“I cursed at her in Tartar, calling her “Satan’ and “donkey’- but affectionately. And anyway, she didn’t know what it meant.”
“The first thing I’d teach a man like that would be to use a nail file.”
“But Sulfia was gentle as gentle as a flower. If someone spat on her she took it for fresh rain and stretched out her petals to soak it up.”
“‘Stay in bed, my child,’ I said. ‘You’ve been through so much in the last few years.’
I practically chocked on my words, and it took a tremendous effort of will not to let a few other things pass my lips before I went off to work.”
Rosa has a very strong backbone and charms the reader instantly, even though she has many shortcomings with every other character in the book. I really like that everything is logical to her, everything she thinks. she seems to have a lot of emotion but does not show it, which is part of her principle. Why would you show someone you love them? She asked. Everything she says to the reader is an outpouring of who she is, but exudes itself minimally in her world. She has a very set system of the way the world works, and adheres to it wholly, never doubting it once. I really enjoyed her courage and drive, the way she got things done and solved almost impossible situations. Very thrifty and practical, knowing what to buy and how to derive the most out of things.
Most amusingly, is her perspective on her daughter and granddaughter. she is very quick to make assumptions about Sulfia and how she is dumb and ugly, she doesn’t seem to have any respect for her. As for Aminat, she instantly worships because she is beautiful, unlike her mother, and sets out to educate her and even takes an extreme maternal role by kidnapping her from her own mother.
Rosa has good intentions most of the time, and she truly believes what she does is for the good of all, even sacrificing everyone else’s happiness. She never once asks her daughter how she feels about things, or what her needs are, but goes ahead and makes decisions for her. Sometimes she even sabotages a situation, because she is unable to express her own feelings and needs. For example, when she tried to kill herself before her daughter’s leaving to Israel with her new family. Aminat and Sulfia ended up staying in Russia, destroying them, something they had resented her for the rest of their lives.
She is very passionate and full of life, but doesn’t seem to have a real connection with anyone except for John, who doesn’t ask anything of her. I think she spent her entire life having to take care of everyone around her, so she developed this rough shell where she prefers to take care of everything herself. Even when she is not asked. This is the way she loves.
Rosa’s character is so refreshing, to see such a developed character act and think under such concrete convictions which are so different from the “polite” and “graceful” lady-type. Her invasive and authoritarian qualities do not actually take away from her femininity, but in a sense enhance it, because she knows what she wants and how to get it. She’s also in touch with her sexuality and is not ashamed of it, enhancing her form and taking care of herself. She knows what she is worth.
By the end, we see a transformation in Rosa. She has the capability of being soft also and let things go. We can visibly see her suffering over her daughter's death, and find out just how much she loved her. She seems to have given up on this drive to correct everything around her, and just live. We leave her as she is waiting for John to bring Aminat back to her, as she is patiently scraping away gunk off a counter.
Alina Bronsky has made a hero of a Tartar woman who takes the world by surprise, giving us a rich and well-founded character who seems to have been here all along. Giving us the pleasure to take a peek into her existence even just for a moment.
Pub. Europa Editions 2011
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