Birdsell's Katya is a novel that takes place in Russia in the early 1900's. It follows the story of young Katya and her family and the people around her living as Mennonites in Russia.
However, the book's the plot is very slow. It takes a couple of chapters for anything interesting to happen. The pages are filled with tireless descriptions and details of surroundings that, while beautiful, seem inconsequential in the long run. I found it took a lot of patience and time to read this novel.
The novel is also sprinkled with German words that made it hard to connect with the story. I have read books with Spanish words in them and at found the foreign words helpful for the context. But with those books I knew what the foreign words meant. I do not know any German so instead of the German words in Katya helping me, they hindered my understanding of the novel. The words were very distracting because I had no idea what they meant and at times I felt that they were important for understanding the sentence. You definitely have to consider your audience when using devices like this.
The German words really did add an interesting element to the book. I agree that it was definitely frustrating to have to try and use context to understand what was going on. However, I do think that they add a certain element of culture, and make it seem more realistic. You do make a great point though about considering the audience -- it seems like that would be an important aspect for Birdsell that she may not have thought of.
ReplyDeleteKim, I should have provided you with a German glossary. I wish you'd brought this aspect up in class discussion. It does take a lot of patience to read Katya, especially in the beginning, but Birdsell was trying to build up a multi-dimensional world and to show instead of tell about the complex relations in the community. Perhaps it would be much easier to read a second time through, though from the sound of your post, it doesn't sound like that's high on your list;-)
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