User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
possibly the most unique book i've ever read that i would still categorize as forgettable.
there was so much going on, but also not enough? it all felt distant.
and a little bit confusing.
and i always write reviews about a month after i read the book, and i rarely have this little of a memory of it.
what a conundrum.
bottom line: one of the oddest and yet least interesting reading experiences i've had!
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tbr reviewi have literally 0 memory of adding this. what's happening
guess i'll read it.
Rating: really liked it
My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...
An interesting and unique read!“Bottled Goods is written in short bursts of “flash fiction” and explores universal themes of empowerment, liberty, family, and loyalty.”Bottled Goods is set in the 1970’s Romania during Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s repressive regime. Alina and her husband, Liviu are both teachers living in Romania. While life is far from easy, they are relatively happy.
Then came the Saturday when everything changed…They arrive home one afternoon and find two men in grey suits waiting for them. “Please come with us. We have to ask you a few questions.”
It seems Alina’s brother-in-law; Mihai is not planning on returning to Romania. They are persecuted for Mihai’s defection and immediately put under surveillance. They are harassed by authorities and ignored by their friends. Alina is visited by the secret police weekly, and the visits become even more terrifying.
Alina and her husband struggle for freedom. But freedom can come at a great cost.
How can they possibly escape if the government is watching and listening? Plus there are others who may want to jinx their plans.
Will Alina’s Aunt Theresa be able to help?
To be honest, “Bottled Goods” is not likely a book I would have chosen for myself. However, I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons by reading books I might not normally read.
This was a very quick read at 192 pages, and the short chapters seemed to make it go even faster. The story is told from Alina’s point of view.
The author created some very intriguing characters, especially the superstitious Aunt Theresa. I couldn’t help but feel for Alina and I can’t imagine how I would have handled the situations she was in. I enjoyed learning more about Romanian folklore, and while I’m not a huge fan of magical realism, it seemed to fit in well here. I’m not sure how I felt about the ending but overall, I thought this was an enjoyable read.
I'd like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
Now longlisted for the Women's Prize 2019.
Re read following its longlisting for the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize.
This book is published by Fairlight Books, a new UK small press which “has one aim – to celebrate quality writing and promote the best of new and contemporary literary fiction.” and with a mission “to promote contemporary literary fiction and quality writing, whatever the genre and however it is published”
This book is one of the first of their Fairlight Moderns series, a series of aesthetically designed, pocket sized books, introducing new writers and contemporary themes from around the world.
This was my introduction to the publisher and to the series. I found the book ideal for travelling, as an additional book to slip into a bag alongside weightier tomes and it worked perfectly on a flight where I had finished my main book and wanted to start on another book before resting. It is a tribute to the book that I ended up reading it cover to cover.
The book is set in Romania (where the author Sophie van Llewyn, a flash fiction and short story writer, was born) at the end of the 1960s, early in Ceausescu’s near 25 year reign as leader of the country.
The style of the book is very innovative and effective, a novella told in flash fiction.
More than 50 pieces of flash fiction in total (a number of which could and did function independently) which range across the first and third (and even at one stage) second person; the majority in traditional narrative form but a number presented differently: timelines of a day, a brief curse filled invective, postcards, a list of items and what they were traded for, a note to Father Frost, commented quotes.
The story is a simple but harrowing one - Alina is set partly adrift by her mother when she marries into poorer stock, but her marriage, life and teaching career (as well as that of her husbands) are all cast under a permanent threat when her husband’s brother defects to the West; which threat becomes even greater and personal when she fails to report a young child in her class with an illicit comic and attracts the terrible and abusive attention of a secret service agent.
With her mother unwilling to help, she turns to her Aunt, well connected in the Party but also a practitioner of traditional rites and believer of folk customs. She is introduced in the first chapter, as she summons Alina to a secret burial of a grandfather she did not know existed, a grandfather whose burial casket is rather small and who was sometimes kept in a bird cage. And immediately we have a hint of magic realism, something that broadens out later in the book.
