Ours , a Russian family album , by Sergei Dovlatov
My first book in 2010 is this book of short stories by Russian emigre Sergei Dovlatov. I first heard one of the stories - 'Colonel says I Love you' on the New Yorker podcast and loved it..I am not a big short story reader and however much I may claim to dislike audio books I have come to know some great short story writers through these podcasts..I dont think the story wouldve touched me as much as when I read it..but listening to it gave it lot of depth and nuance and I didnt feel its brevity .. which I think is my main problem with short stories - they are short.
Neway, so I checked out this work from library and found it a quick and interesting read. Here, Sergei takes different family members and forms a story around each and its told in a very engaging narrative and one by one his life is un-raveled to us , not sequentially but in a way we can connect all the dots.. I still found his above story the best and his grandfather's the next best..
Overall a good fun read ..
Rating - 6/10
" Wear the old coat and buy the new book " — Austin Phelps
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