HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her…
Loading...

There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family (edition 2014)

by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Anna Summers (Translator), Anna Summers (Introduction)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1407193,917 (3.83)7
"The masterly novellas that established Ludmilla Petrushevskaya as one of the greatest living Russian writers . After her work was suppressed for many years, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya won wide recognition for capturing the experiences of everyday Russians with profound pathos and mordant wit. Among her most famous and controversial works, these three novellas-The Time Is Night, Chocolates with Liqueur, and Among Friends-are modern classics that breathe new life into Tolstoy's famous dictum, "All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Together they confirm the genius of an author with a gift for turning adversity into art"--… (more)
Member:Esther1987
Title:There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family
Authors:Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Other authors:Anna Summers (Translator), Anna Summers (Introduction)
Info:Penguin Books (2014), Editie: Reprint, Paperback, 208 pagina's
Collections:Your library, Esther, Esther gelezen, Fictie, Vrouw
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

There once lived a mother who loved her children, until they moved back in: three novellas about family by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 7 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Incredibly harsh to read--the author clearly conveys the madness of Soviet-era Russia but the reader needs a strong constitution to get past the ugliness. ( )
  monicaberger | Jan 22, 2024 |
‘’Oh, great mother nature! Why do you have to trick us? Why do you need all this mucus, stench, violence, our sleepless night and exhausting work? Presumably to make things right, but nothing ever turns out right.’’

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s stories in this volume are part of an absurd, nightmarish universe. Except that this ‘’universe’’ is very, very real. This is the living Hell of the Soviet society, built on lies, treachery, corruption and violence. This is beautiful Moscow turned into a den of worms where people try to survive another day in communal apartments because All Hail the Great Collectivization, beloved comrades! This is the journey within the turbulence of their feelings, the terror of living with your enemy. This is how the future is destroyed, this is how family members turn into enemies over a piece of bread, a potato and a few centimetres of space. This is why we need to study some serious History.

The Time Is Night: A poet is trying to survive under a series of threats. Eviction, a daughter who can’t close her legs, creating babies by the minute, a son who is a coward, a criminal and an all-around accomplished Soviet parasite. Poetry echoing Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva and her grandson are the only sources of light in her life. But they are far from enough…

Chocolates With Liqueur: This harrowing story is divided into three chapters. We start at the heart of the story, we continue with the origins of Lelia’s ordeal in the hands of a monster and the end comes in the final chapter. You will drive yourselves mad trying to comprehend Lelia’s docility, you will find yourselves murdering her husband in your mind in approximately 200 different ways but I promise you, the closure will satisfy you 200%!

Among Friends: A troubled mother resorts to extreme actions to ensure that her son will have a better life. But even that is highly doubtful.

‘’Recently my memory grew hazy and I began losing my eyesight. How many years passed in our Friday gatherings? Ten? Fifteen? We heard of the political unrest in Czechoslovakia, then in China, then in Romania, then in Yugoslavia; after that came the news about the trials of the culprits, followed by the trials of those who had protested against the original trials, then the trials of those who had collected money to support the families of the incarcerated dissidents, but all these events rolled past our nest on Stulin Street.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )
1 vote AmaliaGavea | Apr 21, 2021 |
Review to come. I enjoyed this very much, I need to read more of her work! ( )
  JCanausa | Feb 1, 2021 |
Astonishingly good. I have not read this kind of hard-driving, breathlessly honest, humorous-and-terrible-all-at-once prose since Celine (Death on the Installment Plan). The title story is the star, but I enjoyed the whole book. About people making do with what they have, hurting each other, loving each other as best they can, sometimes failing to love each other...and surviving. Keep writing, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, and I will keep reading. ( )
1 vote bibleblaster | Jan 23, 2016 |
Could not get into it. Not that it wasn't well-written, but spending time with these women in their awful lives was more than I could do
  revliz | Nov 17, 2015 |
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
A woman called me—a stranger.
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

"The masterly novellas that established Ludmilla Petrushevskaya as one of the greatest living Russian writers . After her work was suppressed for many years, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya won wide recognition for capturing the experiences of everyday Russians with profound pathos and mordant wit. Among her most famous and controversial works, these three novellas-The Time Is Night, Chocolates with Liqueur, and Among Friends-are modern classics that breathe new life into Tolstoy's famous dictum, "All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Together they confirm the genius of an author with a gift for turning adversity into art"--

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.83)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2
2.5
3 4
3.5
4 12
4.5 1
5 3

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,191,542 books! | Top bar: Always visible