Overall the magic realism offset against the modernist brutality as well as reminding me of Latin American novellas, effectively conveys Ceausescu’s Romania’s terrible mix of poverty and repression. Further the novella-in-flash form functions well to capture the way in which a totalitarian society can lead to a strict compartmentalism of one’s private and public lives.
Recommended.
Rating: really liked it
I think I’ve only read one other book set in Romania, a historical, The Girl They Left Behind. Bottled Goods is a slim novel at less than 200 pages and was nominated for the 2019 Women’s Prize. The book is set during the 1970s when Communist dictator Ceausescu was in power.
Alina seeks freedom. She is a teacher, along with her husband, Liviu. When her brother-in-law defects, it leaves Alina and Liviu under suspicion and harsh surveillance. Alina is surrounded by difficulty - her mother, an angry student, and a Secret Services agent. On top of it all, her marriage has gone sour, and it appears Alina is completely stuck until her aunt offers a solution involving magic.
Bottled Goods is perfectly written in a nuanced style. I loved how the author included magic and folklore in the storytelling in a well-integrated way. The book has an exceptionally fast pace, accelerated by short chapters, some only a page in length. Bottled Goods is a novel well worth the acclaim it has received and then some.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Rating: really liked it
I had not heard of this book before it was announced as one of the Women's Prize long list. It is a short read told in flash style, like lists and little vignettes, set in Romania during the Ceaușescu era (1970s.)
Alina married a man in a lower class and really starts to regret it when his brother leaves the country without permission, making them a new target for the secret police. Mix that kind of oppression and intrigue with a folksy fantasy element and you end up with a unique read! I loved the ending, at least how I interpret it. If you read it, let me know so we can confer.
Rating: really liked it
Read this in one sitting. Amazing, cute design, and the story is so well written in with a distinctive style, I'm not surprised van Llewyn used to write Flash Fiction!
So good, full review soon.
A message to GR: When you will let me allow giving 4.5 stars! Grr!
Rating: really liked it
I think Bottled Goods is an interesting, impressive book in a number of ways, but I can’t help but to feel a bit underwhelmed by it. It tells the story of Alina, a young woman living in 1970s communist Romania, whose family comes under surveillance when her brother-in-law defects to the west. Blending a quotidian story with elements of Romanian folklore, this book is a unique, magical creation that I think will satisfy a lot of readers despite its brevity.
But while I was particularly intrigued by its ‘novella-in-flash’ premise, it turned out that the whole flash thing kind of ruined it for me. Each of these chapters is brief – some are a few sentences, some are two or three pages – and each jumps the narrative ahead several weeks or months with no preamble. I hadn’t realized just how much I appreciate a consistent pace and flow in storytelling, but I guess it makes sense, because I’ve noticed over the years that my reading speed gradually increases the further into a book I get; at the very beginning, before I’ve been pulled into the narrative, my mind wanders easily and I find myself rereading the same passages over and over. That’s what kept happening to me with this book – it’s only 190 pages, and rather tiny pages at that, but it took me probably six or seven sittings to get through it, because the jolting pace made it particularly difficult for me to care about any of it.
But anyway, all of that has more to do with me as a reader than what this book does or does not offer. I think it offers a lot: it’s a perceptive commentary about a young woman living under an oppressive governmental regime, an interesting counterpart to Milkman on the Women’s Prize longlist (though I think Milkman is the stronger novel in just about every conceivable way). And I did find its unique style both paradoxically stimulating and distracting; hopefully it will fall more toward the stimulating end of the spectrum for a lot of readers. Finally, I know that everyone who knows me was worried about my reception to this book as soon as the words ‘magical realism’ entered the summary, but I actually didn’t mind that element – I’m not sure it added anything that couldn’t have been achieved with more literal storytelling, but it was an interesting way to comment on the lengths one goes to in order to escape an oppressive government. So on the whole, not really the book for me, but a solid book nonetheless.
Rating: really liked it
Longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019Some of the reviews I have seen have focused on it being a novella in flash fiction, and although some "chapters" have been published in flash fiction collections, this element is easy to ignore, as there is a clear narrative arc, the whole feels like a novel, and most of the chapters are four to five pages long.
