A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir

When I bought this book, it looked like a great read. One from which I could learn how life was for a child in the early days of the Soviet Union, what might even explain the difference between people 'from there' and people 'from here'.

I have no idea why it took me so long to start reading it. I guess there was always a book, and another one creeping before in line. When I noticed it on a fellow crosser's wishlist, I decided to read it and send it there.

Wow, what a book. It did exactly what I expected of it, and more: the story started not from the moment that the author remembers things, but earlier, in the time that her own mother was young (and foolish). It explained a great deal about how her family worked, made clear that the show more family changed along with the changes in society.

This book brought back memories of unfriendly cashiers, silly ways of paying in stores, empty shops, clothes & shoes that were all looking the same, the smell of mothballs, soup and bread with nearly every meal. But most of all it gave again insight in 'chuzhie' and 'svoi', how they have different brains, different ways of thinking.
It is a strange way of saying it, but I completely agree with the author: people growing up behind the iron curtain have 'a different brain' which says it all.

A great memoir, a joy to read and highly recommended to all interested in culture, coming of age, foreign customs and habits. show less

A Mountain of Crumbs was called the "Russian equivalent of Angela's Ashes" by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, while Frank McCourt, author of Ashes, calls it a "rich experience". J.M. Coetzee gave it high praise. These are some powerful endorsements. Is is warranted? I believe so. The writing is top notch and intelligent, her choice of detail from daily life in Soviet Russia during the 1960s and 70s opens new vistas into a lost world. The sense of growing up in the USSR - Gorokhova was born in 1955 - is vivid and memorable. Gorokhova comes of age and discovers the mysteries of love and life, yet she was never innocent to the pervasive control the Soviet state holds on private life, it was an open secret. Eventually, success comes - not show more in the form of material wealth or conquering ones enemies or inner demons, Gorokhova is likable and well adjusted - but by finding a happy home and someone she loves. Her love of books means Russian literature peppers the memoir, the real and fiction sometimes merge, just as the real and fiction of the USSR were hard to tell apart. show less

Fresh, poignant, and with a generous dose of well-directed sense of humor, this bitter/sweet memoir is also a history book of sorts. Written from the point of view of a child, then an adolescent, a teenager and, finally, a young woman growing up in the Soviet Union (starting in mid 1950s till 1980 when she immigrated), it's a story I could relate to in so many ways and an eye-opener to those who were not privy to that unique and unfortunate political system. Throughout the book the author, at different stages of her life and in tune with her age at the time, poses ingenious questions as to the validity of that system. Her prose flows effortlessly and engagingly, more like fiction than a memoir. I couldn't put it down...

I love the voice of this author, you can tell everything comes directly from her heart. She wrote about her and her family's life, during the communist rule in Russia. I'm not a stranger to this kind of political system, being Chinese myself. Elena Gorokhova was born in the 1950's in Leningrad and eventually married an American and moved to the US. Even though English is her second language, her characters are described and written in such details that make them practically jump out of the page. The book is structured somewhat chronically with each chapter centered around a specific incident or period in her life, for example: her fascination with English, her sister's struggle to choose a college major in her own will without angering show more her parents, being a tour guide to a British visitor, her primary and secondary education, why her mom never smiled....

I intentionally slowed down near the last 1/3 of her story, to slowly savour her writing, her word use, her wit and even her humor. How she could inject those sad moments of her life with a sense of hope and fun. This is what she wrote when she was given a tour to a young British student when she was in middle school, and the boy took a picture illegally, pretending his was just playing with the camera:

"He thinks he is a genius, having come up with such a brilliantly distracting maneuver, but in the area of pretense no British student can compete with our decades of daily practice."

and of her own government:

"The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them."

I don't re-read books very often, but I may have to re-read this one someday down the line since I know I sure will find new and insightful meanings in each of her carefully crafted sentence... show less

This book was even better than I'd expected. Elena Gorokhova writes about her life in this book, about how it was growing up in Russia during the 60's and 70's. She starts by telling a little about her grandparents, uncles and other relatives, and then introduces her self as a baby, as a child unwanted at first by her father.

The imagery is powerful. She describes her apartment and other surroundings, a small 2 room place with cement floors, halls stinking of urine, and bland, plain food. Even though her mother is highly educated, an anatomy professor, this is how they live. And how most others live as well. Long lines of people stand waiting for rolls of toilet paper and bread. There are only 2 kinds of nail polish available anywhere. show more Anything above and beyond one's basic needs is evil, capitalist, materialist, Western.... and prohibited. Citizens are not allowed to even carry foreign currency. If they are caught carrying foreign money they are arrested. Many books are banned. And new buildings are rickety, w/doorknobs missing and elevators that barely work.

One of my favorite parts of the book was in the beginning , when Lena is taking English lessons. Both Lena and her tutor are baffled by the word "privacy" . They look it up in the dictionary and find synonyms, such as 'isolation', but still the meaning of it eludes them. The concept is not a Russian one. And it is many years before she learns what the meaning and value of it is.

I loved Elena's writing style too. And it was fascinating to me to get an insider's Russian view of America. show less

This memoir is a fascinating look inside the life of ordinary soviet citizens of the communist era in the 60’s and 70’s when Elena was growing up in Leningrad (St. Petersberg). It is beautifully written and gives you a sense of the day to day lives of people who are still relieved by the “freedom” Lenin has given Russia with the revolution, and they are stalwart in their defense of their communism. Elena draws colorful depictions of these stalwart Russians and their attitudes, “ ‘She refuses to drink vodka, so maybe she’s not even Russian.’”(p.131). At the same time you see clearly how the ordinary citizen was brainwashed into believing it is perfectly normal to stand in endless lines for toilet paper or bread. In fact show more they do not even know that this is NOT the case elsewhere in the world as the government keeps them so insulated from access to the foreign world. Elena takes advantage of one loophole in this system. She is allowed to study English and this transforms her, allows her to see beyond the borders, especially when she becomes a tour guide for English speaking visitors for the House of Friendship and Peace. As she meets English and American visitors the extent of her Russian insulation becomes clear as she doesn’t understand them (“I’m saving to buy a car,” he says. That’s funny, the notion of being able to save enough in one’s lifetime to buy a car. I chuckle….”(p.179) and they don’t understand her. Elena’s
family and friends continue to support her, albeit suspiciously, as she finally marries an American in order to “escape” Russia. Elena’s story allows for a genuine understanding of how people on the other side lived, and does it with dignity and love and optimism. show less

A memoir of childhood in the Soviet Union from the perspective of 30 years as an emigré in the USA. Starts of well but soon descends into syrupy sentimentality and imagined set pieces designed to illustrate aspects of Soviet life. Far from the Turgenev she felt forced to read.