Name: Snow in May
ISBN: 9780007548712

Kseniya Melnik

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE The stories of Kseniya Melnik’s debut collection are small-town miracles, each a miniature epic.

Snow in May

Residents of a thriving port town in Russia's Far East are shaped by regional history and lore throughout the latter half of the 20th century, from a local woman who considers an Italian footballer's proposition to a former Soviet boss' memories about a thorny friendship. A first collection. 35,000 first printing.

Stories

Laura

I think my favorite part about this book is the cover. I did like the book too, but just look at that cover! This book was a borderline cover buy because of it. And, you know, the synopsis interested me, but mostly the cover.

This is a book of short stories that I was hoping would be in the same vein as The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, which as you know blew me away completely. There is a bit of Marra in her writing, especially in the story Summer Medicine, but overall she isn't on the same level yet. Melnik's writing is a bit debut-y, but I think that she will grow into a strong writer, so I'm not going to write her off yet. 

The stories were more disjointed in this piece than they were in The Tsar of Love and Techno as well. As a result, I think my some of my favorite stories were the ones that followed Sonya's family throughout the generations. I believe those were Closed Fracture, Strawberry Lipstick, Summer Medicine, and Our Upstairs Neighbor. It made me wish that the book was just stories told from different members of that particular family.

Besides those stories, I also really liked Rumba, about a dance teacher who becomes obsessed with his protege, and Kruchina, about an old woman who visits her mail-order bride daughter and granddaughter in America. The Witch was also a good story, and the style of the prose in that as well as the child narrator made it seem like a dream with dark undertones. While there was some disconnect I felt between the characters, their imperfections made them seem real people just trying to make the best out of their bleak situation.

There are two more stories, Love, Italian Style, or in Line for Bananas, (which is one story), and The Uncatchable Avengers. Of those two, The Uncatchable Avengers showcased Melnik's biggest strength as a writer- her ability to step into a child's perspective- and while Love, Italian Style was my least favorite story, I could see why an older woman in the same Gift of the Magi-esque place as Tanya would love it. Personally, it just didn't fit in with the rest of the stories, to me at least. I suppose the Pavlik in Rumba is supposed to be her son, but I couldn't draw the perfect line I wanted to when trying to figure out how all the stories connected. Again, a stark contrast to The Tsar of Love and Techno, since all the stories obviously connected there. I wish there had been a more obvious framing device tying them all together and not just them living in the same city.

But overall, I don't regret reading this book, if just because of my discovery of Melnik's work. And also, I did add a gorgeous book cover to my collection, so to me it was worth picking up.

Snow in May

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