Iron Curtain: A Love Story

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(as of Aug 15,2024 19:29:30 UTC – From the brand

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (9 Mar. 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529115299
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529115291
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm

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Reviewer: Lady Fancifull
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: So much more than a love story
Review: This is terrific, and highly recommended. Goldsworthy hangs an account of the relationship between East and West, a kind of mutual suspicion and mutual fascination and misunderstanding, which has been fostered between capitalist and communist countries. Rampant individualism (West) and rampant collectivism/State Control (East) contain each other as shadows.Set in an unnamed ‘Soviet Satellite State’, in the early 80’s Milina, privileged daughter of a high ranking hero of the Communist Party, is already a rebellious, protected young woman, part of a nihilistic, individualist group of other young people, who can escape some of the punishments which would be due to them for their rebellion, because of their privilege. She models her style as ‘The Juliette Greco of the Steppes’ The same situation, of course, exists in the West. Power and wealth mean one law for the rich, another for the poor.A tragedy rather changes Milena’s expectations, and her status trajectory is likely to be a little lower than she might otherwise expect. She does, however, due to her knowledge of English, get assigned as a translator on a cultural project, where a romantic left leaning, louche poet from England (from a privileged background) is invited as a guest, for a showcase series of lectures. Jason Collins, layabout, handsome poet, happily an eternal student on a grant, so that he never actually needs to work, but is subsidised by state and family, won a minor poetry prize, and because of this youthful/trendy bandwagon vaguely revolutionary spoutings – though talk rather than walk – is a bit of a hit in the Russian cultural event.He is also smitten by Milena. As she, eventually, realises Cupid struck home for her too.No spoilers, as we are given information, right at the start of the book, which begins in 1990, the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the relationship between Jason and Milena did not have any kind of lasting happy ending.This is a story not just of love’s betrayal and disillusionment, but also of political and ideological disillusionment – from both sides of the Iron Curtain, and also from those who had a sense that ‘before the revolution’ to be a revolutionary was to have some kind of integrity, which totalitarianism of the left, betrayed. However: the collapse of Communism, the embracing of consumerist individualism, as seen in late stage capitalism, is not such an embraceable ideal.either.Goldsworthy had me hooked here, first page to last. Thoroughly recommendedThank you to Net Galley, the publisher – and, of course, the author. This was an absolutely absorbing read

Reviewer: terence dunne
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Really Interesting Subject Matter
Review: I hesitated before trying this book but am so glad I went ahead with reading it . Absolutely absorbing subject matter, which I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, and related in a manner which reflected the main character Milena’s personality.Really enjoyed it and was totally on her side against the blond , feckless , entitled , irresponsible , lying , cheating Englishman she fell for .I think he may currently be Prime Minister.I will be searching out more work by this author.

Reviewer: Fly Me to the Moon
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting but
Review: This somehow lacked an emotional core and I found it hard to buy into the character of Milena – she felt quite distant, superior and intellectualised.Nevertheless the culture clash between East and West was well described but it read too much like a memoire or factual account of someone’s life than a novel.

Reviewer: sevenpin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Riveting Historical Fiction
Review: Vesna Goldsworthy charts the trajectory of a ‘love’ story in this astutely observed piece of historical fiction set in the 1980s in an era of political turbulence in a unnamed Soviet communist satellite country and a changing Britain under Thatcher. Milena ‘Mimi’ Urbanska is a privileged Red Princess, living a life of luxury, daughter of one of the leading elite Party members, a member of the ‘it’ crowd, flirting with rebellion whilst being protected from any of the consequences of her behaviour. However, a tragedy stops her in her tracks, a trauma that has her changing a life that she had previously glided through. More alone and isolated, she becomes hardworking and succeeds academically, seeking to be more low key. She becomes a English translator at a Maize Research Institute, when she is asked to interpret for a visiting left leaning British poet who has won a minor poetry prize, Jason Connor.Meeting him, she sees a handsome, louche and irresponsible man, poorly dressed, ill equipped to handle their climate, claiming an Irish ancestry, but as he is lauded and admired, her perspective begins to shift as she begins to view him through rose coloured lens. Jason states he loves her and wants her to return to London with him. She refuses, but as time goes by, her love grows as she dwells on her dissatisfactions with her comfortable life that comes at a price, the heavy surveillance, the claustrophic, and insular community, and the limitations of the controlling environment. As she plots to join Jason, she naively assumes that she can never be herself at home, willing to pay the cost of leaving her country, her family, and everything she knows. However, London is a shock, as she becomes ‘Millie’, finding herself living in dingy squalor and poverty, living with a Jason she begins to see more clearly, a self centred, feckless manchild who will never be able to provide for them, she must do that. Initially she is sustained by their love and her unwillingness to confront the horror that she might have made a monumental error, that is until she faces betrayal.Goldsworthy is a storyteller of talent and wit, insightfully focusing on the failures of family, freedom, and country, comparing and contrasting the social, political and cultural differences of two such apparently different countries. Mimi and Jason’s love story is one that the reader can see is doomed even as Mimi, laden with her ideals and expectations, is planning to join Jason. Jason’s perceptions of his freedoms bring hurt, and a re-evaluation of their marriage which has Mimi coming full circle as she seeks retribution. This is a fascinating and riveting read, of the personal and the political, a love story set in a historically significant period of change in Britain, and with the upcoming collapse of the communist political systems, symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Reviewer: ChinaBull
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Original & Interesting
Review: I found this book original and unusual. Cannot believe Vesna Goldworthy’s first language is not English – she writes beautifully. However, this book reads more like a historical memoir than a novel, thus the 4 stars instead of 5. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the writing.Thank you NetGalley and the publishers, Random House for this ARC.

Reviewer: katherine lowe
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I lived behind the iron curtain and its is very difficult to adjust to the west !great book!

Reviewer: rrr_hhh
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I found the subject of the book at the same time interesting and smacking too much like a soap opera.I liked the paragraphs explaining the culture shock between east and west, how the feelings are different. But at the same time that story seems too improbable : which woman would come to the west after a single intercourse and a one time intercourse ? And why make her the daughter of a vice-president ?Too make it short, I spent some agreeable hours reading that book, but for me it lacked depth.I saw the author has also published his memories, I’ll have a look, it may be more interesting than this romanced story.

From the brand

Vintage Red Spines

Quarterbound Classics

Murakami Hardbacks

Vintage Minis

Vintage TikTok

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (9 Mar. 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529115299
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529115291
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm