"I teach school, and so it's hard for me sometimes to read full novels during the school year as I re-read all my books that my students read. So a number of years ago, I stumbled just by chance -- this is maybe seven, eight years ago now -- upon one of her earlier collections of short stories; but there was something about her writing that was stunning. An ability to, as I guess great short story writers do, draw you in right away. Her characters in all the short stories that I had read were contemporary, urban people kind of in my age and demographics.
The other part, too, is that in her writing she brings a level of sexuality or eroticism in a way that is not -- it blends in. It's not kind of a tawdry kind of thing to be tossed in for just to sell books and stories. It's a departure from her earlier writing; it's a full novel, but this is actually a story set not in modern times but set in the kind of mid- maybe early to mid-1900's about a young Russian woman who comes to the United States. It's an immigrant story. It's coming to America, coming to New York, struggling; she had left her home in Russia where her family was killed in a pogrom. She was led to believe that her daughter had died as well.
She comes to America and is immediately thrust into sort of the kind of idyllic -- it sounds kind of funny -- idyllic kind of urban immigrant life in New York. She finds out from a neighbor of hers, or a cousin, I believe, who comes to America as well, that her daughter in fact is not dead but is alive. The rest of the plot is her attempt to get from New York to Alaska to find her daughter.
I really found it to be an outstanding book. In fact, I like to sort of predict sometimes what might be among the nominees for Pulitzers and National Book Awards and things like that. This was among the finest books I've read in the past year. I'd rate this five stars out of five. I thought it was outstanding."
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