sregitnig's review
4.0
“He walked up Lenin street. Its preholiday luminescence was even more radiant this year, more drunkenly optimistic. White lights tangled in trees. A shimmering canopy of pink garlands hung across the roadway. Up ahead, the dystrophic A of a TV tower, the Eiffel Tower’s long-lost illegitimate child, slightly illuminated its red and white stripes.”
I could read a full length novel version of a lot of these short stories. Fully developed characters, setting, and plot.
Looking forward to Melnik’s future works.
I could read a full length novel version of a lot of these short stories. Fully developed characters, setting, and plot.
Looking forward to Melnik’s future works.
carmenrm's review
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
janeneal's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
This was an okay collection - I think I heard about it on NPR or the Barnes & Noble blog back when it was first published. I can't say much more about it, although a warning that there is a copious amount of the g-slur throughout.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs
stevemozza's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
rworrall78's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
stephrampton's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Book of short stories - a bit of a mixed bag, but interesting to read about Russia from a social perspective.
keepreadingbooks's review
4.0
Put together, these stories form the legacy of the Russian revolution and the Stalin era. They provide an intimate window, through which we can see how the legacy of a town’s role in history affects its citizens, generally and personally. How it lingers in the back of their minds, and how ghosts of its past haunt them on a daily basis.
But they also provide an intimate window into the lives of families and individuals in everyday interactions, going about their daily business, considering which education to take, what to do with their lives, and whether they are in ‘the right place’. They aptly show the many different destinies you find in even a small town such as Magadan, and they give a nice insight into Russian culture and recent Russian history – apart from what we may know of the bigger cities.
My favourite story was actually the very first one - Love, Italian Style, Or In Line For Bananas - and Closed Fracture and Strawberry Lipstick are close seconds. They in particular showed how certain choices lead us to where we are, and how it is always that: a choice. They showed ‘regular’ lives that happen one moment at a time, until you’re suddenly somewhere you might not have expected. I am always very fond of stories like that, which might be why they were my favourites. A few I didn’t understand the meaning of at all, among them The Witch and Summer Medicine, though they were greatly and interestingly written, and a few more were simply average.
I loved how we returned to certain stories, but from another character’s point of view. You not only saw events from a different angle (which I am always a fan of), but you also saw how different characters focused on different events. We do not always agree on what has been of importance in our interactions with other people – I may obsess over a thing I said in a conversation that I shouldn’t have, whereas the other person might not have noticed at all, and instead is focusing on how she tripped in front of everyone earlier. Just to give a completely unrelated example.
On the front cover of my copy, a reviewer called this collection ‘assured’. That, I think, is the perfect word for her style and for this collection. There is no wavering, no slight hand-shaking, no glimpse of insecurity in Melnik’s writing – no trying too hard, either. Unapologetic. It is a joy to read a writer who is seemingly so confident in and with her own work. She makes me think of Zadie Smith in that way, though their styles are very different.
To sum up, the great stories were really great, but while none were bad, some were a bit confusing and others were merely OK. Melnik’s style and depiction of characters truly deserve a read, however, and I would highly recommend this one to anyone fond of the small-scale drama of domestic stories (with the Russian revolution and the Soviet era as a large-scale and very influential background) and to those interested in more modern Russian culture.
/NK
But they also provide an intimate window into the lives of families and individuals in everyday interactions, going about their daily business, considering which education to take, what to do with their lives, and whether they are in ‘the right place’. They aptly show the many different destinies you find in even a small town such as Magadan, and they give a nice insight into Russian culture and recent Russian history – apart from what we may know of the bigger cities.
My favourite story was actually the very first one - Love, Italian Style, Or In Line For Bananas - and Closed Fracture and Strawberry Lipstick are close seconds. They in particular showed how certain choices lead us to where we are, and how it is always that: a choice. They showed ‘regular’ lives that happen one moment at a time, until you’re suddenly somewhere you might not have expected. I am always very fond of stories like that, which might be why they were my favourites. A few I didn’t understand the meaning of at all, among them The Witch and Summer Medicine, though they were greatly and interestingly written, and a few more were simply average.
