2007 book 139

Amy Bloom's Away
This book has been getting tons of buzz, which usually means I'll love it or totally hate it, but in this case my feelings were slightly more mixed. I think that's b/c it wasn't what I was expecting--it's being described as about a young Russian Jewish woman in the 1920s who flees to American after her family is killed in a pogrom. When she hears that her small daughter may in fact be alive, she goes on a quest to find the child in Siberia. All of which is technically accurate, but the story is really about the journey. Several events require serious, serious suspension of disbelief, but the protagonist's tale is an intriguing one. A-/B+.

Oh, and EVERYONE at my book group HATED the end of My Sister's Keeper, just like I did. It's being adapted into a movie, possibly to star Cameron Diaz.