Catch Hold Of My Russian Produced By Deirdre McNamer Delivered In Leaflet

Oddly unsatisfying. How had I not discovered Deirdre McNamer before now I got wrapped up in her prose and sucked into the mind of this character.
I think I will still be thinking about this novel for some time to come, I particularly liked the author interview in the back of the book, The writing in this novel is beautiful, but the story wanders and wanders and wanders some more, until I really didn't know where the author was going with it.
There's a thread throughout that she keeps coming back to, a mystery about an intruder, but it wasn't compelling enough to keep me interested, particularly with so many details about things that have nothing to do with that part of the story.
This book has been sitting on my TBR pile for several years and I remember trying to start it several times, but I must not have been able to get going this time I was determined to finish it to see if there was some reason it was named a "NY Times Notable Book," but I really can't see it.
Very Odd Read. Interesting at times, but for the most part was a very long and overly thoughtful read, This book was a mess, Initially it was intriguing: how a distraught upper middle class woman can create a false identity, fake her death, go back home to spy on her family and have illicit affairs.
There are some really beautiful thoughts in this book about the nature of love and marriage and community, but they are disjointed and eventually come to no specific point.
There are likepossible story lines in this book, none have satisfying endings or thematic revelations, At the end, you realize Francesca just sucks, she isn't the one being slighted, she is simply self centered, judgemental, and in the most fragile constructed plot twist, surprise, the shooter! I love this odd book because of its beautiful language and strange identity crisis that the main character is going through.
I gave it my “Vladimir Nabokov” award for showstopping sentences and lucidity, My highest praise of course, Its not going onto my favorites list because it wasntstar satisfying as a whole, but I will read all of her books based on the ingenuity of her observations.
Ack. It is difficult to plow through a book when so few of the characters are likable or sympathetic, Weirdly disjointed. I kind of hated the protagonist I liked this book, but I didn't love it, that's why I gave it a,stars. The story was good, well

written, just really nothing to original, I'm confused why the name of the book is "My Russian" when the russian guy had a very minimal part in the book.
She didn't really develope that part of the story very well, If it was just supposed to be a part of her life and the book was named something else that would've been more understandable.
. . eh oh well I'm probably picking apart things that don't really matter, . . like i said, overall the book was a decent read :D POVFrancesca Woodbridge, wife of a Missoula attorney, flies to Greece and flirts with an alternative identity, prepared to leave her family.
Pappered with memorable personalities and stories, including Chernobyl, this is a deep, sometimes disturbing novel, The engrossing tale of a woman leaving a marriage, and why, I agree with some that say the novel comes out kind of clipped into pieces and stitches at times, but in general I would not condemn it as a whole.
It is not a five star read, however, with patience the reader can discover good passages, unusual twists, and let's say I did not quite guess right who the mystery shooter would be.
Loved the writing hated the ending, Well, it was weird. I kept wanting to like the main character and hoping that the next revelation would do it, But, alas, no. With all the books in the world, I say spend your time on a different one, Deirdre McNamer writes gorgeous vignettes, Her descriptions of a scene, a glance and a moment are beautiful and haunting,

I wish her plot had moved me as much,

My Russian is a wonderfully written portrait of angst, But I didn't really feel a thing, I was taken with the idea of a middleaged woman creating a whole new identity for herself, This book was just overwhelmingly underwhelming, Andis my being extremely generous,

I tried to like it, but it is one of those books that almost landed on the I give up pile and it's not evenpages long which, I think, says a great deal about the book.


I have two big problems with this book, Firstly, the language. I can deal with poetic writing okay, but when its so blatantly fluffed so much so you know a thesaurus was used it makes the entire story fall by the wayside and you begin to focus on the sentence structure and how it's almost purposely written to read like a book that "should change the world".
My second gripe is the ending, It ends. We find out what led our narrator to do what she did and yet there is no proper conclusion, The next chapter begins and the narrator is off starting a new life, Not the one she planned during her escapades but a new one nonetheless, The lack of progression made me feel cheated, The lack of a hashing out between the husband and wife, mother and son made me mad,

For being titled, My Russian, the Russian features only within a small amount of pages, If the author did not specifically point out at a stage in the book that the narrator had an affair with the Russian, you could completely miss it as there is literally no deep description of their relationship.


The book peaks, however, with those fleeting pages about the Russian and his life, If the novel had been about that, it would have been fascinating, Had the book been about the unraveling of a marriage and an affair it would have been easier to get involved with the story.
Had the book been about the attack the husband suffered, or even the elaborate falsity of the society in the book, it would have been more entertaining.
However, the book was not about those things a whole, They were small events which, I think hurt the overall work, This book was without consistent context which not only left the story with holes too big to ignore but also hurt the character development.
The narrator seems pompous in the long run, her husband malleable, her son lost, The others are too superficial to even digest,

The story underneath the fluff of this novel was good, but the actual book itself, was not, Apparently it's easier to fake your death than I ever imagined, I love the conceit of this book: taking off for holiday but really sticking around and watching your life from afar, . . an interesting way to gain new perspective, but I'd rather be on vacation, Liz R I think we all fantasize about walking out on our complicated lives, at least occasionally, to escape its tedium or complications.
Deirdre McNamer's character Francesca does it, and travels on the high road and very briefly on the low road, The events invite us, if we reflect on them, to become better observers in our own lives, The plot of the novel is somewhat melodramatic, I don't know anyone whose life brushes up against violence and drama to the extent that these characters do, But I was intrigued enough to read the book to the end, It was a surprising journey, I appreciated that Francesca wasn't totally likable and that McNamer left room for a lot of ambiguity, My only quibble is that the sort of escape McNamer describes is only available to people of means, .