Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
London: Granta Books
Description
Fiction. Literature. Moll Flanders in America, this epic, intimate novel follows a young Russian immigrant determined to make her way-and find her daughter-in the hip, harsh 1920s. On a morning in 1924, a young woman rises from the floor of her family's small home in Belorussia to find her parents and her husband slaughtered beside her and her infant daughter, Sophie, missing. When her aunt tells her the baby is dead, Lillian emigrates to America. She is working as a seamstress at the Yiddish Theater and enjoying cafe society when a cousin arrives and insists that her daughter is still alive-in Siberia. Lillian cannot stop dreaming of Sophie; she feels she must get to Russia, yet she can't afford the passage. Her only friend, an actor turned tailor, steals atlases from the New York Public Library and sews them into an overcoat for her. She crosses North America by rail, truck, and foot, encountering drifters, wardens, pimps, missionaries, and tattoo artists. From Dawson City, Alaska, she sets sail for Russia. She falls in love, falls in with the wrong people, leaps before she looks, hopes hard, and refuses to give up. Inspired by a true story, Away is Moll Flanders in America and Odysseus in the Jazz Age: big, wide, brilliantly imagined, unexpectedly funny, and unforgettable.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Whisper1
I really wanted to like this sweeping novel of poor, young, Lillian who immigrated to the United States, landing in New York City after escaping brutal horror in Russia. The beginning drew me in and held my interest.
Lillian is smart, spunky and intelligent. She is also deeply scared from witnessing
Lillian sent her tiny daughter crawling out the window to escape and hide in the chicken coop. When Lillian is "lucky" enough to still be alive, she looks for Sophie to no avail.
Physically leaving Russia behind, she comes to America but is never able to emotionally recover from the memories and nightmares of what she witnessed in Russia.
I really tried to hang in there with every page and there was enough of a solid story and well developed characters to keep me interested.
BUT I was really bothered by the overwhelming need of the author to feel that she needed to include a graphic, racy, raunchy sexual element throughout. It was way too over the top and unnecessary for the story line. It gravely detracted from what would have been/could have been a saga of great magnitude.
Lillian is smart, spunky and intelligent. She is also deeply scared from witnessing
Show More
the brutal murder of her entire family at the hands of the gentiles who, in one bloody night, systematically raided the homes of Jewish families and slaughtered without remorse.Lillian sent her tiny daughter crawling out the window to escape and hide in the chicken coop. When Lillian is "lucky" enough to still be alive, she looks for Sophie to no avail.
Physically leaving Russia behind, she comes to America but is never able to emotionally recover from the memories and nightmares of what she witnessed in Russia.
I really tried to hang in there with every page and there was enough of a solid story and well developed characters to keep me interested.
BUT I was really bothered by the overwhelming need of the author to feel that she needed to include a graphic, racy, raunchy sexual element throughout. It was way too over the top and unnecessary for the story line. It gravely detracted from what would have been/could have been a saga of great magnitude.
Show Less
LibraryThing member davidabrams
Tucked into the first ten pages of Amy Bloom’s new novel, Away, there is a scene of such horrific intensity, reading it you feel as if your eyes have been splashed with lye. For the rest of this epic, sprawling novel, those few gore-soaked pages will dominate your consciousness.
And that’s just
“Lillian was twenty-two; she was an orphan, a widow, and the mother of a dead child, for which there’s not even a special word, it’s such a terrible thing.”
A terrible thing, yes, but Lillian is a survivor with an iron will. She picks herself up off the blood-slick floor and eventually makes her way to Ellis Island where she will try to make a new start in America.
Away spans the years 1924 to 1926 and follows Lillian as she finds work as a seamstress in New York’s Yiddish theater district before moving across the United States to Seattle and eventually up to Alaska. Like many a bold adventurer in literature, Lillian is on a quest and she will experience any number of setbacks, downfalls, imprisonments, beatings, starvations and other near-death episodes before she reaches her journey’s end.
The grail at the end of Lillian’s search is her three-year-old daughter, Sophie, believed to have died shortly after the rest of her family was killed. Lillian’s cousin, however, has come to America with the news that Sophie is alive and was rescued by another Jewish family who survived the pogrom. Upon hearing the news fall from her cousin‘s lips, Bloom writes, Lillian reels from the shock: “Sophie’s name is a match to dry wood.”
With that flame of love rekindled, Lillian sets off across America by herself on a harebrained scheme to travel to Alaska where she will walk across the Bering Strait back to her native Russia to find her daughter. With maps sewn into the lining of her overcoat and the weight of a mother‘s love on her shoulders, she is also walking across a panorama of America in the 1920s.
Bloom has created a world that is so real, so palpable that reading Away is just one gigawatt short of actual time travel. Undoubtedly, the author spent countless hours researching everything from how a mistress’ Lower East Side apartment would be decorated (red-and-pink flowered carpeting with a green damask settee, for starters) to the way light falls in an Alaskan forest (“in narrow green spears through the woods and spreads like a shining stain, a baleful white canopy, sheer and bright, in the open”). These and a million other details are seamlessly stitched into the narrative and lend the novel a rich, authoritative atmosphere.
In fact, the tapestry of Away is so well done, it’s often hard to see the tree for the forest. By tree, I mean, of course, Lillian herself. Throughout the book, the character remains an enigma, oddly held at arm’s length by an author who rarely pierces beneath the skin of someone who should be a turmoil of emotions. Instead, we get a copy of an illustration of a portrait of a woman.
That, unfortunately, is the one thing that gives Away an unmistakable limp. Lillian is haunted by the loss of her family (“Everyone has two memories. The one you can tell and the one that is stuck to the underside of that, the dark, tarry smear of what happened.”), and her grief and devastation come through, but for the most part she remains an oyster that cannot be pried open. I admired her bravery and her fiery feminism in the Jazz Age world of men who treated women as sex objects, but ultimately Lillian gets lost in the beautifully-written world in which she lives.
And that’s just
Show More
the way it should be, since that scene is the most pivotal one in young Lillian Leyb’s life. Her entire family has just been wiped out during the Russian pogrom, butchered right before her eyes as she feigned death.“Lillian was twenty-two; she was an orphan, a widow, and the mother of a dead child, for which there’s not even a special word, it’s such a terrible thing.”
A terrible thing, yes, but Lillian is a survivor with an iron will. She picks herself up off the blood-slick floor and eventually makes her way to Ellis Island where she will try to make a new start in America.
Away spans the years 1924 to 1926 and follows Lillian as she finds work as a seamstress in New York’s Yiddish theater district before moving across the United States to Seattle and eventually up to Alaska. Like many a bold adventurer in literature, Lillian is on a quest and she will experience any number of setbacks, downfalls, imprisonments, beatings, starvations and other near-death episodes before she reaches her journey’s end.
The grail at the end of Lillian’s search is her three-year-old daughter, Sophie, believed to have died shortly after the rest of her family was killed. Lillian’s cousin, however, has come to America with the news that Sophie is alive and was rescued by another Jewish family who survived the pogrom. Upon hearing the news fall from her cousin‘s lips, Bloom writes, Lillian reels from the shock: “Sophie’s name is a match to dry wood.”
With that flame of love rekindled, Lillian sets off across America by herself on a harebrained scheme to travel to Alaska where she will walk across the Bering Strait back to her native Russia to find her daughter. With maps sewn into the lining of her overcoat and the weight of a mother‘s love on her shoulders, she is also walking across a panorama of America in the 1920s.
Bloom has created a world that is so real, so palpable that reading Away is just one gigawatt short of actual time travel. Undoubtedly, the author spent countless hours researching everything from how a mistress’ Lower East Side apartment would be decorated (red-and-pink flowered carpeting with a green damask settee, for starters) to the way light falls in an Alaskan forest (“in narrow green spears through the woods and spreads like a shining stain, a baleful white canopy, sheer and bright, in the open”). These and a million other details are seamlessly stitched into the narrative and lend the novel a rich, authoritative atmosphere.
In fact, the tapestry of Away is so well done, it’s often hard to see the tree for the forest. By tree, I mean, of course, Lillian herself. Throughout the book, the character remains an enigma, oddly held at arm’s length by an author who rarely pierces beneath the skin of someone who should be a turmoil of emotions. Instead, we get a copy of an illustration of a portrait of a woman.
