brings this compelling character study full of dark, sly humor and new perspectives on Jewish heritage and survival to an English-speaking audience.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Maya Klotsvog is just doing what she needs to to get by, to get ahead, to have a moment to herself, to put a little aside against the hard times. She's living the Soviet Union, in Kiev, and her passport marks her as a Jew. She spent the war in exile in Kazakhstan and she's all too aware of the
As Maya narrates her own story, it's clear that she's massaging the details, of her first relationship, then her hasty marriage to her boss, a sad man who lost his entire family to the Nazis, then her second marriage, and the next relationship, meant to make things just a little easier. Maya is self-centered and manipulative, using her beauty to avoid working, or to improve her circumstances, but she uses her relentlessness in service to her family occasionally as well and I was left with the impression of having read about one of the few personality types that could improve their circumstances under an intolerable regime. Just because she left a trail of destroyed lives behind her is no reason not to root for Maya to finally get what she wants, at least until she sees something else.
Margarita Khemlin was a Jewish-Ukrainian novelist and short story writer whose work has not been widely available outside of the former Soviet Union. Columbia University Press has begun publishing untranslated works under the Russian Library imprint. This novel is both a fascinating character study and a stark look a what ordinary life looked like in the middle of the last century in the Soviet Union.
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precariousness of life for those of Jewish descent in the Soviet Union. She also knows that she's going to have to do what is needed to get ahead. As Maya narrates her own story, it's clear that she's massaging the details, of her first relationship, then her hasty marriage to her boss, a sad man who lost his entire family to the Nazis, then her second marriage, and the next relationship, meant to make things just a little easier. Maya is self-centered and manipulative, using her beauty to avoid working, or to improve her circumstances, but she uses her relentlessness in service to her family occasionally as well and I was left with the impression of having read about one of the few personality types that could improve their circumstances under an intolerable regime. Just because she left a trail of destroyed lives behind her is no reason not to root for Maya to finally get what she wants, at least until she sees something else.
Margarita Khemlin was a Jewish-Ukrainian novelist and short story writer whose work has not been widely available outside of the former Soviet Union. Columbia University Press has begun publishing untranslated works under the Russian Library imprint. This novel is both a fascinating character study and a stark look a what ordinary life looked like in the middle of the last century in the Soviet Union.
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LibraryThing member AmaliaGavea
‘’Though I had nobody to call, I often picked it up and said whatever came into my head, paying no attention to the piercing dial tone inside the receiver. I could dial any incomplete number and speak into the quietness. But I liked that I wasn’t pretending to actually speak. Because I never
But that’s not my point.’’
August is Women In Translation month, so it seemed that the time had come for me to read Klotsvog, one of the most particular books I’ve had the pleasure to read recently, an exceptional offering of Eastern European Literature.
We are in Ukraine, during the Soviet era, a few months before the monster who answered to the name Stalin finally dies and rids the world of his cruelty. Maya, a bright young woman and member of the persecuted Jewish community, has to find the balance between her personal aspirations and her heart that seems to have a (fickle) mind of its own. Struggling to cope with family relationships and love affairs, Maya is a woman fascinating in her clarity and challenging in the numerous contradictions of her character. A daughter, a mistress, a wife, a mother, a pedagogue...Many roles and she fails in most of them. And yet, she is one of the most fascinating characters you’ll ever meet in the pages of a book.
Following the Translator’s Note by Lisa C. Hayden, a beautiful and moving text on her understanding of Khemlin’s heroine, we enter the world of Maya and her misbehaviour. In powerful, clear prose and clever dialogue, we spend moments in the company of a story that is sarcastic, bitter, sad. Maya’s thoughts are masterfully conveyed and there is very little attention to politics, if at all. Yes, this is a story taking place in the Soviet era but the emphasis is on human relationships and choices and although one could say that the plot itself isn’t groundbreaking or particularly intricate, Maya is a universe in itself.
‘’You know, Fima, a marriage stamp in a passport isn’t a verdict or a sentence. Keep that in mind. This is a difficult time, but I won’t hang on to you. I’m registered here. I’m a mother. And you’re a drunk and nothing else. You’ll be fired from work soon, then you’ll be a social parasite.’’
