This particular book was an ARC form NetGalley that was sitting in my Kindle library for a rather long time. I don’t know if I have it in me to full on review it. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I finished it and my memory given stress of personal life right now is fuzzy.
I will say a few things about it though. I enjoyed getting a first person POV storytelling of Soviet Jewish first days in Israel. For me it’s a story of what could have been for my family and me, and what WAS for my uncle, aunt and their families in the early 90s. Coming to Jewish homeland, also Jewish, but really quite distant from what so many Israelis (especially those religiously observant) probably saw as real Jews.
As a snapshot of this particular type of immigrant experience, this book did a great job thrusting me as a reader into the universal story of trying to find your place in a place that supposedly belongs to you. It did an even better job giving me a taste of how my life might been different had my parents abandoned their plans for US. It would have been me being the teenage daughter trying to learn the new language, a daughter of parents who also would not have wanted the IDF for me and lol, let’s be honest, totally would have also looked for a husband to try to get me out of it. Even as visitor to Israel ( on my last count, I’ve been 5 times in 25 years), I identify with the palpable fear of terrorist attacks and I was there in the 90s when somehow it was a more real fear.
This wasn’t an easy book but definitely one worth my time.
Jewish Books Are Awesome 