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What Happened to Anna K.by Irina Ryen |
Arlene Almas: Here is a look at a society within
our society, Russian-Jewish immigrants and their children and grandchildren, and a
subculture within that culture, Bukharian Jews. Many of the young women marry according
to tradition, joining their lives to men chosen by their parents, but some do not. The
vivacious Anna does follow her parents' wishes at first and marries a man considerably
older than herself, and they have a baby boy. But Anna is attracted to another man,
who was once engaged to her cousin Katya - well, as you can see, there are a lot of
emotional complications in Anna's life, leading to all kinds of other complications.
The "Anna K." in the title also refers to Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina," the plot of
which is partially borrowed by this book. I have to confess I don't remember the original,
but I enjoyed this story nevertheless.
Rating: ****
