The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

Starred review from February 14, 2011
Rosa Achmetowna, the frightening narrator of Bronsky's dark and wily latest (after Broken Glass Park), is a difficult person to like, much less love. She lives in a cramped Soviet apartment with her husband, teenage daughter Sulfia, and a nosy, disagreeable roommate. Brusque, brimming with bile, and ever judgmental, she is less than pleased when the "rather stupid" Sulfia winds up pregnant. Rosa immediately tries a variety of crude home remedies for aborting Sulfia's baby—but nine months later, Aminat, is born. Rosa is fundamentally nasty, yes, but she instantly falls in love with Aminat (who coincidentally bears a striking resemblance to Rosa), tries to wrestle Aminat away from Sulfia, and enjoys watching Aminat grow into a wild, willful thing as Rosa and Sulfia kidnap the little girl back and forth. Rosa's machinations grow increasingly devious until Aminat matures and comes to a crossroads of her own. Rosa is absolutely outrageous, a one-woman wrecking crew with no remorse, an acid tongue, and a conniving opportunist's sense of drive and desperation. Bronsky lands another hit with this hilarious, disturbing, and always irreverent blitz.

Starred review from April 1, 2011

"Am I an evil woman?" Rosa Achmetowna asks her long-suffering husband, who immediately begins to choke on a piece of eggplant. Rosa, the matriarch of a Tartar family living in the former Soviet Union, is not exactly evil, but she is a relentlessly interfering and self-centered mother and grandmother and a wildly entertaining (if somewhat unreliable) narrator. Rosa is the star of this second novel by Bronsky (following Broken Glass Park), but it is really the story of three women and the roller-coaster relationship among them before, during, and after an ill-fated move to Germany. Sulfia, the daughter, is a struggling nursing assistant, as selfless as Rosa is selfish; Aminat, the granddaughter, is a temperamental and troubled future reality TV star. The title may scream "chick lit," but this is both a very funny and a very dark black comedy that takes unexpected and increasingly tragic turns. VERDICT Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader's heart is through great characters. Rosa and her family are creations that won't easily be forgotten, and the subtle and complex themes add plenty of flavor. This reviewer is looking forward to whatever she whips up next.--Forest Turner, Suffolk Cty. House of Correction Lib., Boston

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