The Museum of Abandoned Secrets

A long (700 page) novel about three generations of Ukrainians whose history was obliterated by war, by Soviet occupation, by broken connections, by new wars, and so forth, until the heroine is able to reconnect the pieces. In the middle of all this was modern consciousness-shifting writing (points of view, dreams vs waking "reality"), changes of time (skipping backward into war, forward into threatened war), changes in social order (agrarian vs amoral modernity), love affairs, and alternate perspectives.I had some difficulty tracking all of this, but I tried, thinking that other reviewers calling her a "modern Tolstoy" required me to. Because of the shifts of consciousness, time, social order, point of view, and gender, the author goes //way// beyond anything I have read in Tolstoy. (If you want Tolstoy, go read Tolstoy.)I wish there were a Spark Notes or Lit Chart on this book. It would have helped me keep things in order.Nevertheless, the story and writing are compelling. It might take a second reading.

` Not many novels of Ukraine get on Amazon. That this one made it is very good for it is a fascinating epic, providing a window into Ukraine. It skillfully ties together contemporary Ukraine with the World War II era. There is the dramatic story of Ukrainian nationalists, partisans, fighting the Soviets in Western Ukraine after World War II. And in today’s Ukraine, there is a heroic television journalist, Daryna, fighting against entrenched corruption. Wealthy investors want to create a beauty pageant on the journalist’s television station whose real purpose is to draw women into prostitution. I found both stories interesting, especially since the author says the resistance movement of the partisans was based on archives opened only after the fall of the Soviet Union. The leader of the Ukrainian resistance was only killed in 1954 in Lviv, by KGB agents. The novel is really about a people fighting for their soul. A people in the grip of oligarchs, a corrupt “elite” and Putin’s helpers. The author is more a journalist and non-fiction writer than a novelist, though she is also a poet and there are many evocative passages. But some readers may be frustrated by her novel. It doesn’t gallop ahead but is more in the style of the Russian classics. It is too wordy, too long, with too many interruptions of the narrative. For example, there is a gripping, powerful scene where the KGB secret police have discovered and surrounded the hidden bunker of Ukrainian nationalists. The people inside must decide whether to surrender or die and they chose to die but in a way that tricks and kills many of the KGP agents surrounding the bunker. Instead of giving us a driving narrative Zabushko interrupts it with asides. Same goes for a long monologue where an old Ukrainian KGB colonel bares his soul. Too bad, for unknown to him but known to the reader, he reveals a shocking bit of information. Pacing is important. I read that when the movie western “High Noon” was previewed, audiences were not impressed. But then a genius editor re-cut the film and produced one of the greatest westerns ever made. A good novel is written from the gut as much as the mind and Zabuzhko is too much of an intellectual here. Still, the book would make a great movie because all of the above can be corrected by a good director and scriptwriter. There is mystery, drama, noble characters and a world the West knows little of. I am grateful to Zabuzhko for excavating so much suppressed and repressed material that the Ukrainian people themselves are only now discovering. Slowly, their stolen history is being restored. (Zabushko has a bibliography of her sources in the back of the book.) Despite its faults, the book is unforgettable.

This story spoke to me in many ways: the influence our deceased parents and grandparents have over us, the mysteries that we can't solve easily, the power of truth over the weakness of lies and the bravery of past heroes who can continue to inspire.

Good read

This is a beautifully written, haunting and extremely enlightening historical novel about Ukraine written by a Ukrainian author. The stream-of-consciousness prose can be a bit long-winded at times, but the contemporary characters are noble, likable and funny. The post WWII characters are tragic, but the scenes from the past are the most suspenseful, and there is a supernatural element to the novel that is very emotionally powerful. Because of Soviet occupation, so many records have been destroyed and lost, so the ghosts of the past are left to speak to the present generation through other means. This novel is so insightful to the plight of Ukrainians, not only post WWII but throughout the 70s and 80s until their independence in 1991. But this is not a ‘beach-read.” I recommend this book to those who want a challenge and who wish to learn more about the culture and history of Ukraine.