About half of the novel feels like a realistic portrayal of ordinary life in the brutal and extraordinary society of Ceaucescu's Romania. Some parts are narrated by Alina, who starts the book as a young teacher, marries Liviu without the consent of her mother and the couple become personae non grata when Liviu's brother defects to the West.
The couple are harassed by the security police, a situation that is exacerbated when Alina fails to denounce one of her pupils for bringing black market goods and a banned magazine to school. Fortunately her aunt, who is married to a high ranking communist official, is sympathetic to their plight and helps them formulate an emigration plan disguised as a research trip to Italy and Germany, but they are betrayed by Alina's mother.
The second half feels more like magic realism. (view spoiler)
[Alina's aunt recommends a trip to the forest to see Saint Friday, a fairy who gives her a magic potion to shrink her mother to a size which enables her to be hidden in a perfume bottle.
After a further brutal encounter with the Security Police, the couple proceed with their emigration plan and get menial work in Germany, but Alina only gains a form of fulfilment after leaving her husband. After Ceaucescu's fall, she is able to return to Romania where the story ends. (hide spoiler)]I found this book interesting and enjoyable to read, certainly more so than the only other Romanian I have read, Herta Müller, whose The Land of Green Plums was relentlessly harrowing. So it was quite a pleasant way to finish the Republic of Consciousness Prize longlist, which has been challenging, stimulating and very impressive.
Rating: really liked it
(Nearly 4.5) “Sometimes I think there is something deeply wrong with this country.” I thoroughly enjoyed this short collection of fragmentary imaginings of life at the tail end of Communism in Romania. It’s a terrific hybrid work that manages to combine several of my favorite forms: a novella, flash fiction and linked short stories. The content is also an intriguing blend, of the horrific and the magical. After her brother-in-law’s defection, Alina and her husband Liviu come under extra scrutiny. When Alina, a mathematics teacher who’s hoping to get her co-authored textbook published, turns a blind eye to a student bringing a contraband magazine to class, she becomes a Secret Services target. She and Liviu apply for visas to leave for Italy or Germany, but a long road of deception, betrayal, interrogations and degradation lies ahead of them.
A couple of things make all this material bearable: sporadic bursts of magic realism – a rain dance, a fairy festival, and a couple of family members who get shrunk down to perfume bottle size for protection or punishment – and a delightful mixture of narrative styles, including lists and letters and alternating between the first and third person. The cover is perfect, working both literally (there’s a cat who takes an undue interest in miniature humans) and figuratively (entrapment in an oppressive regime).
My only reservation is that this reads vaguely like literature in translation, perhaps because English is the author’s third language. (I’m presuming here: she was born in Romania and is now an anesthetist in Germany; some particulars of her life echo Alina’s.) Nothing major, only the occasional wrong choice of preposition and a bunch of superfluous commas, but I just had the feeling that something was slightly off.
In any case, the format and tone (grim meets quirky) are reminiscent of a Polish work in translation from a couple years ago, Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg, and this is one I can imagine appealing to fans of Helen Oyeyemi. I’d love to see it make it onto the Women’s Prize shortlist, though I think it will probably be edged out by more high-profile releases.
Rating: really liked it
This book was really not for me – and this is weird because I really thought it would be. I love novels told in short stories and I love books inspired by Eastern European fairy tales. But I really failed to connect to this book. Part of this has to do with the fact that I read so many similar books that this felt derivative in a way that feels mean to communicate (drawing on real life atrocities as it is).
Told in short, flash fiction like chapters, this is Alina’s story, as she is navigating an increasingly cold marriage while living in a dictatorship that threatens everything about her life. It is similar in themes to the (much better) Milkman and maybe the closeness in which I read these books were to its detriment. Alina is incapable of communicating effectively with those closest to her and van Llewyn shows how the climate of the time suffocates any possible feeling between Alina and the others. The insidiousness of her dealings with the secret police is explored, but it mostly stayed on the surface. Scenes were strikingly similar to other books in a way that seems like it might have been intentional (the obvious comparison for me was The Zsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, a book also told in short stories and dealing with atrocities but also a book I adore beyond measure). I guess what I am trying to communicate is that I found this book lacking in comparison to other novels, a critique that is not particularly helpful, I know.
