Book Blurb: Oksana Zabuzhko, author of “the most influential Ukrainian book in the fifteen years since independence,” Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, returns with a gripping short story collection. Oksana Zabuzhko, Ukraine’s leading public intellectual, is called upon to make sense of the unthinkable reality of our times. In this breathtaking short story collection, she turns the concept of truth over in her hands like a beautifully crafted pair of gloves. From the triumph of the Orange Revolution, which marked the start of the twenty-first century, to domestic victories in matchmaking, sibling rivalry, and even tennis, Zabuzhko manages to shock the reader by juxtaposing things as they are—inarguable, visible to the naked eye—with how things could be, weaving myth and fairy tale into pivotal moments just as we weave a satisfying narrative arc into our own personal mythologies. At once intimate and worldly, these stories resonate with Zabuzhko’s irreverent and prescient voice, echoing long after reading. My thoughts: Oksana Zabuzhko is one of the most famous contemporary Ukrainian writers, and although I don't ususally read short stories, I couldn't pass this collection. I started with the story which gave the book its title ' Your Ad Could Go Here' and was immediately carried away by the author's unique writing style, breathless in its hurry to see, experience, absorb, process, and immortalize the moment. Oksana asks her reader: isn't it the writer's job? To perceive and feel, to understand everything and everybody. A pair of gloves, a beautifully-crafted object bought in a tiny Viennese shop run by a glovemaker, as old as the hills, becomes something more. It defines her other choices by imposing standards of quality, elegance, and joyous, unapologetic style. When one glove gets lost, the author is desperate to replace it, but the little shop is gone, replaced by a department- store full of mass-produced merchandise that doesn't make anyone happier. Oksana Zabuzhko's stories are deep and sometimes genuinely shocking. They are not for the faint-hearted, because they are intense and full of raw emotion and haunting imagery. Your history, your reality might be different, but you are bound to relate and recognize the universal human condition in these painfully honest and memorable tales. Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion. Comments are closed.
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