Laura KasischkeKirja-arvosteluja

Short story trying to be a book

I approached this book without any knowledge of the story or the author. I read a review in early 2015 and the book was on my shelf ever since. I didn't recall the review until after I started reading the book.

I'm so glad I picked it up.

This is a fun, fast paced read that lends itself to more of summer read than winter, which is when I read it. This is ironic given that the entire story takes place on Christmas Day.

If you ever wondered about what is involved in international adoption, what the families go through, etc., this book is spot on. I know of what I speak. My wife and I adopted twin, 15 month old girls from China several years ago. I can attest to the accuracy of every single adoption observation and nuance the author writes about.

If you are a fan of mysteries and writing which are built around real world settings versus imaginary, than this book is for you. It has a great ending with a twist that I did not see coming. The author guides you in one direction to get you thinking, only to drive you completely off the mark with surprising and satisfying twists.

This is hardly a typical book selection for me. It had been sitting on my shelf for a year already by the time I gave it a try, and even then it was just the book I grabbed blindly on my way to bed for the night. To its credit, I read the entire book in a couple of days. I'm not normally a fan of this kind of literature. It's the kind that they call young adult in some bookstores only because the main characters are teenagers. The thing is, I've read quite a few books targeted at adults that broach fewer "taboos" than this book did and they do it with a greater sensibility in their approach. This one was a bit over the top.

It was a pretty good ghost story. Or maybe it's wrong to call it a ghost story. Is a ghost only a ghost if the person they are born out of is already dead? Maybe I'm just mincing the details too much. Anyway, the thing that this book does best is take the reader along on the psychological train wreck of being haunted or stalked by something creepy. It follows three teenage cheerleaders, Kristy, Kristi, and Desiree, at cheerleading camp (yes, I almost put the book down for that alone). They are your typical self-absorbed, petty, contradictory messes that you have to anticipate a writer creating as filler in most high school dramas, basically three overfilled barges of mental baggage. Top it off with the story being written in the first-person view of one of those aforementioned messes, Kristy Sweetland, and you've got a world-class narcissist on your hands.

It opens with an unplanned afternoon excursion to go skinny dipping at a local lake that goes terribly wrong thanks to a few relatively creepy local boys playing stalker after crossing paths with the girls at the local gas station. Okay, so the beginning reads like just about a thousand movies I've consistently avoided like the plague of American cinema that they are. There's the predictable chase through the backroads of nowheresville, the narrow escape, and the triumphant taunting of their pursuers wherein they decide to give them a taste of what they missed by baring all from the waist up as they cruise past the gawking hormonal creeps. Yes, I even suffered through the nauseating descriptions of each girl's chest as compared to that of insecure Kristy. Where it all picks up is in the aftermath of that ill-fated trip.

Back at camp, their victory is short lived. Of course, the stalkers somehow aren't through with the girls yet, not after getting a look at the three of them topless. The girls try to return to business as usual, Kristi going back to sulking, Desiree angling her way into the pants of the attractive male camp counselor, and Kristy standing by to envy her loose friend for her carefree and vivacious ways and of course, obsessing over how every other girl at camp views her. The author does a pretty thorough job of making you root for the stalkers or perhaps an oversized alligator from the lake with an overdeveloped appetite for self-obsessed teenage girls. That last part was just a suggestion, but I think it would have been worth a closer look.

Anyway, the boys begin turning up in the woods outside the cabins to stare and generally creep the girls out and one by one the three of them begin to unravel in their own little ways. This was the real fun of the story, comparing their different descents into paranoia and the measures they went to to protect themselves, none of which really helped. If they were even remotely likable people, I suppose at one point I might have started feeling bad for them, especially the sulky Kristi who seemed fit for a straight jacket pretty early on, but that never was the case here so it kept the fun simple for me. I could have done without the chronicles of Desiree and her boy toy, but I suppose it was a necessary piece of the whole unfortunate puzzle. You can't have a sex-crazed supporting character sit around eating ham sandwiches for the entire book…unless of course she's waiting to get groove back or something.

