Good Citizens Need Not Fear

by Maria Reva

Published by Cadmus Press

February 9, 2021

223 pages

ISBN: 978-1984897589

Review by Laurisa Hrycyna

Maria Reva is a Canadian writer, who was born in Ukraine. She moved to Canada with her family in childhood, and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

She is most noted for her short story collection Good Citizens Need Not Fear, which won the 2022 Kobzar Book Award.

The collection of linked stories is set in Ukraine and takes place before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is about ordinary people living in a typical Soviet block apartment building. In the first story called Novostroika (new building) we learn this building #1933 Ivansk St. has no heat. When the tenant Daniel Petrovich Blinov goes to the city administration to complain he is told by a bureaucrat that the building doesn’t exist.

We learn later that it doesn’t exist because it was built from the surplus materials from the adjacent two buildings. Our readers wondered about the significance of the address “1933” because the Holodomor took place between 1932-1933.

Each story introduced us to a new protagonist and set of circumstances. Although we could not see the connection between the first two stories, it became more apparent by the end of the third. Zaya, Milena Markivna and Konstantyn Illych, were particularly intriguing main characters whose lives closely intersected with each other as the stories unfolded. The stories illustrated acts of resilience, defiance and creativity in response to crushing and absurd bureaucratic dictates.

Some of the stories included page long lists of vegetables, canning size calculations and diagrams of the apartment building which added to the quirkiness of the book.

This book generated thoughtful discussion amongst the book club members and allowed us to share personal experiences we had from earlier trips to Ukraine.

We would recommend this book to others to read.

 

 

A Biography of a Chance Miracle

By Tanja Maljartschuk

Published by Cadmus Press

Ukrainian version 2012

English translation 2018

Paperback 238 pages

ISBN: 978-4-908793-41-7

Review by Laurisa Hrycyna

Tanja Maljartschuk is a prolific young Ukrainian author who writes both in Ukrainian and German. A Biography of a Chance Miracle is the first of her books to be translated into English. This book is a searing commentary of the social conditions in post-Soviet Ukrainian culture. Through the eyes of its protagonist, Lena, it describes the Soviet baggage which independent Ukraine inherited in the 1990’s and its impact on the population’s psyche of San Francisco, an imagined Ukrainian city named after those who left for America in search of the land of dreams.

Lena’s life journey begins with her parents, Baba Lida, and her best friend whom she calls Dog. It is a poignant tale of what life has become for the citizens of San Francisco. The conversation that Lena has with her Baba in which her grandmother summarizes her life saying, “…I spent my whole life cleaning up. So much effort, so much redone work, and the world’s still not any tidier” rings ever true today.

Lena doesn’t feel like she fits in with the people around her. Her favourite school teacher gives her hope by instilling in Lena the notion that great people would come crawling out of her.

The book is divided into sections and takes us through the mid 1990’s when the concept of the American word business is introduced to the community of San Francisco. New characters pop up in Lena’s journey such as the professor Theophilus Bunny who lectures at the bazaar and I-don’t-give-a-hoot Vasylyna, Lena’s college room mate. Some of the characters are outlandish and comical, and scenes are so absurd, they make the reader want to laugh out loud and cry at the same time.

In our discussion of the book, book club readers were challenged by the word miracle in the book’s title. We would welcome other readers and reviewers to share some insight into its interpretation. 

Lena's quest to live a life with greater meaning is well worth the read.