Synopsis: Meredith and Nina are as different as sisters come. Meredith has devoted her life to her husband and children and to managing the family business while Nina has grown up in wild locales as a photojournalist. The sisters find themselves home again at the death bed of their beloved father beside their cold and unloving mother, Anya. Their father's dying wish is that Anya tell her daughters the rest of the Russian fairy tale she used to share with them as children. As the sisters listen carefully to Anya's story, they begin to see that Anya's fairy tale may hold clues to her own childhod in war-torn Leningrad.
Review: I liked this book, but I despised Anya. She is a cold, distant mother to her girls throughout their lives. Her husband seems to be the only one that she has ever opened up to. Readers will guess far before Meredith and Nina that Anya's fairy tale is indeed her life story, but can anything really justify a woman who shares no love with her children? Both girls are struggling with their own intimacy issues because they grew up with a mother that seemed never to care for them. It's an interesting story about a handful of unlikable people.
Spoilers: I hated Anya even after her story was told. What a terrible person. I did not feel like her sad story justified the cold shoulder she gave her daughters. I also felt it too contrived that not only did Anya's daughter survive the bomb, but that they all crossed paths with her at such an opportune time. Almost instantly, Anya has a change of heart and wants to bond with her girls, but if I were her child, it would have been too little too late. The book had great intentions, but never quite fulfilled its promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment