MARINA LEWYCKAONE STAR
I was expecting to finish this story having gleaned some understanding of the life of a Ukrainian immigrant living in England. I was hoping to read a more human account of the tragic events which mar the Ukraine's history than a textbook can offer. This novel was a major disappointment on both counts.
I found the presentation of the characters to be superficial. The pages are filled with detailed, repetitive accounts of clothing choices, nail polish colours, even the type of thread used to sew on buttons. Yet there is never any exploration of the characters beyond what they are choosing to wear, or not wear, as the case may be.
Much of the narrative is pieced together through phone conversations, discussing the same problems with a slight twist of the previous chapters soap opera. So much dialogue paired with such sparse descriptions of anything beyond the physical attributes they possess leaves each character both one dimensional and unlikeable.
There was the sense that some big mystery would be uncovered, that there was something deeper and more significant on the horizon, which kept me reading. As it turned out, there wasn't.
