Starts out very well, but deteriorates as it goes along. It's one of those immigrant Jewish women with a strong will for survival sort of book, wwhich I'm rarely fond of even though I'm a Jewish woman with a strong will for survival. (But I'm not an immigrant) ( )

The first book to read on vacation. A very unusual book. I had to get used to the atmosphere at first, I didn't immediately like it. Later on I liked it better. Not one of my best reads, but I am glad I read it. It two weeks and a couple of books later since I read it, but I still feel the atmosphere of the book when I think back, so it made more of an impression than I had thought.

It's about a young Jewish woman from Russia whose husband, father and mother get killed in a raid. She tries to bring her two-year old daughter to safety. After the tragedy she can't find the little girl and her aunt tells her she saw the girl dead in the river.

That's when she decides to go to America, for a better future. At that point the story turns a bit awkward for me. A bit too unreal for my taste. Even though I believe it is based on a true situation (not all the details though) and even if I believe such things can happen. I can't blame her for the choices she makes. I think I would do what she did given the same circumstances and given the fact that she has nothing whatsoever to lose.

The story turns even more unreal when she decides to go back to Russia and all the adventures she has while trying to reach her goal. Unreal, but fascinating. I think you will just have to judge for yourself by reading the book. I still can't decide what to make of this book. ( )

I chose this book for my book club, and although it had mixed reactions, I loved it. Amy Bloom packs so much into this book without making the reader feel like they are being shortchanged. You can read my detailed review here: http://www.alifeinbooks.com/?p=216 ( )

After witnessing the brutal murders of her family, 22-year-old Lillian Leyb flees her native Russia for New York City, hoping to stop carrying the ghosts of her mother, father, husband and young daughter around her like a shroud. She immediately gets a job working in the Yiddish theatre district with Reuben and Meyer Burstein, a father-and-son team, and finds herself as their mostly willing accomplice until her cousin shows up at her doorstep.

With Raisele's arrival comes big news: her four-year-old daughter Sophie, believed to be murdered, may actually be alive -- and living with a family in a Jewish sector of Siberia. And Lillian begins the cross-country journey that will find her in the arms and hearts of men and women from coast to coast as she makes her way to Seattle, Washington and up the Telegraph Trail of Alaska.

Amy Bloom's Away is one emotional wallop of a novel. Filled to the brim with precise details, graphic imagery and plenty of grief to spread around, this is the story of a young woman's journey to find her lost daughter, the final piece of the sad life she left behind in Russia -- but it's about so much more than that, too. In the back of my paperback version of the novel, Bloom discusses the idea that the novel is about Lillian becoming "American" in the 1920s -- losing her accent, changing her dress, traveling west in the hope of finding freedom from her pain and the possibility of beginning a new life. This is, in fact, an American story -- for all those reasons and more.

I was immediately drawn into life in 1920s New York City, and I felt like I was standing next to Lillian in line as she hoped to be chosen to work for the Bursteins. Her numbness, grief and general ambivalence toward life were a bit off-putting, but I'm sure that was intentional. Until Lillian gets the news from Raisele, she's drifting through life -- here, but not here. Her "adventure," if you can call it that, brings her into the lives of some pretty memorable characters, and I especially loved John Bishop, the man standing sentinel on the Telegraph Trail, and Gumdrop, the classic "hooker with a heart of gold" in Seattle.

The sexual content in the story caught me a little off guard, but I guess it's to be expected of a single woman roaming the country on her own -- and in a time when women were still viewed as objects to be coveted and used. Also be warned of the graphic nature of many of Lillian's recollections, particularly the aftermath of the pogroms in Turov. I am a squeamish reader, and I'll say that they honestly didn't bother me too much -- so don't be too alarmed.

Bloom's writing style is incredibly unique, and there was plenty of foreshadowing happening through the whole novel. She does a superb job of tying up loose ends for characters who appear only fleetingly as Lillian moves on, and I felt an intense sense of closure. Even when the ends weren't positive, it was nice to just know what happened to them. I really appreciated that!

The impetus propelling us forward in Away is the wonder, and the hope, that Lillian will find her little girl. But as in life, it's as much about the journey as it is the destination -- and I was happy to have joined Lillian on that quest. ( )

opening paragraphs:
It is always like this: the best parties are made by people in trouble.
There are one hundred and fifty girls lining the sidewalk outside the Goldman Theatre. They spill into the street and down to the corners and Lillian Leyb, who has spent her first thirty-five days in this country ripping stitches out of navy silk flowers until her hands were dyed blue, thinks that it is like an all-girl Ellis Island: American-looking girls chewing gum, kicking their high heels against the broken pavement, and girls so green they’re still wearing fringed brown shawls over their braided hair. The street is like her village on market day, times a million. A boy playing a harp; a man ….

Lillian Leyb steals your heart and makes it ache as you follow her adventures and disappointments as she makes her way across the country from NYC and into Canada. She's searching for the four yr old daughter she thought was left dead after her Jewish village was ravaged in 1920s Russia.

