You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt

Our January bookclub meeting was held at Olde World Bakery & Cafe in downtown Smithville.  We met for brunch and we all ordered a variety of items including strawberry crepes, migas, egg sandwich, and breakfast burrito.  Once our plates were licked clean and we had finished catching up on our personal lives, local news and gossip, we dove right into the world of the USSR.

Synopsis:

Sarah Zuckerman had a few bright and shining moments in her growing up years and the majority of them appeared to center around her friendship with Jenny Jones.  However, Jenny’s life is cut short in an accident which just adds to Sarah’s list of losses in her life.  Jenny’s influence is felt even into adulthood for Sarah and so after graduating college she travels to Russia to begin a quest which may not answer the question Sarah initially sought to resolve, but will eventually set her free.

Comments:

This fictional book was loosely based on true events which occurred from 1983 through the late 1990’s.  We found it to be similar to how the television show “Law and Order” creates their storylines.  In addition to that, the author had once lived in Russia while working as a copy editor, similar to the book’s main character.  We learned what Russia was really like during this time period as the country struggled to adapt to the marketplace demands of a Western world while chained to the economy and education of the old federation.  

As we progressed in this novel, we came to understand that the title “You Are One of Them” does not actually relate to Jenny Jones as the reader may first believe.  Sarah had continued to view herself through the lens of childhood.  She could not see that she had grown out of the awkward stage, the misfit label, and the cloak of tragedy which had shrouded her growing up years.  Young Sarah finds that those whom she dearly loves will soon leave her.  These lost loves she refers to as defectors came about through death, as with her sister and Jenny, and through divorce, as with her father.  Sarah even refers to her home as “a museum, filled with relics” which looks back and not forward.  She cannot shed the skin of her past in order to confidently live and appreciate her adult life…at least not until her fateful journey to Russia.  There in the bleakness of a Russian winter -- “There is something painfully honest about winter: the skeletal trees, the brutal repetition of the cold.  There are no empty promises, no hazy, humid hopes.  It’s reality, lonely and stark.”-- Sarah will finally be able to free herself from the past and move forward.

Memorable Quote:

“People believe in things until they don’t need to anymore.” (p. 283 – Kindle)

“If regret had an odor, it would smell like an ashtray.” (p. 255 – Kindle)

“And I have come to believe that forgiveness is the key to survival.  It does no good to see everything as a struggle between opposing factions.  Few things are that simple.” (p. 102 – Kindle)

FAB Rating: ***1/2 (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)

There was not much meat to chew on with this book.  We likened it to a good beach/travel book which you would purchase to pass the time while relaxing, never spending time contemplating its merits.