Lenka S. reviewed Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing on + 819 more book reviews
Politically biased, awkward memoir of half truths, criticisms and pointed dislikes.
It has been a long time since I have put my self in the company of such pompous and arrogant person! Counting on my lack of knowledge, to persuade me to believe the most ridiculous notions, she presents as concrete truths. For an example, she states that when she attended a kindergarten (3-5years of age) she was sick of the socialist propaganda spooned to them at every turn. As represented by being served Caviar in the afternoons, as regular snack... Wow! REALLY?! A barely potty-trained toddler just about able to hold a spoon was "sick of the socialist paradise propaganda" sounds really far fetched. But even more outlandish claim is, that they serve outgrown toddlers the most expensive elitist delicacy the country has to offer?
Another thing that really bothered me was the authors Pompous and arrogant attitude. She perpetually sounded like morally high-and-mighty individual, lecturing the reader on the fine points of living in Communist Era Russia, but at the same time criticizing her old home land. Ending with the thought that Russia has fallen apart and really does not exist anymore. Then she moves on to rip her new home, the USA into shreds. She notes that "after eating Bologna and wonder bread, her taste buds died for many years". As if the cheap Polish Klobasa she ate in Russia was any better.
Anya also rages about the lack of the bourgeois elitist staple, the BUTTER. She states that she had only been able to imagine what a butter cookie might taste like. Oh My Goodness! The country that strives on cookies and tea as a cultural norm, is out of butter cookies. Who would have thought it possible! Its like saying 4th of July run out of BBQ. And to make it even worse, she compares the soft French, cake like Madelines, she could not have know even existed, to the hard tea butter-biscuits dunkers, she claims were unavailable and sinful to posses.
The writing is choppy and the people in her stories suffer from the "cookie cut ghostly character" syndrome. A specially her mother, who should have been strong personality, as many Slavic matriarchs have. Instead her mom is barely fleshed out, practically without any distinctive personality. This is sad, as she is the only likable "alive" character in the book. The author her self is, like her writing, unlikable and annoying.
I grew up under the Russian occupation and know the real truth from fiction. Now a USA citizen, i stood in her shoes and know the ins and outs of this life she writes about. It has not been easy life, under Russian occupation, or getting settles in USA. But it has never been as totally bleak as she paints it. Life is what you make of it. No matter where you live. I feel offended by her attitude to both of her homelands. Her writing reeks of her disloyalty and disapproval to both.
PS. I come from country directly neighboring Russia, and Im familiar with Russian food. I would like to note a few things. 1) Russians are not known for good food among the slavic countries. I think they rank the lowest. (Not my opinion, there are poles that do the ranking). 2) Including an American recipe for cornbread in the book and passing it off as Russian is mind-boggling, since the Russians were introduced to the USA staple during the Chruscev famine, and NEVER took to it. As the author points out in Preface, her self. 3) The book includes 2 recipes for lamb but no pork. Since pork and chicken is the main staple, and lamb being just about as readily available as it is in your average US small town supermarket, this really is odd. 4) There is also recipe for Bilini (pancakes) made with yeast. Those are "Vdolky" and not Bilini.Bilini are essentially Creps. 5) Russians LOVE CAKES and BUTTER COOKIES. They also have some wonderful pastries, such as the easter bread (similar to Challah), that should have been at least noted. The fact that there is no recipe for either is just wrong.
It has been a long time since I have put my self in the company of such pompous and arrogant person! Counting on my lack of knowledge, to persuade me to believe the most ridiculous notions, she presents as concrete truths. For an example, she states that when she attended a kindergarten (3-5years of age) she was sick of the socialist propaganda spooned to them at every turn. As represented by being served Caviar in the afternoons, as regular snack... Wow! REALLY?! A barely potty-trained toddler just about able to hold a spoon was "sick of the socialist paradise propaganda" sounds really far fetched. But even more outlandish claim is, that they serve outgrown toddlers the most expensive elitist delicacy the country has to offer?
Another thing that really bothered me was the authors Pompous and arrogant attitude. She perpetually sounded like morally high-and-mighty individual, lecturing the reader on the fine points of living in Communist Era Russia, but at the same time criticizing her old home land. Ending with the thought that Russia has fallen apart and really does not exist anymore. Then she moves on to rip her new home, the USA into shreds. She notes that "after eating Bologna and wonder bread, her taste buds died for many years". As if the cheap Polish Klobasa she ate in Russia was any better.
Anya also rages about the lack of the bourgeois elitist staple, the BUTTER. She states that she had only been able to imagine what a butter cookie might taste like. Oh My Goodness! The country that strives on cookies and tea as a cultural norm, is out of butter cookies. Who would have thought it possible! Its like saying 4th of July run out of BBQ. And to make it even worse, she compares the soft French, cake like Madelines, she could not have know even existed, to the hard tea butter-biscuits dunkers, she claims were unavailable and sinful to posses.
The writing is choppy and the people in her stories suffer from the "cookie cut ghostly character" syndrome. A specially her mother, who should have been strong personality, as many Slavic matriarchs have. Instead her mom is barely fleshed out, practically without any distinctive personality. This is sad, as she is the only likable "alive" character in the book. The author her self is, like her writing, unlikable and annoying.
I grew up under the Russian occupation and know the real truth from fiction. Now a USA citizen, i stood in her shoes and know the ins and outs of this life she writes about. It has not been easy life, under Russian occupation, or getting settles in USA. But it has never been as totally bleak as she paints it. Life is what you make of it. No matter where you live. I feel offended by her attitude to both of her homelands. Her writing reeks of her disloyalty and disapproval to both.
PS. I come from country directly neighboring Russia, and Im familiar with Russian food. I would like to note a few things. 1) Russians are not known for good food among the slavic countries. I think they rank the lowest. (Not my opinion, there are poles that do the ranking). 2) Including an American recipe for cornbread in the book and passing it off as Russian is mind-boggling, since the Russians were introduced to the USA staple during the Chruscev famine, and NEVER took to it. As the author points out in Preface, her self. 3) The book includes 2 recipes for lamb but no pork. Since pork and chicken is the main staple, and lamb being just about as readily available as it is in your average US small town supermarket, this really is odd. 4) There is also recipe for Bilini (pancakes) made with yeast. Those are "Vdolky" and not Bilini.Bilini are essentially Creps. 5) Russians LOVE CAKES and BUTTER COOKIES. They also have some wonderful pastries, such as the easter bread (similar to Challah), that should have been at least noted. The fact that there is no recipe for either is just wrong.
John O. (buzzby) -
What a wonderful book! The author, who left the USSR when she was 11, tells the history of the USSR through her family's eyes (mostly her mother's side), ultimately a rather sympathetic view of the old Soviet world.