That, unfortunately, is the one thing that gives Away an unmistakable limp. Lillian is haunted by the loss of her family (“Everyone has two memories. The one you can tell and the one that is stuck to the underside of that, the dark, tarry smear of what happened.”), and her grief and devastation come through, but for the most part she remains an oyster that cannot be pried open. I admired her bravery and her fiery feminism in the Jazz Age world of men who treated women as sex objects, but ultimately Lillian gets lost in the beautifully-written world in which she lives.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sapsygo
I signed up to receive a preview copy of the book Away, by Amy Bloom from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program. I thought the description looked promising, and I was looking forward to reading the book. I wish I could say glowing things about the book, but now that I’ve read a little over half
Lillian is not an “accidental heroine” as the blurb describes her, she’s sleepwalking through the book. Her only reaction to almost everything is numbness. Lillian does have a tragic past - losing her whole family, including her daughter (who later is supposed to have been saved and taken away from the village by another family), in a pogrom - and perhaps her attitude is supposed to show her absolute numbness to life because of past events. This does not make for much of a main character in this case, because there’s nothing compelling about someone who just stumbles from one odious situation to another with little to no reaction. Everything is ok with her, although ok is perhaps too strong of a word. Nothing is worth objecting to and everything is at least tolerable. I think the author was trying to show that she was willing to put up with anything in order to get her daughter back, but it isn’t very convincing. She doesn’t seem to have any thoughts of her own, any reactions to what is happening to her. She’s willing to put up with anything, but it doesn’t end up feeling like she’s willing to do this because she’s so focused on her daughter, but rather because she’s so two-dimensional she just doesn’t care about anything.
I’m trying to think if there was anything I liked about the book. The cover was nice (although I suppose the author has little say over that), the prose was decent enough, and I did like her technique for dismissing supporting characters from the stage. As a character was no longer needed, she would quickly sum up some “high” (really low) points of the character’s life and then move back to Lillian. It was sort of an interesting technique, and I rather liked how it tied off the characters when they were no longer needed. But as you can probably guess, I really don’t recommend wasting your money and particularly your time on this book.
Show More
of it, I’ve decided not to read anymore of it. I put it down four or five days ago in disgust and then picked it up again today thinking, “oh, it couldn’t have been that bad”. I quickly regretted my decision as the “accidental heroine” started to stumble into a three-some with the prostitute who picked her up out of the gutter and the prostitute’s pimp. It wasn’t so much that I objected to the sexual content of the book (although much of it seemed gratuitous, albeit not as graphic as it could have been) it was more that I objected to how the main character, Lillian, has no reaction to anything.Lillian is not an “accidental heroine” as the blurb describes her, she’s sleepwalking through the book. Her only reaction to almost everything is numbness. Lillian does have a tragic past - losing her whole family, including her daughter (who later is supposed to have been saved and taken away from the village by another family), in a pogrom - and perhaps her attitude is supposed to show her absolute numbness to life because of past events. This does not make for much of a main character in this case, because there’s nothing compelling about someone who just stumbles from one odious situation to another with little to no reaction. Everything is ok with her, although ok is perhaps too strong of a word. Nothing is worth objecting to and everything is at least tolerable. I think the author was trying to show that she was willing to put up with anything in order to get her daughter back, but it isn’t very convincing. She doesn’t seem to have any thoughts of her own, any reactions to what is happening to her. She’s willing to put up with anything, but it doesn’t end up feeling like she’s willing to do this because she’s so focused on her daughter, but rather because she’s so two-dimensional she just doesn’t care about anything.
I’m trying to think if there was anything I liked about the book. The cover was nice (although I suppose the author has little say over that), the prose was decent enough, and I did like her technique for dismissing supporting characters from the stage. As a character was no longer needed, she would quickly sum up some “high” (really low) points of the character’s life and then move back to Lillian. It was sort of an interesting technique, and I rather liked how it tied off the characters when they were no longer needed. But as you can probably guess, I really don’t recommend wasting your money and particularly your time on this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Laurenbdavis
Amy Bloom's AWAY is as big, complicated, beautiful, awful, funny, despairing and messy as life itself.
From the back of the book:
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian
This is the second of Bloom's books I've read. The first was her collection of short stories, WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT, and I'm happy to report she is as good a novelist as she is a short story writer.
Bloom is a psychotherapist, and her knowledge of how the human mind and psyche work serve her well as a writer. Actions here feel credible, even in extraordinary circumstances. The author's understanding of what motives people is put to excellent use.
Then too, the landscape and historical period is well-depicted, and she, like her heroine covers a lot of ground -- from Russia to New York to Dawson, from Jewish immigrants to Tlingits living in a B.C. cabin.
I am impressed by Bloom's use of the third person omniscient, which is a point of view easy to get wrong. There is perhaps one misstep, when she veers a little farther off-track than is necessary with the story of a woman named "Chinky Chang". It's interesting and moving, but in the end made me anxious to get back to Lillian. For the most part, however, she manages it admirably, and it gives the book not only a depth that mirrors the vast geographical territory it covers, but also the spiritual and psychological landscape.
