Set in Riga, Latvia. Reviewed on 2018/08: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmVju0YlQG8/
Continuing #mybalticweekend I hereby present you with what I can arguably think is the best book I’ve read so far this month or one of the top5. It destroyed me as much as Amos Oz did with his Tale of Love and Darkness. My gut reaction during and after reading it was to crawl in bed and hug the book. BTW bringing books to bed and hugging them might or might not be a recurrence in my room. I pledge the 5th and won’t comment on it… Much like Oz, #noraikstena has written an ode to #mothers to those mothers who fail over and over again, to those mothers that can’t express their feelings, to those mothers that never wanted to become mothers to begin with. There is a vivid and ominous feeling of gloominess throughout the book regardless of any happy or life affirming scenes which it’s all very telling of how life somehow continues under the worst of conditions, under #dictatorship under the brutal and dehumanizing life within the #sovietunion . I personally think that #ikstena does an outstanding job at describing how those “happy” moments under such a despotic system might indeed provide you with a breath of fresh air but ultimately sink you deeper and deeper into the land of no return. The utter denial of allowing people to be their complete self with their failures and mistakes does not encourage them to be better instead it ends up destroying them even more and repeatedly. But war, anger and fear whether valid or not do that to you. Bottom line is by dehumanizing even those who purposely hurt or harm you, you end up dehumanizing yourself. And this is a tale as old as humanity itself. But also one that we need to tell ourselves over and over again. #sovietmilk is quite the addition to that pile because it also brings longing and acceptance from a #daughter to a mother. #highlyrecommended #riga #peirenepress#latvianliterature #leningrad #homeinexile#matespiens #mātespiens #familyissues#latvian #latviandeportations #rīga
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