Russian Tattoo

by Elena Gorokhova

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING

'Incredibly powerful ... by the time you reach the end, you'll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regret, love and hurt of a real life.' Alan Alda

'The possibility of leaving Russia was never as thrilling as the prospect of leaving my mother.'

When Elena Gorokhova arrives in America, the only link back to her Russian past is a suitcase filled with twenty kilograms of what used to be her life. Navigating a country she had been taught to fear, Elena begins to carve out a new life in an unfamiliar world.

Before the birth of Elena's daughter, her mother comes to visit and stays for twenty-four years. Elena, must struggle with the challenge of raising an American daughter whilst living with her controlling mother, a mirror image of her Motherland.

Russian Tattoo is the story of what it means to be an outsider, and what happens when the cultures of our past and present collide. Above all, it is an insightful portrait of mothers and daughters.

• ISBN10: 1451689837
• ISBN13: 9781451689839
• Publish Date: 26 January 2016 (first published 6 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I received an ARC of this novel courtesy of the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2014/12/26/review-russian-tattoo/

I read her first memoir, A Mountain of Crumbs a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Russian Tattoo is an interesting continuation to that book, picking up where the first volume left off with her travelling to the United States to start her new life. This book covers her experiences in America and is very much the immigrant’s experience; it’s not just the culture shock and the lifestyle differences she’s faced with but an entire ideology and character that she’s never faced before. As a result, she finds herself contrasting the things she encounters in America with the things she knows growing up in Soviet Russia.

She also finds herself frequently remembering the things her mother likes to quote and say depending on the situation, which she finds strange given everything she’s done was to separate herself from her mother. Thus in many ways this book is a fascinating meditation about relationships between mothers and daughters, as she finds herself bridged between her mother and her equally-strong-willed daughter.

There’s quite a number of time jumps as Elena focuses on key moments in her life in America, but the contrasts are interesting as she progresses through the 80s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and into the 90s. I really enjoyed reading her second memoir and highly recommend it.