Book Review: THERE ONCE LIVED A GIRL WHO SEDUCED HER SISTER'S HUSBAND, AND HE HANGED HIMSELF

by: Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: January 29, 2013

Format: Paperback (192 pages)

ISBN: 9780143121527  

Origin: Publisher 

***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***

My Look:

In this book of romance stories, told from a macabre perspective, you find some less than happy representations of love, love gone awry, and unrequited love, just in time for Valentine’s day . . .

In A MURKY FATE, a woman is lonely and tired of not being able to brag about a man in her life. She takes a man from her office home—who is already married—and is overjoyed at telling people she is in a relationship. Though, it was hardly ever one.

THE TWO DEITIES introduces Evginia, an unmarried woman, who at thirty-five has an office tryst with a twenty-year-old male. Their one night resulted in a son. With the death of her grandmother, Evginia keeps the baby. Though she never marries the father, he visits his child. His family history is one of poverty and alcoholism, but he finishes his schooling. Eventually, they live as a family and the father abuses his alcohol.

In the story of CLARISSA, this woman thinks people are talking about her, although most are not. She marries but grows tired of her distant husband. Soon, she marries again and had a child. However, her husband drinks, cheats, and is abusive. But when her husband leaves her taking the child, she roamed and ranted before disappearing. She returned—divorced with a child, but her problems continue.

She finds another husband, a pilot, and she had another child. Nevertheless, despite her now peaceful life, Clarissa calls the airport dispatcher demanding her husband’s flight information, repeatedly, when he was on duty. This behavior leads to the reprimand of her husband.

YOUNG BERRIES is about a child in a sanatorium for sickly children. She is attacked in the park, but, due to her scream she is not harmed. However, she is harassed and targeted by one of the boys. A boy she grew to love. After she left the sanatorium, this boy tormented her at home, over the phone—using her love for his amusement.

My Take:

THERE ONCE LIVED A GIRL WHO SEDUCED HER SISTER’S HUSBAND, AND HE HANGED HIMSELF by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya translated by Anna Summers is a collection of dark “love” stories that will leave you understanding these things that on the surface can not be understood.

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya writes about her home country of Russia, and she immerses the reader in the life of her characters. Although you maybe know where one story is going, you will still read on. It’s simply something you must see to the end.

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