I was puzzled by all the "green" early in the story--green dress, green curtains, green this and that. Then no green during her horrendous journey across the country, not until, "The light in the woods is a thick, wavering green." Ah ha, green is life and hope. ( )

A surprising tale of one woman's adventures through the U.S. I loved the ending! ( )

I'm still somewhat puzzled regarding why this tale of a mother's desperate quest to find her small daughter left me unmoved. Bloom's writing is literate and economical, peppered with many beautiful phrases. The story is reasonably engaging - particularly the section regarding newly settled Jews in 1920s New York. Yet, the book's overall impact is somehow muted, and I would not recommend it to others. ( )

To me it was almost like the female version of Giants of the Earth. Lillian search for her child, Sophie, seems so daunting that you wonder if any character could minimize the struggle to that degree. The characters are interesting and the struggle between life, survival and death along with love, lust, and power make for great discussions. Bloom's style is different going from past, present and future while telling the story. A nice read. ( )

This should have been good, but instead it seemed interminable. The plot was as meandering as Lillian's journey across the US, and there were way too many detours. ( )

A good "yarn" as my Mother would have said! A strong story line about a little known situation of Russian women who went to America and then tried to return; in this case in search of a child. A journey across the world; across America and through a life. From the big city to the wilds of the North. Enjoyable, believable and ultimately very satisfying. ( )

A woman escapes pogrom in Russia to begin the search of her life, for her lost child, across the whole of the US and into Alaska, but what she finds is not what she expects. Absolutely engrossing to both head and heart., it is a journey, an adventure, a love story, a history. ( )

Grim story of loss

and an impossible quest.

Redemption at end.

"Everyone has two memories. The one you can tell and the one that is stuck to the underside of that, the dark, tarry smear of what happened."

I pulled this quote out of the book because it really embodied the soul of Lillian's story. It's as though we're skating on a frozen lake -- we see Lillian and the other characters as they move through the pages of the story and we hear some of their thoughts. The emotional turmoil and the thoughts too dark or tragic to be voiced, however, are left just under the surface, in the depths of the lake, to be inferred or guessed at by the reader. As in life, there's more to every story.

Full review at :
http://literarymenagerie.blogspot.com... ( )

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book. It was well written, interesting (especially the part in the Lower East Side) but definitely not an easy book to read, despite it's slimness. I feel as though the author has decided which characters she wants to be unlikeable, and then made it a goal to find a redeeming, likable piece a about each of the. But then, I guess that's how we all are...parts lovable, parts barely able to stomach. The language and descriptions are elegant and made me really see and smell the times and places, but I can't say I liked being in any of them.

Interestingly enough, my family has its roots both in the Ukrainian Villages, immigration, Lower East Side and in vaudeville, but though this book and my family shared a time, space and occupation (both destroyed villages, seamstressing and vaudeville), I can't recognize anyone related to me in any of the characters, thank goodness. ( )

I did not enjoy this book; the ending was disappointing and the run on sentences made the book frustrating to read. Had it not been a book club selection, I would not have finished it. ( )

After her husband and parents are killed in a Russian pogrom and she is separated from her three-year-old daughter, 22-year-old Lillian Leyb immigrates to New York City. Against the odds, she lands a job as a seamstress at the Goldfadn Yiddish Theatre and becomes the mistress of both the theatre owner and his bisexual son. When word reaches Lillian that her daughter may still be alive in Siberia, she begins the arduous journey across the United States to Canada, Alaska and the Yukon trail to try to reach her missing child. Bloom’s writing is full of humor as well as tragedy.

Wonderfully told story with engaging characters. ( )

OK, I marked this book as "read", but I only got about 75 pages in before I could no longer continue. I hesitate to give this book 1 star; because I didn't really hate it; it just didn't interest me at all. ( )

In this Roaring Twenties-based novel, set all over the world, the female protagonist is merely used as a tool by the author to describe the time of change and extravagnace in which the book is based. We are introduced to stunningly created characters, all of whom are fleshed out and given great personalities. In fact, it is these secondary characters that create the most motivation for reading Away. Indeed, reading this requires some patience, and if a reader needs to connect with the protagonist to enjoy a book, then this is a not a good choice. One never really gets inside the head of Lillian, and I disagree strongly with the synopsis, which states that she does everything for love. I found her to be outrageously selfish and unlikeable. Regardless, as stated above, she is just a tool in which I was allowed to explore places more interesting - and Bloom really is fantastic at conjuring up images. She wraps up all loose ends for her characters and leaves us with a bittersweet ending. Although much of the plot is unbelievable, it really is her storytelling capability that is the strong point of the novel. ( )

Somewhat interesting, only an ok read for me. I found some of the mulitiple characters who popped in and out of the plot more interesting than Lillian, the main character. The writing style was very hyped, but not really to my taste. ( )

Lillian Leyb escapes a Russian pogrom after witnessing the murder of her immediate family. Her toddler daughter is missing and assumed dead. Lillian ends up in New York where she struggles to make it in America. She is an average seamstress supported by a father and son in the theatre due to her role as mistress to both. When a cousin arrives from Russia and tell's Lillian her daughter is still alive, Lillian journeys across the United States to make her way back to Russia via Canada and Alaska.

I was excited by the many positive reviews for this book and dismayed when I could not get into it. It sat on my coffee table for weeks after reading only a few chapters. I'm glad I picked it back up. It took awhile, but finally the book turns from Lillian's story in New York to the story of her journey back to Russia. It was this second part of the novel that most engaged me. Here the book almost became a collection of short stories or vignettes about the people Lillian meets along the way. As Lillian travels, the author introduces a number of people she meets and Bloom stops to tell us about their life, history and hints to their motivations and what led them to the moment in time when they meet Lillian. This story telling is not always linear, instead it weaves and bends as does Lillian's journey. At times the conclusion of each of these characters roles in the book seems abrupt and Bloom could have attended to that a bit- but still I loved each and every character. ( )

i've had my eye on "away" since it was released last summer to exemplary reviews. for me, it lived up to the hype. it's a wonderful read, full of great moments and images, such as..."It hurts to be in a warm and pretty place, even if it's not to everyone's taste, and to feel that you're the odd thing in it." i loved amy bloom's writing, simply loved it - it, and lillian's sad story, touched me many times over, and i will always have a warm feeling when i think of it. ( )

Well-written but depressing & sordid. ( )