Away

Amy Bloom's "Always" has everything I love about a sweeping historical novel; interesting and realistically flawed characters, a vibrant setting, unusual plot lines and unexpected twists of fate and a satisfying, if unconventionally unsentimental, ending. One of my favorite things about this novel is that even the most minor characters are well drawn and they each get an ending; some thoroughly unexpected, some "karmic" and some hilarious. After reading some of the negative reviews I see that some of the things I liked about it, others found to be flaws. If you want pat and predictable endings, this book is not for you. But if you like your fiction with a hefty dash of imagination as well as reality, it certainly is!

I just finished reading Away and found it to be incredibly moving. I loved the prose and thought Amy Bloom's telling the whole story of secondary characters after they left Lillian's life was wonderful. It was painfully realistic, softened only by her beautiful writing style. I really could not put this book down until I got to the end. I highly recommend it.

Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations: 1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these things aren't what you learned to do in church, and yet they must be done. 2. The book is full of fringe characters who live and barely survive in the time. She works as a seamstress, lives with cousins, sleeps on a couch, the floor, out in the wilderness, on a cot in jail, etc., over half the book. She meets prostitutes, men running away from the law, robbers, becomes friends with a gay man, spends time in a woman's correctional facility, etc. Overall, I felt that all of these characters seemed real for the time and you really are experiencing the world of the 1920s both in NYC and Alaska. 3. There were very frank and straight forward sexual experiences along the way. The feeling that it creates is that sex was almost less complicated and straight forward then than it is now. But we're a young, inexperienced girl from Russia who is desperate, has been married and likes men. So she is very submissive and doesn't worry too much about it when approached by men she likes. I've read that these scenes were a negative by some of the other reviewers. I would say that if you can handle an R rated movie, you can handle this and that for me, it added a human dimension that made you love and understand the main character, Lillian, very well. You have extreme sympathy for her and just shake your head at what she goes through and yet still moves positively ahead. 4. From time to time the author moves us away from our main character to tell the rest of the story of the life of one of the other main characters. It is a very satisfying, dot the i's, cross the t's experience. Each sub story finishes up within a few pages and yet we have this very fun synopsis of their life that makes us smile and doesn't leave us hanging like happens very often in this kind of book. Whatever happened to old so and so? 5. Many books have an obvious ending that we're planning on experiencing as we're moving forward. Although you will formulate a similar plan here, you will find that your plan won't be realized. And yet the ending is very satisfying as we zoom away from the main character and we have closure by the end of the book, even though the main goal of the main character is never satisfied. We're left with the feeling that life is really a series of coincidences that happen along the way and that your life, as much as you want to plan it out, is really more your ability to handle things as they happen, make adjustments and then be happy with what is given to

I finished this book last night and woke up wishing I was still reading it. Christian fundies and other prudes won't like it, but don't let them deter you from an extraordinary reading experience. The characters are drawn deep and true; they became very, very real to me--and I miss them. This author took a subject in which I have zero interest and wrote a book I could not put down. Prudes go elsewhere and booklovers buy this book and rejoice!

I had never read this author before but through a special promotion I received an advance copy of this novel (this did not influence my feelings for the book, but I do think it should be fully disclosed). This is an extraordinary story of a young woman who comes to America from Russia after her family is destroyed. Young Lillian Leyb arrives in 1920's New York City and is taken in by a famous impresario and his movie star son. Lillian however, gets news about her daughter Sophie. This chain of events sends Lillian on a trip across America all the way to Alaska! Lillian's pluck and guile serve her well in this odyssey, of which Bloom paints a surprising picture of 1920's America. I won't ruin the story but the plot is epic and the characters jump to life, especially Lillian who is one of my favorite female literary characters since Molly Mendoza of "Across the High Lonesome." I highly recommend "Away!" And alsoAcross the High Lonesome for an epic story set in the modern American west.