eShop USA > Books > If I Told You Once
If I Told You Once
List Price: $24.00Price: $7.16 You Save: $16.84 (70%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312202859
Edition: 1st Picador USA ed
ISBN: 0312202857
Label: Picador USA
Manufacturer: Picador USA
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 1999-11
Publisher: Picador USA
Studio: Picador USA
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Judy Budnitz's debut novel, If I Told You Once, introduces us to Ilana, a peasant girl living sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, in an unnamed European town so gray that "the color of an egg yolk is something of a miracle." This is a place as timeless and vivid as fairy tales, with figures from Russian folklore cast against real-world horrors like rape, cannibalism, and genocide.
Not to say that all is gloomy in Budnitz's world. That's certainly not the case for Ilana, who is inspired to escape her environs for America, the only place with an actual name in the whole book. Here, Ilana's voyage turns into an immigrant's story of poverty, love, and loss. Budnitz also abandons much of the magical realism that fuels her tale's first 100 pages. What replaces the nonstop parade of wonders is a narrative device--suddenly the story is told from the point of view of Ilana's daughter, Sashie; then by Sashie's daughter, Mara; and finally by Nomie, Mara's niece.
As each woman speaks her mind on the American experience and the wounds of the heart, what emerges is a multi-generational saga that not only traverses time and geography, but sensibility as well. The novel is so well paced that the four narrators manage to keep up with the times without having to lean too heavily on cultural benchmarks like world events, slang, and references to pop songs. Budnitz's method is much more integrated, gently conveying a sense of time and tradition slipping away.
Even as Sashie and Mara dismiss the magical stories of Ilana's youth as fabrications, these tales resonate through a novel of great mythic weight. Here, nothing less than the modern world is ushered into being through the voices of girls who become lovers, lovers who become wives, and wives who become mothers. Miracles, indeed. --Ryan Boudinot
In her sparkling, startling novel about mothers, daughters, and love, Judy Budnitz gives the traditional folktale an electrifying twist as she follows four generations of women from an Eastern European village to the tenements of an American city.
Ilana, eager to escape her formidable mother's all consuming love, embarks on an epic journey to the New World, met along the way by evil, magic, and good fortune. The daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter who follow in her footsteps share her special powers of observation and, often, destruction. The result is a family saga unlike any other: a hilarious, heartbreaking story of family ties that bind.
With dazzling imagination and spell-binding storytelling, Judy Budnitz confirms her status as one of her generations most talented and original voices.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Wonderful debut
I became familiar with Budnitz's short stories through The New Yorker; I fell in love with her delicate, quirky tales told with economy and precision of language. Her expertise and flair seem to lie in shorter narratives versus what she attempted with "If I Told You Once". It's a charming story of growing up in war-era Eastern Europe, coming to America, and the generations linking those experiences. Two other recent novels, "Middlesex" and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," share those ... Read More
Rating:  - Absolutely Stunning.
This story was so beautifully written. The similes and metaphors used were extremely effective, and also the fact that there were no quotation marks used. This made it seem more like a story, rather than text written on paper. The voice used for each character was very unique. Each girl a different person, but with similarities in all of them. This was the best book I have ever read in ages. Excellent page-turner.
Rating: - A Wonderful Russian Folk Tale-evocative of Gogol
This novel is a wonderful take-off on old Russian Folk Tales, evoking Gogol at his wildest. It starts off well enough but improves vastly as it moves forward, and eventually resettles the tale in the New World. It is written with wit, compassion, and a wonderfully provocative prose style.
It is a shame that writers with trendy themes, or some sort of artificial hype...get thrust high into the limelight, while true writers, real writers, women and men who will no doubt write until the day they ... Read More
Rating: - Amazing voyage
This book follows 4 women growing up in a poverty stricked environnment. Told with amazing words. Definetely a good read.
Rating: - Oddly Compelling & Depressing..
Don't let the cover of this book fool you;this is not a funny book,maybe in a tragio-comedic way. It is really about how the so-called "American Dream" eludes several female generations of a Russian-Jewish emmigrant family. Its not a typical "rags to riches"story like most books dealing with Jewish immigrants. In a way,I like how the writer avoided that obvious trap. It was rather sad though and could have used more humor,as it started to bring me down the more I read it. That aside, ... Read More
Related Categories:
|
