For Belarus, I picked Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich AND I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS BOOK, GAH! IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!

I picked Svetlana Alexievich as my author for Belarus because (1) although she was born in Ukraine, she spent most of her life in the Soviet Union and Belarus and she is a citizen of Belarus and (2) she won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” She was the first author to win the Nobel Prize for non-fiction in a half-century! The New Yorker has a great article about her work.

Secondhand Time is an oral history and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It feels like Alexievich has invented a new genre. I majored in history in college, and I loved my history classes at Dartmouth, but while reading Secondhand Time, I kept wishing my classes had included more of this sort of history. The history I studied in college was the stuff of dates and documents, battles and elections, and the men (and occasional woman) in charge. This book presented the stories of regular people struggling to live in the former Soviet Union. Instead of learning about the weapons used at a battle, I learned about how the battles affected those living in war-torn countries. Instead of reading treaties, I learned about the artists and engineer who gathered around kitchen tables to about Stalin. Instead of memorizing dates, I absorbed emotions. And finally, instead of walking away with one central thesis, I came away with a kaleidoscope of experiences that showed the vastness of Soviet life and the complexity of responses to its demise.

Secondhand Time weighs in at 470 pages, and since it’s nonfiction, I guessed it would take me a month to read. I also thought it would be too difficult to read at night, so I would read it in tandem with some lighthearted fiction.

NOPE.

I could not stop reading this book. I read it every moment possible, including while lounging at an indoor water park with my kids, and I was sad when it was done.

I really can’t do justice to this book in a blog post. A lot of stories took place in Russia, but there were stories throughout the former Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan and Belarus and even some ex-pats living in the United States. Alexievich unflinchingly gathered the stories of prisoners, diehard Communists, refugees, orphans, and victims of domestic violence. There were people hoping for a new Stalin and people who told of the horrors they endured under Stalin’s regime. There were elderly folks left destitute when communism fell, and people who felt liberated by its end.

Here are a few impressions from Secondhand Time:

For members of the former Soviet Union, salami means something I can’t comprehend, but I quickly noticed how often references to salami came up in the stories. It’s like a national obsession!

They bought us with candy wrappers, display cases full of salami, colorful packing.

Secondhand Time, pg. 111 (on the betrayal of communism).

We believed that salami was spontaneously generated by freedom.

Secondhand time, pg. 287 (about the past).

Even today, many people want to go back to the Soviet Union, except with tons of salami.

secondhand time, pg. 463.

There was a lot of nostalgia for the “kitchen generation” when folks in the Soviet Union gathered in their kitchens and discussed politics, communism, books, philosophy and art.

There were train stations, bitter winters, and refugees with nowhere to go as their homelands are torn apart by war in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s end. I don’t often cry while reading*, but I teared up many times while reading Secondhand Time. I cried for the suicide stories. The orphans. The people living in poverty I can’t imagine. I’m so grateful that Alexievich gathered these stories and wove them together so I could bring this world into my heart.

I cannot say enough good things about Secondhand Time. I will definitely be reading everything Alexievich has written and seeking out more books of this kind. And though its early days in my Read Around the World quest, this very well might be the book that leaves the deepest impression on my soul.

*It’s how I’m wired. I just don’t cry that often. I wish I cried more often because when I do cry, it’s such a cathartic release of pent up emotions. Perhaps there’s a seminar I can take…