On top of that, it was a riveting read that had me turning pages quickly. Enjoy.
From the back of the book:
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian
Show More
pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.This is the second of Bloom's books I've read. The first was her collection of short stories, WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT, and I'm happy to report she is as good a novelist as she is a short story writer.
Bloom is a psychotherapist, and her knowledge of how the human mind and psyche work serve her well as a writer. Actions here feel credible, even in extraordinary circumstances. The author's understanding of what motives people is put to excellent use.
Then too, the landscape and historical period is well-depicted, and she, like her heroine covers a lot of ground -- from Russia to New York to Dawson, from Jewish immigrants to Tlingits living in a B.C. cabin.
I am impressed by Bloom's use of the third person omniscient, which is a point of view easy to get wrong. There is perhaps one misstep, when she veers a little farther off-track than is necessary with the story of a woman named "Chinky Chang". It's interesting and moving, but in the end made me anxious to get back to Lillian. For the most part, however, she manages it admirably, and it gives the book not only a depth that mirrors the vast geographical territory it covers, but also the spiritual and psychological landscape.
On top of that, it was a riveting read that had me turning pages quickly. Enjoy.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jennyo
This was the first Amy Bloom book I've read, but it won't be my last. She's a marvelous writer. This book reminded me very much of Penelope Fitzgerald's spare, elegant work. Away is the story of Lillian Leyb, a young woman whose family was killed in a Russian pogrom. Obviously, it's not a
My favorite part of the book was meeting the supporting characters, those who help Lillian with her struggles. They're all flawed in some way, but you can't help being drawn to them, wanting to spend time with them.
I think I'll be pulling Come to Me off my bookshelf any day now so I can get another Bloom fix.
Show More
laugh-a-minute or anything. Lillian's a survivor, and often what it takes to survive isn't pretty, but Bloom never gets too melodramatic either.My favorite part of the book was meeting the supporting characters, those who help Lillian with her struggles. They're all flawed in some way, but you can't help being drawn to them, wanting to spend time with them.
I think I'll be pulling Come to Me off my bookshelf any day now so I can get another Bloom fix.
Show Less
LibraryThing member boylan
Not a fan of historical fiction and this writing style usually loses me; but I was glad I kept going. What a story! and I ended up liking knack of the author to head into the future of a character we were saying goodbye to. Alaska, Seattle, New York, Russia - quite a bit of geography and history.
LibraryThing member cabegley
‘“I’m shattered,” he says. “That’s the truth of it.” Shattered, Lillian thinks. Aren’t we all.’ Shattered people almost exclusively populate Amy Bloom’s luminous new novel Away. After her family is brutally murdered in a Russian pogrom and her small daughter disappears, Lillian
Bloom’s descriptive prose gives the reader a true sense of time and place, as we move from New York to Seattle to Alaska. Lillian touches on the lives of many memorable, quirky characters, like Gumdrop Brown, a petite black prostitute who caters to men interested in prepubescent girls; Chinky Chang, a young grifter with a soft spot for Lillian; and Reuben Burstein, a Yiddish theater mogul. While her time with them is short-lived, Bloom generously gives us a glimpse into each of their futures after Lillian has moved on.
Bloom’s roots as a short-story writer show—each of the transient characters has his or her own discrete story, with those stories stitched together by Lillian’s journey. As is the danger with quirky characters, their stories sometimes veer towards unbelievability, but Bloom’s sparkling prose and rich storytelling overcome this.
Away is not for the squeamish. Lillian is crushed by the weight of her love for those she’s lost, and for the most part is beyond caring what happens to her body and her soul. But, along with the destructive, Bloom celebrates the redemptive power of love. Those who are willing to take this journey with Lillian will be rewarded.
Show More
Leyb flees to New York in the 1920s to try to piece together a new life for herself. Just as she is making the first tentative steps towards letting herself feel again, she discovers that her daughter may still be alive in Siberia. Thus begins Lillian’s quest to find her daughter and to restore her shattered self. Bloom’s descriptive prose gives the reader a true sense of time and place, as we move from New York to Seattle to Alaska. Lillian touches on the lives of many memorable, quirky characters, like Gumdrop Brown, a petite black prostitute who caters to men interested in prepubescent girls; Chinky Chang, a young grifter with a soft spot for Lillian; and Reuben Burstein, a Yiddish theater mogul. While her time with them is short-lived, Bloom generously gives us a glimpse into each of their futures after Lillian has moved on.