Overall, if this book were made into a movie that stayed true to the original text, it would be rated R for sure, and not just because of the flashing scene toward the beginning. There is enough sex in this otherwise to make sure of that. But it's a good psychological thrill ride. There are some pretty tense moments. The writer has an absolute mastery of metaphor and the descriptions of everything from the scenery to the characters' expressions are chock full of vivid imagery. The plot is a mixture of clichés and overdone twists, but the end scene and the final plot twist are both fairly alarming. Bottom line is while I wouldn't make the mistake of suggesting this to any random teenager, I wouldn't call it a bad book for the rest of us. Give it a try when you're after a fast, mindless summer read and I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

Kind of a white people book... I mainly felt really sorry for the adoptive daughter, Tatiana, whose mother, the protagonist, was reacting to what seemed some pretty run-of-the-mill teen angst with "Something followed them home from Siberia..." In a way, the book can be read as a meditation on what happens when writers don't write. The mother is always talking with! lots! of ! exclamation! points! about how she wants to be, should be, thinks about writing. But I didn't get past 60 pages of what was a pretty boring story that promised a lot more than it delivered.

This novella was something I devoured in less than three hours, truly a book that I could not set down until the last page. I picked it up just on the cover alone at the used book store, and knew nothing of what I was reading until finishing. What I began to believe was that the style of the writing kept making me feel it was based partly on true events- turns out I was right.

This novella follows a preacher, Benjamin Purnell, and how he first began building his following that eventually became a thriving colony/cult back in the early 1900's. The amount of things that he and his followers dabbled in through the years was astonishing.

The novella starts with a scene of a gravedigger whom is to bury a coffin that contains a 68 year old woman, unfortunately the crudely made coffin breaks open and it is not a 68 year old woman that he sees. Deciding to put the lid back on and finishing the burial the story switches to the goings on at the colony/cult .

While it does follow only a few main characters, mainly a few young girls and how they saw things. The author is able to develop those characters very well early on in the book. There was no lacking in visualizing all those that had come there to stay and what the place had to look like.

The ending did make me gasp, as I was not quite ready for the coffin reveal for the second time. The novella is engrossing from beginning to end.

I loved that it was not all about what ended up happening in the end to this colony. It was not totally focused on accusations and media coverage (newspapers). The story had the right balance between what could have happened and what did happen without destroying the original plot.

Reading along I think, wait a minute: Is this a simple story about a harried mother and daughter learning valuable lessons about love? Or... is it actually a story of a mentally ill mother with an unhealthy obsession with her perfectly normal daughter? Or wait, is this a story about a mentally ill daughter and a perfectly normal mother? Am I normal? Am I as bad a housekeeper as the protagonist in this story? Haven't I also neglected to wash the kitchen floor lately? Haven't I also been amazed about the unpleasantly graphic nature of raw red meat? Did that scene just happen with the knife?

Miraculously by the end all questions are answered except maybe about my kitchen floor. Wow! This hit a sweet spot for me, making me quite suspicious of my own instincts along the way in the way only a great book about paranoia can. The novel was suspenseful and well told.

Mind of Winter is the most surreal, captivating tale of a mother and daughter I�Ûªve ever read. Aspects of the relationship, sometimes fraught, sometimes heartbreakingly tender, are captured and held up to the light like a prism. I LOVED this book by Laura Kasischke. It will haunt me for a long long time.

Late one Christmas morning, Holly Judge wakes up with a sudden epiphany: Something has followed them home from Russia -- where thirteen years ago she and her husband Eric adopted their now-teenaged daughter Tatiana. When a severe snowstorm isolates Holly and Tatty at home, holiday celebration gives way to family drama and a gradually-unfolding mystery, and Holly learns that memories don't stay buried forever.

A haunting page-turner with a shocker of a twist and ending. (Yet in retrospect I felt all the clues where there...which made it especially delicious!) Highly recommended.

> Roman après roman, Laura Kasischke impose sa voix. Elle décortique avec froideur et sans ménagement, mais sans jugement moral, la middle clans américaine dans laquelle tout, y compris le désir, semble bien ordonné. Comparée à Joyce Carol Oates, elle est saluée pour sa maîtrise stylistique.
—Le Livre de Poche

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Kasischke-En-un-monde-parfait/191244
> Psychologies magazine : https://fr.calameo.com/books/000048378bf6d93a97b95

> Ce qui est rare chez Laura Kasischke, c'est ce curieux mélange de maîtrise et d'émotion, d'étrangeté et de simplicité, d'atrocité et de poésie. Douée d’un talent de narration peu commun, Laura Kasischke est une écrivaine capable de déchaîner la terreur et d’en faire surgir la beauté.
—Olivia de Lamberterie, Elle.

