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The Taste Of Ashes. Marci Shore (2013)

by Marci Shore(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0434022306 (ISBN13: 9780434022304)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

William Heinemann

review 1: Good writing, but it seems mostly to be about how she wrote her previous, well-received work on Jewish life in Communist Poland. Only some of the book touched on post-1989 life. Instead, much of it discussed the political evolution of Eastern European Jews, which was not guessable from the title. I suppose I was expecting much more of a travelogue throughout Eastern Europe about how people got over Communism. The book does touch on it, but not quite at the depth and breadth I was expecting.
review 2: I was expecting more of an academic/scholarly examination of the deep sociological/psychological changes among the populations of Central Europe after the collapse of the Communist regimes. Instead, one is presented with an often rambling, more of a personal blog/... morediary of the author from her student days. Though of interest, these anecdotal descriptions lack in a overall framework. The author jumps from theme to theme, often in the middle of one story. The material is somewhat based on some research she did in archives, but the bulk is based on either her own personal experience or her acquaintances. While perhaps interesting as a memoir of the times and her experiences (indeed often the story relates more around herself and her own reactions to events than the people of the region), the book does not really explore the region or its peoples. If you are looking for a scholarly study of the region and the changes forced upon the peoples by the rapidly changing tide of history, then this book is not for you. If you are looking for a memoir/blog view of those confusing years of hope, joy and disappointment in the early 1990s, you may enjoy this book. less

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