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Ladataan... The Education of a Traitor: Growing Up in Cold War Russia (2015)– tekijä: Svetlana Grobman
Teoksen tarkat tiedotThe Education of a Traitor: A Memoir of Growing Up in Cold War Russia (tekijä: Svetlana Grobman) (2015)
- Ei tämänhetkisiä Keskustelu-viestiketjuja tästä kirjasta. 2   Clara53 | Apr 7, 2015 |  The Education of a Traitor: A Memoir of Growing Up in Cold War Russia comes from a Russian Jewish immigrant to the U.S. who was born in Russia in 1951 and moved to America in 1990. It covers the period between these years, when she was an engineer and editor for the Soviet Encyclopedia, and intersperses the life lessons she gained from her family and culture with insights into cold war Russian society and sentiments. Too many memoirs focus on the physical realities of escaping from one's world. Under such an approach it would have been all too easy for The Education of a Traitor to, itself, have become a linear memoir of a flight to a new life. But true freedom involves more than physical distance or escape: it's a vast adjustment that involves confronting and changing one's framework for perceiving reality itself; and it's here that this autobiography shines. True, the USSR the author describes no longer exists. But that doesn't mean that the influence and specter of its operations don't remain active in the world, both in Grobman's life and in the wider arena of understanding social and political systems and their impact on ordinary lives. And as much as the author's memories are now frozen in the past, they also continue to hold perspective, insight, and influence on the future of both the reader (whether in the motherland or abroad) and the author. After all - isn't that why autobiography remains an effective genre for describing not just individual lives and experiences, but wider questions of social and political evolution and even survival and freedom itself? Without truly understanding influence, motivation, perspective, and the effects of political systems on young hearts and minds, it's not possible to perceive the real threats to freedom in the world. And thus The Education of a Traitor may be read on several different levels: either as a coming-of-age autobiography, or as a wider-ranging portrait of personal survival and growth. Either way, it's not about becoming a patriot and dying. It's about becoming free to live a full life. Exactly how this is achieved is the meat of a hard-hitting and involving story that delivers vignettes of change and survival using a powerful voice and a personal perspective that's hard to put down. (  )1 DDonovan | Mar 21, 2015 |   svetlanagrobman | Mar 16, 2015 | svetlanagrobman | Mar 2, 2015 | näyttää 4/4 ei arvosteluja | lisää arvostelu
Svetlana (Sveta) Grobman grew up in a communal apartment in Moscow, Russia, during the Cold War with her mother, father and younger sister. From a very young age, she found herself living in two contradictory worlds: the private world of a Jewish family struggling to live a decent life in a society rife with shortages and anti-Semitism; and the public world of an oppressive totalitarian regime that brainwashed its citizen into believing that the Soviet Union was the best country in the world.Despite being constantly bullied and insulted by playmates, neighbors, and teachers, Sveta was a dreamer. In the confinement of her cramped apartment, with a book in her hands, she dreamt about doing something significant for her country to earn its love and respect. Yet as Sveta matured and learned about the persecution of her family and the tragic deaths of her Ukrainian relatives during WWII, she realized that the world around her was built on lies and corruption, and that she needed to be strong just to survive.Composed of a series of poignant and sometimes humorous stories, The Education of a Traitor is a luminous memoir that not only describes the experience of one Jewish child coming of age in Russia at the height of the Cold War, but also helps explain why millions of people chose to leave the Soviet Union when the Iron Curtain finally fell. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing-kirjailijaSvetlana Grobman on LibraryThing-kirjailija, kirjailija, jonka henkilökohtainen kirjasto on LibraryThingissä.
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Even before I opened the book, its title jumped at me: the word "traitor" is so infused with potent meaning - we were all traitors if we decided to leave Soviet Union, for it was drilled into us that we were given free education and thus had to "repay" the country by never leaving... But in Svetlana's case this word takes on a much more explicit significance. Many of the episodes in the book were so poignant that it made my heart ache. But one of the most delightful was the experience at the Concert Hall - loved it. The description of the Soviet hospital - another very true-to-fact (yet far from delightful) example. Svetlana Grobman seems to have a knack for cleverly pinpointing the essence of things. A moving memoir. Loved it. (