Bloom’s roots as a short-story writer show—each of the transient characters has his or her own discrete story, with those stories stitched together by Lillian’s journey. As is the danger with quirky characters, their stories sometimes veer towards unbelievability, but Bloom’s sparkling prose and rich storytelling overcome this.
Away is not for the squeamish. Lillian is crushed by the weight of her love for those she’s lost, and for the most part is beyond caring what happens to her body and her soul. But, along with the destructive, Bloom celebrates the redemptive power of love. Those who are willing to take this journey with Lillian will be rewarded.
Show Less
LibraryThing member gooutsideandplay
I had high hopes for this novel which were quickly extinguished. First, we have not one book, but really 4 or 5 in one. I believe Bloom writes a lot for the New Yorker, so prehaps she should stick with the short story genre. The novel revolves around the main character, Lilian, a Russian Jew whose
Show More
immediate family was exterminated in a progrom sometime in the mid-1920's. She somehow immigrates to the U.S., becomes the mistress of two wealthy men -- father and son -- who are big shots in the Yiddish theater scene of New York's lower East side. Then, after receiving word that the little daughter she also thought had been killed is actually alive, Lilian begins a journey across the country, up to Alaska, in an attempt to get back to Russia and her child. So, there's the New York part, part where she is smuggled in a train to cross the country (why smuggled? why didn't her rich lovers give her money), the part in Seattle where she joins forces with a prostitute and her pimp, the part where she is in a women's prison for a while, and the part where she hikes north across Alaska with a map sewn into her coat. At no point in the story do you get any idea of what is inside her head -- just kind of a numbed acceptance of all the horrors that have happened. Are we supposed to view her just as kind of an "everywoman" or "everyman" witness to the horrors of the early 20th century and the universal suffering of all persecuted and poor peoples? I had absolutely no feeling for the heroine or ultimately, her fate. I'd still like to know why she ultimately choose to emigrate to the U.S., how she was supposed to know about hiking across Alaska, how she was supposed to know how to behave as a prostitute's apprentice in Seattle, etc. -- and how she ultimately felt or incorporated all these experiences into any kind of world view. Maybe the title, Away, is supposed to convey the absence of any focus or identity. You really feel like Lilian is "away" and in the end, you are left not knowing where or who she is. I almost dropped the book about 90 pages in or so, and only kept on because there were some amusing side characters introduced. In the end, not even those made the book worth the time to read. Not recommended Show Less
LibraryThing member porch_reader
Lillian Leyb is a Jewish immigrant to NYC in the mid-1920s. She fled from Russia after her husband, mother, and father were killed, and she was separated from her daughter Sophie. Lillian is street-smart. She quickly gets a job as a seamstress at a Yiddish theater and learns much about American
This book was OK, but it just never really grabbed me. The story itself was interesting enough, and some of the episodes within the plot were very well told. But the book as a whole felt a little choppy. I liked Lillian and rooted for her, but I never really felt like I got to know her. And the ending was somewhat disappointing. The story ended somewhat abruptly, and the fates of the characters were summarized in just a few pages at the end of the book. I wonder if this book might have worked better for me in print than on audio.
Show More
culture. When some news reaches her that makes her want to return to Russia, we follow her on a difficult journey across the country and up through the Yukon. This book was OK, but it just never really grabbed me. The story itself was interesting enough, and some of the episodes within the plot were very well told. But the book as a whole felt a little choppy. I liked Lillian and rooted for her, but I never really felt like I got to know her. And the ending was somewhat disappointing. The story ended somewhat abruptly, and the fates of the characters were summarized in just a few pages at the end of the book. I wonder if this book might have worked better for me in print than on audio.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cotto
I had high hopes for this one after reading a bunch of positive reviews. I kept it on my to read list and then had my book club pick it for our next selection. I can't wait to hear what the other girls thought because I was severely disappointed by Away. Away starts off in a NYC of the 1920s. For
Show More
me, that was a promising start as I love books that can give me a historical flavor of one of my favorite cities. Lillian is a Jewish immigrant from Russia who arrives in NYC and becomes the mistress of a father and son. Her family was killed back home but then she learns that her little daughter escaped and is still alive back home. She travels cross country to Seattle, Alaska, and up to Siberia in order to make her way back home to find her daughter. It was during her travels that the book really fell apart for me. Her life in NY wasn't riveting but I wasn't quite so dispirited while reading that bit. As she travels to Seattle and beyond, the story is over the top with her meeting up with a prostitue and pimp, getting sent to a woman's prison/rehabilitation center, etc. It was too much packed into a 200 pg book and wasn't believeable. I couldn't wait for the book to end. Can you guess if she finds her daughter? Do we care? Eh. Show Less
LibraryThing member kshaffar
Amy Bloom's, AWAY struck me as a turn of the century, Jewish immigrant version of the ODYSSEY. The main character is at once sympathetic and tragic. While I had a hard time buying the likelihood of this trip, I happily surrendered to its beautiful characterizations and prose. I easily recommend.
LibraryThing member indygo88
Though I had high hopes for this book, I was disappointed. I found myself dragging through to get to the end. There were parts I found interesting (i.e. New York), but for the most part, the novel seemed to me to be more of a character development for all the various side characters rather than
Show More
really allowing the reader to get to know the main character of Lillian. Though she was striving to get to her daughter, I never felt like her heart was really into it & I could never really make myself like Lillian's character, or at least never really felt like I knew her. The transitions in the novel were very abrupt & I thought that disrupted the flow of the book, including the ending, which all of a sudden was just...there. It left me with a feeling of, "Oh. Is that all??" Show Less
LibraryThing member pollyfrontier
opening paragraphs:
It is always like this: the best parties are made by people in trouble.
There are one hundred and fifty girls lining the sidewalk outside the Goldman Theatre. They spill into the street and down to the corners and Lillian Leyb, who has spent her first thirty-five days in this
Lillian Leyb steals your heart and makes it ache as you follow her adventures and disappointments as she makes her way across the country from NYC and into Canada. She's searching for the four yr old daughter she thought was left dead after her Jewish village was ravaged in 1920s Russia.
I was puzzled by all the "green" early in the story--green dress, green curtains, green this and that. Then no green during her horrendous journey across the country, not until, "The light in the woods is a thick, wavering green." Ah ha, green is life and hope.
It is always like this: the best parties are made by people in trouble.
There are one hundred and fifty girls lining the sidewalk outside the Goldman Theatre. They spill into the street and down to the corners and Lillian Leyb, who has spent her first thirty-five days in this
Show More
country ripping stitches out of navy silk flowers until her hands were dyed blue, thinks that it is like an all-girl Ellis Island: American-looking girls chewing gum, kicking their high heels against the broken pavement, and girls so green they’re still wearing fringed brown shawls over their braided hair. The street is like her village on market day, times a million. A boy playing a harp; a man ….Lillian Leyb steals your heart and makes it ache as you follow her adventures and disappointments as she makes her way across the country from NYC and into Canada. She's searching for the four yr old daughter she thought was left dead after her Jewish village was ravaged in 1920s Russia.
I was puzzled by all the "green" early in the story--green dress, green curtains, green this and that. Then no green during her horrendous journey across the country, not until, "The light in the woods is a thick, wavering green." Ah ha, green is life and hope.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Mathenam
This book was so bad, and NOT in a good way. The whole story revolves around Lillian's journey to find her daughter. I won't ruin the ending for those of you who might be unfortunate enough to pick up this book. I'll just say by the end of the book, I didn't care if Lillian found her daughter.
LibraryThing member jeanned
This little book's entry on my To-Be-Read list had no indication of having received awards or nominations by its title (although it did ), no notation of it being on anyone's list of best books in 2007 (although it was). No, the entry contained only two words -- "Buy It!" As I sped through the
Show More
story of Lillian's road trip, from Russia to New York to Seattle to Alaska, I knew I would want to return, soon, for the luscious language, the engaging wit, the heart-rending story, the twin markers of despair and hope that mark her way. I have two words for you: Buy It! Absolutely 10 out of 10 stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member MyUtopia
Amy Bloom’s newest novel, Away:
The novels leading lady, Lillian Leyb, a 22-year-old Jewish immigrant, flees Russia after her entire family is slaughtered in a Russian pogram. The story however opens in 1924 New York at Ellis Island as she makes her way into her new country. The story of her
The novel is chalked full of supporting characters that assist Leyb in one-way or another in her journey. Each of these supporting characters life story is summed up and tied into a neat little bow before they exited stage left. The story was hurried in its pacing, which left this reader feeling like she was running to keep up with the characters. I am not sure if this was intentional or not. In the beginning of the story the long sentences set a fast pace that did seem to match the hurried pace of the environment that the character was stepping into. The novel is a quick witted and gritty look at the people on the bottom rung of the latter who will do anything to survive. In conclusion, this reader was not able to connect with the main character, Leyb, who seemed closed off not only to the supporting characters but to the readers as well. The supportive characters seemed to have more life and energy and engage the reader. This reader like the supporting characters felt abandoned and left behind.