For me, the book worked best in the stories that were more magical in nature, here I thought van Llewyn really added something to the canon. Her exploration of fairy tales in dictatorships was lovely and interesting. It helped that my favourite character (the wonderful Aunt Theresa) was front and centre of these fairytalesque stories. This is not a bad book by any means but one that I found not quite exciting and not as well written as I would have hoped it would be.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books (currently I am reading the Women's Prize longlist) on my blog
Rating: really liked it
4.5
I read
Bottled Goods in two sittings. It's a small book which I found extremely compelling.
First of all, I had no idea what flash fiction was, but whatever the definition is, I liked it. A lot.
This book resonated with me on a personal level, as I am a Romanian child of the 70s, so many of the stories, descriptions, foods, rituals, behaviours, social and work relations were very familiar.
I thought van Llewyn accomplished so much with so little. The structure worked incredibly well to put together a jigsaw puzzle of life in Communist Romania, to make up a picture that was pretty realistic, simple yet complex.
I couldn't stop asking myself whether my assessment was objective, even knowing there is no such thing as objectivity when it comes to any form of art. I've been told that I can be harsher or too critical when it comes to anything Romanian. It's complicated. I loathe nationalism/patriotism and while I am not ashamed to be a Romanian, I also don't feel pride. I like to think I'm more than geography, while also having the geography in my blood, to a certain extent. I am happy that I got to experience some Communism but was lucky to be a teen when it ended so I didn't get brainwashed. I can smell propaganda like a bloodhound. Anyway, what I'm trying to say in my convoluted, unedited way, is that I believe this is an objectively good book.
There is one magical element to the story, which didn't quite work for me, even though I understood it served a purpose and added a bit of quirk to a bleak story.
So, yeah, I'm glad I read
Bottled Goods and I'm grateful to Deanna for bringing it to my attention.
I hope this book finds a bigger readership and I'm looking forward to reading more from Sophie van Llewyn (I'm guessing it's a pen name as it's not Romanian in the least).
Rating: really liked it
Bottled Goods is a simple tale of life in the Socialist Republic of Romania during the late 1960s and ‘70s. Or is it? What starts out as the story of schoolgirl Alina growing up in Bucharest with her somewhat eccentric family morphs perplexingly into full-blown magical realism three-quarters of the way through, after which elements become unexpectedly surreal.
Alina is a twentysomething school teacher when she and her husband Liviu find themselves of significant interest to Ceaușescu’s secret police following his brother’s defection to the West. To make matters worse, Alina attempts to protect one of her pupils spotted with a contraband magazine and is reported to the authorities for doing so. Suddenly the bad coffee and black-market apple strudels seem insignificant trifles when compared to being persona non grata with the regime, former-friends, neighbours and colleagues – and the situation isn’t alleviated by Alina’s self-centred, interfering mother, who has never approved of her daughter’s marriage to a peasant boy.
Bottled Goods is part of the Fairlight Moderns series, which aims to introduce readers to modern literary fiction from different parts of the world via an ever-expanding collection of multi-genre novellas. Printed in smaller format and with striking jacket covers created by Sara Wood and illustrated by Sam Kalda, these appealing little books are designed to be convenient travelling reads and will make ideal book club choices for those seeking contemporary themes combined with quality writing.
Sophie van Llewyn was born in south-eastern Romania but now lives in Germany. She has previously won awards for her flash fiction and short stories. In this, her “debut long fiction work”, she has created a chilling piece of absurdist fiction, which (often comically) depicts the depressing and troubled lives of those attempting to subsist under the constant scrutiny of a distrustful authoritarian state.
“To my father and the heroes of the Romanian Revolution of 1989.”
Many thanks to Fairlight Books for providing an advance review copy of this title.
