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Suzanne
Rating:
 
Review
Sasha Goldberg is an unlikely protagonist, but that's part of the appeal. Neither smart nor beautiful, and of part black ancestry in the mainly blonde, doomed Siberian town of Asbestos 2, Sasha is a misfit. How she finds a place for herself in the world, in awkward fits and starts of desperation, bravery, and foolishness, makes for an interesting story. Her enrollment in art class at the age of fourteen brings the first turn of events, eventually even leading to her first love interest. But when she gives birth to a little girl, her domineering mother usurps the newborn as her own. Sasha, with mixed feelings about the situation, makes her escape to the U.S. by becoming a mail-order bride. This is just the start of her life journey, as she haphazardly looks for her father who abandoned her when she was ten. Always finding herself in odd situations, she struggles with alienation from place to place until finally making a true connection.
Best Line:
(standing next to a boy she likes): "Sasha felt weightless and light-headed, a metal shaving next to a huge magnet." (pg.66)
Kim
Rating:
Review
This is a curious story, a little off-center and out there, but in a good way. Our heroine, Sasha Goldberg is a 14 year-old, mulatto girl with an early dream of becoming an artist in her Siberian town of Asbestos 2. Seriously – that's the name of her town. Which is almost as good as where she takes extracurricular art classes, in a building called AFTER EATIN. Once getting past the Russian idiosyncrasies (which was early in the story), learning about Sasha was easy. She lives with her mother, Lubov, and father, Victor, until her dad immigrates to the US, leaving them behind. Her doomed relationship with Alexey was predicable only because of her lacking father-daughter bond, and when Lubov sees that Sasha is floundering, she is sent to a prestigious art school in Moscow. Sasha sees a bigger opportunity, and becomes a mail-order bride to Neal, who lives in Arizona. But there's more! Over the course of a few years, Sasha meets up with people in Chicago before finding a home, a job, an art gig, a stepmom, and a life, in New York City. Though I found many of the characters in this book smug or indifferent, this novel is engaging and fun because of Sasha.
Best Line:
"Sasha wanted to tell him that "like" wasn't the right word for it, that the whole experience was like bumping into your best friend at the bottom of the ocean."
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