The novels leading lady, Lillian Leyb, a 22-year-old Jewish immigrant, flees Russia after her entire family is slaughtered in a Russian pogram. The story however opens in 1924 New York at Ellis Island as she makes her way into her new country. The story of her
Show More
family’s slaughter is told through flashbacks and dreams she has as she is adjusting to life in New York. A long lost family member tracks her down to tell her that her daughter, whom she thought had died in the pogram was still alive. With this news she begin her long and unlikely journey across the U.S. and through Alaska to Russia to find her daughter. For this reader, Leyb was a complex character whose behavior and actions were hard to anticipate.The novel is chalked full of supporting characters that assist Leyb in one-way or another in her journey. Each of these supporting characters life story is summed up and tied into a neat little bow before they exited stage left. The story was hurried in its pacing, which left this reader feeling like she was running to keep up with the characters. I am not sure if this was intentional or not. In the beginning of the story the long sentences set a fast pace that did seem to match the hurried pace of the environment that the character was stepping into. The novel is a quick witted and gritty look at the people on the bottom rung of the latter who will do anything to survive. In conclusion, this reader was not able to connect with the main character, Leyb, who seemed closed off not only to the supporting characters but to the readers as well. The supportive characters seemed to have more life and energy and engage the reader. This reader like the supporting characters felt abandoned and left behind.
Show Less
LibraryThing member whirled
I'm still somewhat puzzled regarding why this tale of a mother's desperate quest to find her small daughter left me unmoved. Bloom's writing is literate and economical, peppered with many beautiful phrases. The story is reasonably engaging - particularly the section regarding newly settled Jews in
Show More
1920s New York. Yet, the book's overall impact is somehow muted, and I would not recommend it to others. Show Less
LibraryThing member CasualFriday
Lillian survives a Russian pogrom that kills her parents, husband and presumably her child. She flees to America where she finds work as a seamstress for a Yiddish theater. Then one day a cousin arrives at her door and tells her that her daughter may still be alive, secreted away to Siberia by a
Show More
neighbor. Lillian decides she must travel to Siberia to find her This sounds impossibly grim, and I haven't begun to describe every hardship that Lillian endure. In fact, the book is oddly upbeat, leavened with a survivor's optimism, initiative and sense of humor. Show Less
LibraryThing member labelleaurore
Away is the story of Lillian, running away from her Russian place and ending in New-York, working back stage, sewing away costumes for the actors.
Having learned that her daughter, Sophie, is still alived, she crossed the country, going up north, in the Klondike world, in search for her.
Beautifully
Having learned that her daughter, Sophie, is still alived, she crossed the country, going up north, in the Klondike world, in search for her.
Beautifully
Show More
well written, this is a page turning book. Amy Bloom could have gone deeper in describing feelings all along the story but she did not. The story from the start to the finish, stays on the surface of the need for life that a mother has in order to survive and to find her daughter. Show Less
LibraryThing member sharlene_w
Lillian Leyb, a 22-year-old Jewish immigrant witnesses the violent massacre of her husband and parents and is separated from her young daughter Sophie. With nothing to keep her there, she leaves her country and arrives in New York in 1924. With limited resources she applies for a job as a
Show More
seamstress but instead becomes mistress to both a gay actor and his well-to-do father. Her real goal is to be reunited with her daughter when she learned she was still alive. I found the beginnings of the book engaging and believable, but her travels alone through the Yukon in her quest to find her daughter seemed like I was reading another book entirely. Show Less
LibraryThing member crazy4novels
"Away," by Amy Bloom fic B6546 aw
When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, young Lillian Leyb comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on a journey that takes her from the world of the
Bloom's fictional characters remain with you long after you have finished her book -- ebullient Reuben Burstein, who rules his theater kingdom with an iron hand and accepts the homosexuality of his handsome son, Meyer, with a matter of fact equanimity unusual for the times (1920's); saucy Gumdrop, a Seattle "professional" who saves Lillian from begging in the streets; lonely Arthur Gilpin, a widowed constable with a heart of gold; "Chinky" Chang, a would-be grifter who knows just how to "work" Mrs. Mortimer, the warden of the Hazelton Center for Women, into an acquiescent mood; and John Bishop, a good man who has escaped into the Alaskan wilderness to escape a bad situation.
