“Breathtaking memoir.”
— Robin Young, Here & Now
“Strikes a real chord given the ongoing Russian war with Ukraine.”
— Tiziana Dearing, Radio Boston
“Galina and her daughter Alëna … have painted a vivid portrait — one of life in and escape from a country that now exists only in memories and memoirs… Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour is more ambitious than the average memoir. It’s informed by Galina’s and her parents’ lessons on the value of art and culture and enriched by Alëna’s beautifully constructed images and Galina’s poetry. Yet their tale always feels honest both in its broad strokes and finer details… How fortunate then that Yelena and Galina have revealed their own truth.”
— Herb Randall, LA Review of Books
“Yelena and Galina Lembersky’s memoir Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour combines the sober documentation of real events in Soviet Russia from the 1970s and 1980s with the emotional density of personal experience. Intertwining polar perceptions and confronting personal states—nostalgia and fear, anticipation and hopelessness, loneliness and intimacy, a sense of rootlessness and cultural belonging—it builds a vivid panorama of the turbulent, catastrophic events in the life of mother and daughter… in the Soviet context during the Cold War. …
Although the feeling of helplessness and despair, the doubt in humanism, and the sense of decaying values are dominant in Yelena Lembersky’s narrative, clear optimistic suggestions can also be found in the memoir. Among them is the idea of the healing power of art. … Another optimistic vein refers to the indestructible bond between mothers and daughters, and the spiritual resilience transmitted from generation to generation of women. … This vein does not allow such a story of women’s determination and resistance demonstrated in the context of life’s extremes, to be washed away like a drop of ink in a downpour.”
— Valentina Mitkova,
Aspasia“Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour, in gorgeous prose worthy of [Felix] Lembersky’s paintings, details [Yelena and Galina’s] struggle to flee from the Soviet Union to the United States in order to preserve and exhibit his works. Their tale is a poignant and timely reflection on the healing power of art in all its forms. … Yelena and Felix’s compassion for the lives that can be found amid the soot of a rustbelt town or the gray concrete boxes built to house the poorest is a bracing contrast to the inhumanity of those who see only the grime, who cannot hear the voices beyond the hidden vowels of a common language, inevitably leading to the newly excavated scars in the earth that haunt the headlines today. Joined now in aesthetic harmony, the Lembersky family’s lyrical paintings and candescent prose, infused with their hard-won faith, point the way forward to the rope bridges necessary to endure the distress of our current moment.”
— Herb Randall, The Jerusalem Report
“In this fascinating memoir, the tight-knit bonds of family shine through, as does the healing power of art.”
— Alexandra Grabbe, Heavy Feather Review
“One of the very few English-language memoirs about life in Russia in the 1970s and ’80s authored by a Jewish woman.”
— Julie Masis, Times of Israel
“This memoir presents a genuine and moving portrayal of the trials of the Soviet Jewish intelligentsia, striving to keep its dignity under conditions of harsh state control and material privation.”
— Larissa Remennick,
Nashim
“[E]xquisitely poetical...”
— Russian Life
“Many Soviet women have turned to memoir to describe and process their experiences of life in the USSR, from the Bolshevik revolution to the Stalin era. Galina and Yelena Lembersky have offered a new twist on the genre, however, by co-authoring a mother-daughter memoir. … Scholars of the USSR will recognize many elements of the Lembersky family’s story. But for those well-versed in the history, the memoir also provides a fascinating insider’s view of how patronage and corruption worked within Soviet services like the beauty industry. … The text is well written with evocative language… The book would find crossover readership between the public interested in the experience of Soviet Jews in the waning years of the USSR and classroom use. Reading it, I thought about designing an undergraduate course on Soviet women’s memoirs; this team effort by mother and daughter would be a natural fit for such a course, shedding light on both everyday life and state repression, and the ways they intersect.”
— Valerie Sperling, Clark University, Women East-West AWSS Newsletter
“This story about life in the Soviet Union is valuable partly because it is not about prominent refuseniks or about the Russian gulags or about the Second World War. This is a close-up look at what ordinary postwar existence was like for Jewish citizens of the USSR… On the hyper-saturated memoir shelf this approach to the Soviet Union is under-represented… The pair’s narrative — divided into sections by Yelena and Galina — is compelling and parts are beautifully written. Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour provides an unusual glimpse into the world of Soviet citizens which has been more frequently described by men. I was particularly struck by the long-term consequences of casual decisions and the bravery of ordinary people — strangers as well as friends. The book raises thorny issues of family loyalty, the importance of artists and art, and the many aspects of individual agency that Americans take for granted.”
— Helen Epstein, The Arts Fuse
“This is a profoundly powerful and poignant memoir, both significant and stunning. It combines an incomparable and sweeping overview—of a time and place of great horror and sometimes hope that remain completely unknown to those who did not live it—with an artist’s eye for intimate detail and a poet’s ear for metaphor and simile.”
—Ori Z Soltes, Teaching Professor of Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University
“Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour pulls readers into the raw realities faced by Jews who tried to emigrate from Soviet Russia. While focused on Leningrad in the 1970s and ’80s, the account has new relevance today. The precise details, recalled from separate viewpoints of a young daughter and her mother, are shocking but all too familiar for many. Reactions to the loss of their home, false imprisonment, anger, and stubborn ambition to survive are expressed with harsh and often poetic honesty. The profound influence of their father and grandfather, artist Felix Lembersky, his belief that art and integrity were crucial, is a constant and sustaining theme of their chronicle of life in limbo.”
—Alison Hilton, Wright Family Professor Emerita of Art History, Georgetown University; author of Russian Folk Art
“A gripping memoir about out-waiting political injustice, out-waiting political antisemitism, and about the non-negotiable price of winning. A miracle—accomplished in great measure by the understated love and loyalty, beautifully crafted and presented, between mother and daughter.”
—Rabbi Joseph Polak, Chief Justice, Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts; author of After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring
“Unsparing, with devastating clarity, this extraordinary mother-daughter memoir is like a drop of ink that seeps into every crevice of Soviet life in the 1970s and 1980s. It captures the fierce devotion of three generations of women to each other, their commitment to preserve Felix Lembersky’s art (including his rare Babi Yar paintings), and resilience through brutal imprisonment, painful family separations, and challenging obstacles to immigrate to the United States as Russian Jews. The honest, lyrical coming-of-age narrative intersects with the unflinching candor of a Soviet mother’s perspective, which together form an unforgettable story of heartbreaking truths and tender memories.”
—ChaeRan Freeze, Frances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University