Rating: really liked it
This novel is the first by flash fiction author van Llewyn. I wasn't familiar with the genre but after reading this novel, I'm a fan. The story is set in Romania in the era of Ceausescu. It is the era of the Iron Curtain and a communist dictatorship. The mood of the novel is at times bleak. Alina is a teacher and is under investigation, and constant harassment, for allegedly not reporting who student who brought contraband to school. Her brother-in-law defects which causes further problems especially with her husband, Liviu. The atmosphere ranges from oppressive to magical. Romania is a country still full of folk traditions, and belief in spirits. Alina maintains a spirit that is remarkable considering her surroundings. Van Llewyn's simple prose is exquisite and made this book a marvel. Read this gem of a book!
Rating: really liked it
Right from the first chapter the reader is left with no doubt that this book is steeped in magical realism. Alina is on her way to bury her Grandfather who was shrunk by her Grandmother to escape capture when the communists took over Romania. It’s as if the author, Sophia van Llewyn, is saying, if you don’t like magical realism then get out now.
Alina is twenty years old, a teacher, living in Communist Romania. The year is 1967. The Cold War is still encasing the country in ice. Things start to go wrong for Alina when her husband’s brother defects to France. Soon two Secret Service agents arrive and take her husband away for three days. Alina, especially after the episode with her husband, realises she should have known better when one day she turns a blind eye to one of her pupils having a magazine which is prohibited by the government. Another pupil points the magazine out to Alina and she still ignores them. She realises the severity of her mistake when a Secret Service agent turns up at her home. The reader is given a sense of what it must have been like living in a communist country during the Cold War. The anxious, claustrophobic feeling that anybody could be an informant and that you must stop and filter everything you say would have been horrible. The isolation experienced once there is even the slightest hint that you are on the list of people that the Secret Service is watching. Suddenly your friends don’t return your calls, your work colleagues no longer have lunch with you, you have become a social pariah. Alina hates living like this, cannot live like this. It is slowly destroying her. She must escape this life. The question is how?
This is a very short novel with a strange structure. Some chapters are lists with points of things that Alina feels she should or should not do with regards to various problems. For the most it works well. A novel way of delivering Alina’s thoughts to the reader while also informing the reader of some of the taboo activities in the Communist country. There is some great writing. “Every time the Secret Service man comes, she waits for the sword to fall and cut deep, but this is not his weapon of choice. He squeezes the air out of her lungs little by little, tightening her chest with menaces”, passages such as this show that this author has talent. This novel has been described as a novella in flash fiction. It is short in length and some chapters are only a page long, but I found this worked well and gave the book a frantic pace, which suited the narrative of Alina and her husband trying to escape Romania. I enjoyed this novel and although it would have been hard in such a short book, I would have liked to have seen the character of the Auntie fleshed out. Upon finishing, I thought that the choice of title for the book was brilliant. It’s impressive for a debut. 4 Stars.
Rating: really liked it
This book is on the long list for Women's Prize for fiction this year, and I'm glad it is. Otherwise I might not even pick it up.
It's the story of Alina, who was living in 1970s Romania under oppressive communist government. Quickly, we're introduced to her husband, mother and aunt, who are the side characters who compliment her story. The main content of the book is to shed light to the difficulties, details and life style of the times in Romania when the government decided how you should live. What you eat, what you drink, where you live, what you can read, all were restricted and almost pre-defined for you. Alina is a bright woman who wanted to go to college, write a book, make a good life for herself, but her plans went all over the place after. In this book, we journey through her life since she gets married till the end of 1990s when she's in her 50s.
I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. I learned more about that part of the history in Romania, that I didn't know. The writing was weirdly unique and pulled me in to read about Alina. Although it was told from third person narrative, Alina was given a very clear voice and her character development was superb. I felt her growing out of a young, naive girl believing in love, to a mature woman who knows what she wants.
The book was difficult at times, as oppression is not an easy thing to endure when it's excessive. But, I thought it was handled gracefully without grim details and making me cringe.
Another impressive detail in writing was the addition of traditions and folkloric elements of Romanian culture. There was also a touch of magical realism, integrated in the story so very well. I admired how the writer integrated all those things step by step in a book under 200 pages.
The length of the book was perfect as well.
So, all in all, I loved the book. I will definitely follow the writer in the future. I'd recommend this book to people who love to read about historical fiction, who love to read about different cultures and societies, politics, impact on politics on normal lives.
