A Mountain of Crumbs : A Memoir

INDIGO RECOMMENDS: Frank McCourt knew a thing or two about how to tell a good life story. The author of Angela's Ashes was also a teacher of a memoir workshop and in 2004 he encouraged a young Russian woman who was his student. He saw potential in a ... Read more

INDIGO RECOMMENDS: Frank McCourt knew a thing or two about how to tell a good life story. The author of Angela's Ashes was also a teacher of a memoir workshop and in 2004 he encouraged a young Russian woman who was his student. He saw potential in a story that dramatizes the struggle of the individual against a repressive regime. With A Mountain of Crumbs, Elena Gorokhova fulfills McCourt's faith in her.

As a young girl Elena was content with meeting her family's expectations, but as she matured she discovered a love of language, art, history and poetry that opened her eyes to new worlds of possibility. For Elena the turning point came when she began to study English in school. Now a hunger for life beyond what had been prescribed for her and a friendship with one foreign student developed into a new life that would take her out of Russia.

This is a quiet story, none of it laboured. Like McCourt, Gorokhova is a master of the telling incident. Her prose is sensuous and evocative and her story reminds us how similar we are in our struggles and desires. A Mountain of Crumbs can easily take its place beside The Glass Castle and Prisoner of Tehran as a life story that will fascinate and inspire generations of readers. Less