Svetlana Lavochkina’s novel “Zap” offers readers a rare combination of
a well-written, smart novel, combined with biting, often bawdy humor.
The author knows her trade. She deftly brings the reader through various
eras of the Soviet experiment (and the pre-Soviet era) in her native Ukraine with
an insider’s knowledge, bringing a verisimilitude of place, a fixation on
accurate, often hilarious detail, to an otherwise sprawling, epochal, novel.
I know the author, and this work was long in the making. The reader will be amply rewarded by the
author’s effort. Lavochkina writes in an
English idiom largely of her own making, crafting a work that is unique in the
sound and tempo of the language, something a native writer would be hard pressed to construct.
In fact,“Zap” is very different in tone, style, pacing and structure from
most novels. It is a truly singular work,
with exceptional insights, style, tone and pacing.
No comments:
Post a Comment