ola gubkina

“I turned the word over and over in my head, Communist, a word that was meaningless to me, but which the teacher had immediately branded with negativity. Communist, Communist, Communist. It captivated me. Communist and son of a murderer.”

I recognized myself too much in this book, to the point that when I was done reading, I just stared at the last page, thinking about the “alienness” I used to feel as well.

61/288 pages

I couldn't bring myself to finish it, and it's just not my style of writing. Perhaps it would be better as a short story.

Just a note for myself. The stories I would come back to again one day: An Encounter, Eveline, A Little Cloud, A Painful Case, The Dead.

“No, you didn't know all that; those are things that are never spoken of. For the plague-stricken their peace of mind is more important than a human life. Decent folks must be allowed to sleep easy o' nights, mustn't they?”

“Can one be saint without God?”

I didn't want to compare this book to COVID, but it could have been a good read that would have prepared and explained many things to me at that time. To be honest, this book is a great read for any occasion. The only drawback was that I did not like the English translation at all. At some point, I switched to the Russian translation, and the text was so well-written. Words had a broader meaning, while the English translation lacked some depth. Maybe there is a better translation than this one.

It’s definitely not a light read. Trying to finish this book in a week was a bad idea and definitely made me enjoy it less, I admit. Maybe if I read a couple of chapters a month, I would appreciate it more.