It was a slow book to get into, in the beginning I could not understand how this book was structured, how these stories came together - she rambles on and you lose what she was talking about initially, the chapters are very long and there are large parts in parentheses. In the audiobook it is hard to understand these transitions and stories within stories.However, almost half-way through, I started to love it, somehow all the mosaic pieces started to fall into their places, it became easier to understand when she had rambled off and to remember which place we were still at. As I got more familiar with the main actors, I started group very fond of them. The dream format sometimes made it like a mystery/thriller...But most of all I loved the deep and sharp contemplation not only of the Ukrainian history and its present, but more widely of life, death, love - the big questions.The highest praise for a book is that you can't stop thinking about it and this is this kind of a book.

I had just finished Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder when I happened upon this book. Ukraine for me was the “Uke” line of the Boston Bruins. I considered the county a part of Russia despite having read that Kyiv was established by east Vikings; Swedes without ships to go west. Perhaps The Museum of Abandoned Secrets was mentioned in a footnote in the Snyder book. The title promised something mysterious. It was written by a Ukrainian and a woman. What better to introduce me to the country. What I read is on homage to a people, a preface to todays headlines, and an intimate present tense narrative that absorbed me to the end,all 700 pages.

I had absolutely no clue what the book was about, or that it’s so long. It really is a big book in many ways. I bet Oksana has put a lot of time and effort into it, not just because its over 700 pages, but because everything in the book has actually happened. The things have not happened to the people in the book, because they are fictional, but to others, and then the author skillfully got all these happenings made into a book.The book takes us through sixty years of Ukrainian history, centering around three women and the secrets from their past. The book encounters for everything between the Second World War to the Orange revolution, such markable events for Ukrainians. It deals with many general issues women like to focus on in life, like love, sex, and friendship.I enjoyed reading the book from time to time, and during those pages I felt like the story was smoothly moving forward. Unfortunately, the book is simply too long. I did smile a few times while reading, because the length, and some of the events were so Soviet Union. I can’t find a better way of explaining what I mean. One of the women in the book is a journalist, and I liked reading about her life.

The Museum of Abandoned Secrets - Oksana ZabuzhkoThis is a book that readers will either 'love' or will give up on 'hating' it. It is rather niche both in content and style, and many will not like it. Others, like me, will be so pleased to have found a fictional (kind of) book by a living author that is so compelling and 'worthy' for want of a better word.It is impossible to give a plot resume that justifies this epic, and any I read prior to buying are misleading. This is not a 'family saga' or a 'historical novel' in the sense of those that appear on my recommendations list or in the top 100 Best Sellers.Do not expect to 'solve a mystery' based on clues in the text and when you do (around 45% through) be disappointed it was so easy and that the unexpected twist was predictable. It really is not that kind of book. This is something far more serious, more literary, more everything. It is written in a stream of consciousness style, and although there is a beginning, middle and end, they are not necessarily in that order. It is a dreamscape, a journalistic narrative, a living, dying,feverish nightmare. It is partly abstract, partly figurative, partly a figurative abstract simulacrum, and partly raw,brutal, uncompromising realism. Metaphor and symbolism thread through every page, but fear not, it is mostly explained or obvious, it is the sheer weight of it all that is breath-taking. It is a love story, a ghost story, a political, psychological and historical dialectic, a polemic against betrayal both personal and on a world scale.Above all, the book, all 750 or so pages of it, is a work of art- a collage, a tryptych icon, a girl's buried `secret', an embroidered peasant wedding shirt, an exquisitely crafted cigarette roller. As with all works of art , it will not be to everyone's taste, and many will not give it house room.I read it on Kindle, but now intend to buy a print copy for my real book shelves. The length of it will require a significant space there.

This is a sterling piece of work, both in its content and translation. The story twists and turns between both the past and present, educating and informing about life in the Ukraine and about the depth of human emotion. It is a deep book that deserves a re-reading (not got round to that yet due to its length!), and I agree with others that if you want to understand all the references to historic figures and events you need to be online searching for more information. However, even without that extra research I didn't feel that I was missing out. Thoroughly recommended.

Seven-hundred pages of Ukrainian affairs may seem like overkill, but this is worth the effort. There is a bit of post-war Soviet history mixed with a touch of more modern post-Soviet gloss that add up to a substantial novel that I was glad to invest some time in.

This book is not an easy read. It is written in a very literate and often difficult manner. Once you get through the writing style and get into the book it is an interesting story and well worth reading.