Title: A Mountain of Crumbs
Author: Elena Gorokhova
Genre: Memoir
My Star Rating: 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It
My Summary Statement: Enjoyable and Enlightening Escape Read with Descriptive Writing
A Mountain of Crumbs is a memoir, a coming of age story. The story opens when Elena is a little girl in Leningrad, Russia and ends when she is a young woman of 24 and leaving Russia for a new life in America.
It took me a couple of chapters to get into the book and then I was hooked, it was a page turner for me and I finished it in less than a week, which is fast considering my busy schedule. I really enjoyed Gorokhova’s voice and her well-chosen words which she used to craft descriptions that were beautiful. I was able to imagine the sights and smells and to feel the emotions.
Since the author’s biography on the back cover revealed she did wind up living in America I knew that from the start yet I was curious as the story unfolded about why she came to feel negative emotions about her homeland. I wondered what happened to make her want to come to America, despite knowing so little about it due to the fact that in the 1970s very little information from the west made it way to Russian citizens. The answers to my questions were all revealed as she told her tale.
If you enjoy reading memoir and/or if you are curious about growing up in Russia during the Cold War era you will enjoy this book. I found it an enjoyable escape read.
I was hoping that Gorokhova would write a second memoir telling readers what she thought of America upon her arrival and what happened in her life next, but as of today I don’t see that a second book has been published.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Amazon.com's Vine program for the purpose of reviewing it on their website. I was under no obligation to review it favorably nor to blog it. I was not paid for this review.