I loved how we returned to certain stories, but from another character’s point of view. You not only saw events from a different angle (which I am always a fan of), but you also saw how different characters focused on different events. We do not always agree on what has been of importance in our interactions with other people – I may obsess over a thing I said in a conversation that I shouldn’t have, whereas the other person might not have noticed at all, and instead is focusing on how she tripped in front of everyone earlier. Just to give a completely unrelated example.
On the front cover of my copy, a reviewer called this collection ‘assured’. That, I think, is the perfect word for her style and for this collection. There is no wavering, no slight hand-shaking, no glimpse of insecurity in Melnik’s writing – no trying too hard, either. Unapologetic. It is a joy to read a writer who is seemingly so confident in and with her own work. She makes me think of Zadie Smith in that way, though their styles are very different.
To sum up, the great stories were really great, but while none were bad, some were a bit confusing and others were merely OK. Melnik’s style and depiction of characters truly deserve a read, however, and I would highly recommend this one to anyone fond of the small-scale drama of domestic stories (with the Russian revolution and the Soviet era as a large-scale and very influential background) and to those interested in more modern Russian culture.
/NK
ania's review
3.0
There were some great bits here, but also a few puzzling ones. Where were the editors? Perhaps I'm supposed to be puzzled, but overall those parts felt pointless and glossed-over. Meh.
timshel's review
4.0
The matryoshka doll on the cover is perfect for Kseniya Melnik's Snow in May. Like all short story collections I've had the pleasure to read, the stories are not equally weighted. There are some I love and some I think are only okay. In Snow in May, the best stories are found at the middle, nested between the rest, waiting to be found and bring joy to the one who loosened their casing.
The opening stories didn't impress me. The problem, I felt, was that the narrative style was much too summarizing. Events and back story were encapsulated within long meandering texts that did not in themselves move. As far as style, the stories were akin to oral tales passed down through the generations, being told by your grandpa. Some of these stories could've been fleshed out, descriptive text could've been acted out, and these tales could've been made into novels themselves. As they were, I found them to be tiring.
But then the surprises come, the stories that are smallest in scope: a boy at a piano recital, a girl in a dance class. These stories, “The Uncatchable Avengers” and “Rumba,” didn't have the broad scope that their predecessors had. They were tiny dolls at the center with all the heart. They were funny, heartbreaking, and thoroughly entertaining. They were two of the best short stories I've read in some time.
Moving away from these, the stories once again became broader and broader until the end, when the final story is a grandpa telling a story to his granddaughter. Ironic. Having already seen what was at the center, however, these stories didn't bother me as much as the first few. I'd found the joy at the center, and I was happy I'd read the book if for no other reason than these two stories.
The opening stories didn't impress me. The problem, I felt, was that the narrative style was much too summarizing. Events and back story were encapsulated within long meandering texts that did not in themselves move. As far as style, the stories were akin to oral tales passed down through the generations, being told by your grandpa. Some of these stories could've been fleshed out, descriptive text could've been acted out, and these tales could've been made into novels themselves. As they were, I found them to be tiring.
But then the surprises come, the stories that are smallest in scope: a boy at a piano recital, a girl in a dance class. These stories, “The Uncatchable Avengers” and “Rumba,” didn't have the broad scope that their predecessors had. They were tiny dolls at the center with all the heart. They were funny, heartbreaking, and thoroughly entertaining. They were two of the best short stories I've read in some time.
Moving away from these, the stories once again became broader and broader until the end, when the final story is a grandpa telling a story to his granddaughter. Ironic. Having already seen what was at the center, however, these stories didn't bother me as much as the first few. I'd found the joy at the center, and I was happy I'd read the book if for no other reason than these two stories.
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