Hello and welcome to Bookcrossing!

Thanks for picking up this book. Treat it nicely, enjoy reading it and let everyone know what you thought of it here; you can be anonymous if you like or you might want to join Bookcrossing, if you do you can follow the book's onward journey. Then, pass it on when the time is right.If you do choose to join, I hope you'll consider using me retromonkey, as your referring member.

Taking to the meet up.

Picked up at Salcey Forest from the book table today. I'm going to save it for sing-on-a-star as I think she might like it.

I seemed to read this very slowly, I'm not sure why but it was hard to skim read through it fast. It focuses on fairly ordinary events in the life of the main character, and his family, but it's immensely thoughtful and sensitive. The importance of people, place, food and gatherings within a family's culture are described throughout. These seem to illustrate the great differences between the two cultures.
Is the American culture deliberately shown as shallow and superficial? Is Gogol, portrayed as selfish for following his own desires all the time and neglecting to care for/about his family, a sympathetic character? I felt for the poor sister who had to make sacrifices while Gogol's life remained largely inaffected by ....event.....(don't want to spoil the story!) Is this taken for granted by the author or particularly highlighted by her? I wanted to have more insight into the parent's and sister's stories.
This is not the most exciting tale but it is a very good read.

You requested this a while ago, I enjoyed it.

Thanks for sharing!