Meh. Adopted daughter from Russia acts weird when she and mom are left alone in the house on Christmas.½

Un thriller intriguant et au fil des pages finalement très captivant.
Un accident de voiture dans lequel meurt une jeune étudiante, une autre jeune-fille disparue sans que quiconque au sein de l'administration de l'université s'en inquiète, des séances ésotériques et dangereuses d'intronisation au sein d'un club d'étudiantes de l'université, des jeunes hommes et jeunes femmes découvrant la vie d'étudiant, seuls, éloignés de leur famille, manipulables, prêts à découvrir des expériences de la vie, pour certains fascinés par la mort, persuadés de voir des revenants.... C'est dans le monde très particulier d'une université américaine que Laura Kasischke place son intrigue en dénonçant par la même ce milieu sous influence des donateurs et soutiens financiers, prêt à tout pour protéger l'image et la renommée de l'université, le monde des clubs étudiants véritable secte et l'hypocrisie morale d'une société américaine repliée sur l'apparence, le cynisme de l'entre-soi et la peur du quand dira-t-on.
Dans un style très agréable, la construction du roman est remarquable par des incessants aller-retour entre les personnages et les périodes.

La grande réussite de ce roman est de rester toujours sur un entre deux, laissant en suspens les éventualités, comme le résume si bien en milieu de roman, Mira, une enseignante assurant un séminaire sur la mort et les traditions culturelles autour du culte des morts.
"On peut se dire non superstitieux. On peut avoir l'assurance de ne pas croire à la vie après la mort, si c'est ce que l'on veut. Mais cela n'empêche pas, Perry, que nous soyons ici, nous autres humains, dans une bien étrange situation. En parfaite connaissance ed la façon dont cela finira, et sans la moindre idée de ce qui arrivera ensuite - juste une poignée de symboles, un peu de musique et quelques mythes pour nous montrer le chemin. " (p301 Ed Folio)

15 nouvelles sur la vie américaine de banlieue, la lassitude, la routine, l'espoir du "mieux-être", la mort, la maladie, nos espoirs déçus ou réussis bref ce qui fait notre vie à tous.
L'auteure en peu de mots nous démontre sans nous expliquer, nous laissant en plan à la fin d'une nouvelle, à nous de finir, d'imaginer, d'espérer la suite......
De très bonnes nouvelles, parfois d'autres plus décevantes, on a le choix en fonction de nos ressentis.
Comme d'autre lecteur je préfère malgré tout ses romans plus aboutis pour moi.

Fictionalized account of a historic event: the charismatic founder of a religious community exerts a creepy amount of influence over his followers. A great piece of Michigan history.

Based on the true story of the House of David, a religious cult/compound in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Interesting premise with some lovely descriptive writing, but the resolution lacked oomph. It all just seemed to slide through my hands in the end, which may be accurate, but was very unsatisfying.

Mind of Winter is one of those novels that creeps up on you, page by page, the story building, the layers being pulled off very precisely, one at a time. The novel is subtle in its intensity, especially in the beginning, making it all the more a worthwhile read

Holly Judge and her husband Eric adopted a Russian girl thirteen years ago. They fell in love with her the moment they saw her on that Christmas Day long ago. It was not an easy process. Adoption never is. And when adoption in another country brings with it its own challenges.

Waking up from a fitful night's sleep, still groggy from a not so good dream, Holly begins her day. Her husband rushes off to pick his parents up from the airport and Holly goes to see what is keeping her teenage daughter, Tatiana (Tatty), in bed so late. Haunted still from her nightmare, "Something followed them from Russia," Holly begins to really question events from the past: the seemingly innocent accidents, the growth on her husband's hand, the fate of Sally the chicken, the scratched CD's, and her daughter's ever growing dark mood.

What follows is a day in the life type story, set in the middle of a blizzard on Christmas Day. Although written in third person, the story is told strictly from the perspective of Holly, as she remembers the past--the adoption process--and as she goes through the motions of the present day. The entire book is told in one long narrative. There are no chapters, with only the occasional section break.

When I think back to reading this novel, I find myself amazed at how well-crafted the story is, how every little detail was carefully placed, and, yet, it wasn't something I noticed so much as I read. It was in hindsight I could see it most. And aren't those among the best books?

I admit I wasn't overly fond of Holly. I actually felt bad at times for her daughter because of Holly's constant questioning of Tatty and felt some of the mother's anger at her daughter was overblown or misplaced. It was in part because of this I was not sure I would like the book initially, and yet something about the story kept me reading. Perhaps it was the sense of foreboding that something bad was about to happen. By the end of the novel, I felt a wide range of emotions. The ending is what made the book for me.

This is very much a book about grief, regret, failures. It is one of denial and fear. Mind of Winter is so much more than it seems at first. Picture a small crack in a car's windshield. If left unfixed, that crack will spread out, splintering off into various other fractures. That is much how Mind of Winter plays out.

The writing is pretty bad, but I wanted to know how it ended. Well, I got what I wanted; an ending. A horrible book ruining ending.

Sexual content- authors note interesting, mainly about teenage sexual experiance

An excellent collection by Laura Kasischke with many fine lines and poems. There are moments where the collection lags with a few uneven spots, but Kasischke always redeems the waiting on the next page or two.

Some of the parts that struck me, some for their elogquence, some for their simplicity:

"A girl in a bed trying to tune the AM radio to the voices of the dead."

"... the soldiers marching across some flowery field in France bear their own soft pottery in their arms—heart, lung, abdomen."

"as if the worship of a thing might be the thing that breaks it."

"The wind has toppled the telescope over onto the lawn: So much for stars. Your brief shot at the universe, gone."

"Bright splash of blood on the kitchen floor. Astonishing red. (All that brightness inside me?)"

"And my father ringing the bell for the nurse in the night, and then not even the bell. Ringing the quiet. Waiting in the silence"

"Believable, chronological, but so quickly erased that it only serves to prove that the universe is made of curving, warping space."

"When I built my luminous prison around you, you simply lay down at the center of it and died."

"Who knew those bees were making honey of our grief?"

This collection contains domestic poetry that is at once brusque, argumentative, and beautiful. She is a poet of particulars, which are familiar and yet just subtly off true (infinitesimally unexpected) in a way that gives pause and reflection:

A familiar sweater in a garbage can
A surgeon bent over our baby, wearing a mask

Highly recommended.

I kind of feel like I wasted my time reading this book. Yes, it was a decent storyline, yes the author is a good writer. But it was totally confusing. The story jumped around so much from present time to past without you knowing it and it jumped from one character to another and sometimes it was almost a puzzle which character was being featured until you read a few paragraphs. I don't like working that hard on a book. I like a book draw me in and I get absorbed into the story, not spend most of the book trying to figure out what is going on and who is talking.

I think this could have been a really good book if the structure was different. Also, now that I'm done, I'm still totally confused at what really happened. I don't feel like it was wrapped up with a clear explanation. It's not like this is the first book of s trilogy.

I almost gave up several times reading it but I thought I would finish to find out what really did happen. Nope. Someone clue me in. Because if it was there, then it was really subtle and I didn't get it because I was having to concentrate so hard on who was who and how they were connected to each person and trying to just remember characters. I think the "flashbacks" should have been more obvious or maybe instead of short chunks of story, have the chapters be the voice of a different character with their name as the chapter so the reader didn't have to concentrate on who was talking. Just very disappointing.

Book has poetic feel, but not very interesting.

C'est beau d'être jeune, riche, insouciante. c'est chouette d'être une jeune fille de bonne famille parmi ses pairs: des pom-pom girls. Entre entrainement et balade, les jeunes filles aguichent de jeunes garçons du coin.
Mais la nuit surgit des ombres qui rodent, fantomatiques...des craintes s'éveillent, un malaise plane. Lors d'une virée prés d'un grand lac, les jeunes filles se baignent la nuit, et au loin aperçoivent une lumière: on les observe. Mais qui? la réponse à cette question donne toute la force à ce roman où la superficialité laisse place à la morale, reste à savoir laquelle.

psychological thriller, paranormal?, emotionally unsettling, poetically skirts the edge of horror, eerie, macabre

"domestic drama with elements of psychological suspense and horror"(editorial note)
” Trapped at home with her teenage daughter during a blizzard, Holly’s thoughts drift back to the trips she and her husband took to Siberia’s Pokrovka Orphanage #2 to adopt baby Tatiana......(Booklist)
“Something had followed them home from Russia.” (Booklist)

The book develops a mother-daughter relationship that is thought provoking and haunting.

3.5 ★½

On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens with the fragments of a nightmare floating on the edge of her consciousness. Something followed them from Russia. Thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric adopted baby Tatty, their pretty, black-haired Rapunzel, from the Pokrovka Orphanage #2. Now, at fifteen, Tatiana is more beautiful than ever—and disturbingly erratic.
As a blizzard rages outside, Holly and Tatiana are alone. With each passing hour, Tatiana’s mood darkens, and her behaviour becomes increasingly frightening . . . until Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.


Read this in one session late into the night, unable to stop a growing sense of dread. Something is wrong, very wrong here but you cannot even begin to guess. You can tell the author is a poet by the repeated rhythms and phrases especially "something followed them home from Russia". The rambling, obsessive inner dialogue of Holly the mother is broken up by the increasingly strange behaviour of Tatty the daughter. It may be slow and repetitive but stick with it and you will be rewarded with an ending that will haunt you for a long time to come.

The last page is like a slap in the face.....