I particularly liked Bloom's female characters -- these bright, resilient women refuse to sink into the mind trap of "victimhood" despite living in a time when single women were faced with a multitude of degrading options. I also thought that Bloom's depiction of men was evenhanded and insightful -- her male characters are complex and run the gamut from shifty to saintly, most often falling somewhere in the middle.
Read this book -- it's a literary page turner!!!
When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, young Lillian Leyb comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on a journey that takes her from the world of the
Show More
Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. Bloom's fictional characters remain with you long after you have finished her book -- ebullient Reuben Burstein, who rules his theater kingdom with an iron hand and accepts the homosexuality of his handsome son, Meyer, with a matter of fact equanimity unusual for the times (1920's); saucy Gumdrop, a Seattle "professional" who saves Lillian from begging in the streets; lonely Arthur Gilpin, a widowed constable with a heart of gold; "Chinky" Chang, a would-be grifter who knows just how to "work" Mrs. Mortimer, the warden of the Hazelton Center for Women, into an acquiescent mood; and John Bishop, a good man who has escaped into the Alaskan wilderness to escape a bad situation.
I particularly liked Bloom's female characters -- these bright, resilient women refuse to sink into the mind trap of "victimhood" despite living in a time when single women were faced with a multitude of degrading options. I also thought that Bloom's depiction of men was evenhanded and insightful -- her male characters are complex and run the gamut from shifty to saintly, most often falling somewhere in the middle.
Read this book -- it's a literary page turner!!!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Alirambles
It took me a while to get into this one (I think the first few pages, intricately describing a scene that has little to do with anything, could be used as an example of how not to start your novel), and even then, it was never quite as compelling as I wanted it to be. Lillian had been through a
Bloom weaves in some interesting characters who then disappear from the plot as Lillian moves on. Her quick synopsis of the rest of the life of each of these characters not only left me puzzled each time, but also gave away the fact that one character would return because we don't get the rundown of what happened to him or her next.
Bloom did a remarkable job of shifting from viewpoint to viewpoint without making the reader dizzy. I think the way she ended it is interesting, and apart from the beginning (what was she thinking?) it was well-written.
Show More
horrific ordeal, and yet I didn't see this affecting her decisions throughout the book. The search for her daughter is what drives her forward, and yet it feels like she's doing so because that's what a mother should do, rather than based on her emotional pain upon losing her daughter. 'Is Amy Bloom a parent?' I found myself wondering. I learned that the answer is yes, and yet I've had a stronger emotional reaction to being separated from my kids for a weekend than Lillian did to losing, and then searchng for, her daughter.Bloom weaves in some interesting characters who then disappear from the plot as Lillian moves on. Her quick synopsis of the rest of the life of each of these characters not only left me puzzled each time, but also gave away the fact that one character would return because we don't get the rundown of what happened to him or her next.
Bloom did a remarkable job of shifting from viewpoint to viewpoint without making the reader dizzy. I think the way she ended it is interesting, and apart from the beginning (what was she thinking?) it was well-written.
Show Less
LibraryThing member haydale
The ending was a little like broccoli for dessert...after quite a culinary/literary build up. The earlier chapters deserved a spectacular final course. This novel simply left me wanting...not a resolution but at least a conclusion on par with New York.
LibraryThing member LaBibliophille
This was OK. I like the descriptions of the locations, but the story is kind of contrived.
LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
After reading rave reviews over the past year, I finished "Away" marginally disappointed. Admittedly, the well-written book takes readers to some interesting locales and serves up a host of historical nuggets. The book also introduces a number of unique characters. But in reading Bloom's novel, I
Show More
almost felt like I was watching a fast-moving parade from a distant curb. Aside from the protagonist, most of the people are caricatures as opposed to characters. I never connected with the motley cast. I also agree with one reviewer who intimated that the first part of Bloom's saga -- life in New York City -- was far more interesting and cohesive than the following chapters. The last half of the book took on the feel of a disjointed hopscotch game. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2009)
Indies Choice Book Award (Honor Book — Adult Fiction — 2008)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2007)
Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice (Literary)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2008)
Language
Original publication date
2007-08-21
ISBN
9781847080134
Local notes
Donated by Caitlin Westropp-Evans February 2024