Another lovely review

Linda came across this lovely (in fact, glowing!) review of Kobzar's Children. Here are some excerpts...

[The extermination of the kobzars] in the Stalinist purges was part of a systematic attempt to destroy Ukrainian history, and to some extent the Ukrainian people.

But stories are hard to silence, and history doesn’t always die with its keepers. New generations of historians have recovered the lost stories of their people and collected their efforts in Kobzar’s Children. ...

The one stylistic consistent is a brevity of language ... This economy of style and simplicity of language gives the collection an emotional force that would be lost in a more consciously picturesque narrative.

The memoirs avoid overt politicizing ... The stories insist only on being heard, without attempting to tell anyone how to feel; and so gain a great deal of power.

It would be easy for a collection full of stories about genocide, exploitation, and bigotry to be pessimistic, but Kobzar’s Children maintains an optimistic tone. ...

The book ends, fittingly, in the optimism of the Orange Revolution, when the people of Ukraine reclaimed their political future. Kobzar’s Children is the mirror of that effort, reclamation of the past, done with heart and hope and a surprising sense of humor.

Full review here.