Our heroine is a highly contradictory and controversial character. She aspires to be independent and yet she regards her heritage as a burden and a source of danger. In my opinion, Maya is a very realistic depiction of a woman’s doubts and insecurities. And if she wants to put on lipstick while everything around her is falling apart, she will do so. She refuses to sacrifice her life, even though her choices are quite selfish, and her children do little to make her secure. Misha is a troublesome boy and Ella, her daughter, is terror personified. It may sound cruel but these two are the worst offsprings nature can produce...So she makes an effort to keep up appearances but she won’t apologize no matter how unusual or ‘’unacceptable’’ her choices may be. She doesn’t pretend to be humble and meek, and despite her severe flaws, she is honest to herself. Selfish? Yes, but realistic nonetheless.
Maya is one more proof that Eastern European Literature can create numerous memorable and highly controversial female characters. I loved her. I know, it may be difficult to even understand her but I couldn’t help siding with her and feeling sorry for the outcomes of her actions. The only weakness I couldn’t forgive was her infatuation with men. Men that are weak. And she loved them all. Or maybe not...It is exactly this absurd feeling that may prove to be her downfall…
‘’It was cold. There were stars in the sky, And the sky was dark, dark blue. A deep, deep sky.
I set fire to some newspaper and stuck it inside that mountain.
It immediately went up in flames.
It burned a long time.
The neighbours ran over in droves to look: they were afraid it was a house fire.
No, I said, it might be a house fire for somebody, but not for you.’’
Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com
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embellish reality.But that’s not my point.’’
August is Women In Translation month, so it seemed that the time had come for me to read Klotsvog, one of the most particular books I’ve had the pleasure to read recently, an exceptional offering of Eastern European Literature.
We are in Ukraine, during the Soviet era, a few months before the monster who answered to the name Stalin finally dies and rids the world of his cruelty. Maya, a bright young woman and member of the persecuted Jewish community, has to find the balance between her personal aspirations and her heart that seems to have a (fickle) mind of its own. Struggling to cope with family relationships and love affairs, Maya is a woman fascinating in her clarity and challenging in the numerous contradictions of her character. A daughter, a mistress, a wife, a mother, a pedagogue...Many roles and she fails in most of them. And yet, she is one of the most fascinating characters you’ll ever meet in the pages of a book.
Following the Translator’s Note by Lisa C. Hayden, a beautiful and moving text on her understanding of Khemlin’s heroine, we enter the world of Maya and her misbehaviour. In powerful, clear prose and clever dialogue, we spend moments in the company of a story that is sarcastic, bitter, sad. Maya’s thoughts are masterfully conveyed and there is very little attention to politics, if at all. Yes, this is a story taking place in the Soviet era but the emphasis is on human relationships and choices and although one could say that the plot itself isn’t groundbreaking or particularly intricate, Maya is a universe in itself.
‘’You know, Fima, a marriage stamp in a passport isn’t a verdict or a sentence. Keep that in mind. This is a difficult time, but I won’t hang on to you. I’m registered here. I’m a mother. And you’re a drunk and nothing else. You’ll be fired from work soon, then you’ll be a social parasite.’’
Our heroine is a highly contradictory and controversial character. She aspires to be independent and yet she regards her heritage as a burden and a source of danger. In my opinion, Maya is a very realistic depiction of a woman’s doubts and insecurities. And if she wants to put on lipstick while everything around her is falling apart, she will do so. She refuses to sacrifice her life, even though her choices are quite selfish, and her children do little to make her secure. Misha is a troublesome boy and Ella, her daughter, is terror personified. It may sound cruel but these two are the worst offsprings nature can produce...So she makes an effort to keep up appearances but she won’t apologize no matter how unusual or ‘’unacceptable’’ her choices may be. She doesn’t pretend to be humble and meek, and despite her severe flaws, she is honest to herself. Selfish? Yes, but realistic nonetheless.
Maya is one more proof that Eastern European Literature can create numerous memorable and highly controversial female characters. I loved her. I know, it may be difficult to even understand her but I couldn’t help siding with her and feeling sorry for the outcomes of her actions. The only weakness I couldn’t forgive was her infatuation with men. Men that are weak. And she loved them all. Or maybe not...It is exactly this absurd feeling that may prove to be her downfall…
‘’It was cold. There were stars in the sky, And the sky was dark, dark blue. A deep, deep sky.
I set fire to some newspaper and stuck it inside that mountain.
It immediately went up in flames.
It burned a long time.
The neighbours ran over in droves to look: they were afraid it was a house fire.
No, I said, it might be a house fire for somebody, but not for you.’’
Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com
Show Less
Awards
Russian Booker Prize (Short List — 2010)
Student Booker (Shortlist — 2010)
Language
Original language
Russian
Physical description
272 p.; 5.25 inches
ISBN
0231182376 / 9780231182379
Local notes
fiction