About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherShe Writes Press

ISBN-101631523430

ISBN-139781631523434

eBay Product ID (ePID)240148583

Product Key Features

Book TitleOdyssey and Dr. Novak : a Memoir

Number of Pages224 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicEurope / Eastern, Personal Memoirs, Jewish

Publication Year2018

IllustratorYes

GenreTravel, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorAnn C. Colley

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Length8.5 in

Item Width5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2017-955635

TitleLeadingThe

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"A highly informative memoir that explores Poland and Ukraine; the book should appeal to those who revel in the poetry of intricate prose."--Kirkus Reviews "Often lyrical, Ann C. Colley's personal Odyssey exposes the reader to historical and political facts as well as to other aspects of East European cultures. Her sharp eye for detail, her candor, and her illuminating insights will benefit readers interested in studying and traveling to that part of Europe."--Regina Grol, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, SUNY-Empire State College"Ann C. Colley's The Odyssey and Dr. Novak brilliantly combines an insider's perspective with an outsider's objectivity. She tells an adventurous story of teaching , living, and traveling throughout Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the Russian threat." --Joyce Gleason, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska"The Odyssey and Dr. Novak is a profound, poignant, and important journey through history, lands, and times too powerful to forget. A Sensory delight."--Kim Chinquee. Professor of Creative Writing, SUNY College at Buffalo. Author of Oh Baby and Pistol and Veer., "A highly informative memoir that explores Poland and Ukraine; the book should appeal to those who revel in the poetry of intricate prose."--Kirkus Reviews "Often lyrical, Ann C. Colley's personal Odyssey exposes the reader to historical and political facts as well as to other aspects of East European cultures. Her sharp eye for detail, her candor, and her illuminating insights will benefit readers interested in studying and traveling to that part of Europe."--Regina Grol, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, SUNY-Empire State College"Ann C. Colley's The Odyssey and Dr. Novak brilliantly combines an insider's perspective with an outsider's objectivity. She tells an adventurous story of teaching , living, and traveling throughout Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the Russian threat." --Joyce Gleason, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska"The Odyssey and Dr. Novak is a profound, poignant, and important journey through history, lands, and times too powerful to forget. A Sensory delight."--Kim Chinquee. Professor of Creative Writing, SUNY College at Buffalo. Author of Oh Baby and Pistol and Veer. "This is a nuanced, subtle, and luminous reading of a region whose past is full of suffering. Colley only wrote her book after the times veered back towards despair, notably in Ukraine, where the conflict with Russia of the past four years has lost the country not only Crimea and the industrial east but also many citizens' lives. Colley writes with elegance. She has an impressionistic, magpie way of building up her story--a joke here, a street encounter there. [The memoir] is never far away from a considered reflection on where politics is going." -- Times Literary Supplement, "A highly informative memoir that explores Poland and Ukraine; the book should appeal to those who revel in the poetry of intricate prose." --Kirkus Reviews "Often lyrical, Ann C. Colley's personal Odyssey exposes the reader to historical and political facts as well as to other aspects of East European cultures. Her sharp eye for detail, her candor, and her illuminating insights will benefit readers interested in studying and traveling to that part of Europe." --Regina Grol, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, SUNY-Empire State College "Ann C. Colley's The Odyssey and Dr. Novak brilliantly combines an insider's perspective with an outsider's objectivity. She tells an adventurous story of teaching , living, and traveling throughout Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the Russian threat." --Joyce Gleason, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska "The Odyssey and Dr. Novak is a profound, poignant, and important journey through history, lands, and times too powerful to forget. A Sensory delight."--Kim Chinquee. Professor of Creative Writing, SUNY College at Buffalo. Author of Oh Baby and Pistol and Veer., "A highly informative memoir that explores Poland and Ukraine; the book should appeal to those who revel in the poetry of intricate prose." --Kirkus Reviews "Often lyrical, Ann C. Colley's personal Odyssey exposes the reader to historical and political facts as well as to other aspects of East European cultures. Her sharp eye for detail, her candor, and her illuminating insights will benefit readers interested in studying and traveling to that part of Europe." --Regina Grol, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, SUNY-Empire State College "Ann C. Colley's The Odyssey and Dr. Novak brilliantly combines an insider's perspective with an outsider's objectivity. She tells an adventurous story of teaching , living, and traveling throughout Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the Russian threat." --Joyce Gleason, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska " The Odyssey and Dr. Novak is a profound, poignant, and important journey through history, lands, and times too powerful to forget. A Sensory delight." --Kim Chinquee. Professor of Creative Writing, SUNY College at Buffalo. Author of Oh Baby and Pistol and Veer. "This is a nuanced, subtle, and luminous reading of a region whose past is full of suffering. Colley only wrote her book after the times veered back towards despair, notably in Ukraine, where the conflict with Russia of the past four years has lost the country not only Crimea and the industrial east but also many citizens' lives. Colley writes with elegance. She has an impressionistic, magpie way of building up her story--a joke here, a street encounter there. [The memoir] is never far away from a considered reflection on where politics is going." -- Times Literary Supplement, "Often lyrical, Ann C. Colley's personal Odyssey exposes the reader to historical and political facts as well as to other aspects of East European cultures. Her sharp eye for detail, her candor, and her illuminating insights will benefit readers interested in studying and traveling to that part of Europe." --Regina Grol, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, SUNY-Empire State College "Ann C. Colley's The Odyssey and Dr. Novak brilliantly combines an insider's perspective with an outsider's objectivity. She tells an adventurous story of teaching , living, and traveling throughout Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the Russian threat." --Joyce Gleason, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska "The Odyssey and Dr. Novak is a profound, poignant, and important journey through history, lands, and times too powerful to forget. A Sensory delight."--Kim Chinquee. Professor of Creative Writing, SUNY College at Buffalo. Author of Oh Baby and Pistol and Veer.

Dewey Decimal947

SynopsisOne summer afternoon in northern England in 1946, when Ann Colley was a child, she met a man from Czechoslovakia named Dr. Novak. This encounter launched her lifelong fascination with Central and Eastern Europe, one that resulted in her spending two years, in 1995 and 2000, teaching at universities in Poland and Ukraine. In The Odyssey and Dr. Novak , Colley records personal experiences, interactions with colleagues, and descriptions of the landscape, creating a composite portrait of these countries at a time when each is struggling to chart its course after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. She recalls moments that are disturbing, absurd, discordant, frustrating, humorous, and endearing--a missing parrot flying in through the window; a robber on a train threatening her life; clouds of smoke from Chernobyl hanging over Kiev. Colley's journey ends with her return to the figure of Dr. Novak when she searches in the archives of the Harvard Divinity School Library for letters sent from Prague in 1945--letters which, just like her memoir, speak of a past that pursues the present., Recalling personal experiences of living in Warsaw and Kiev, Ann C. Colley creates a complex, composite portrait of Poland and Ukraine at a time between the fall of the Soviet Union and the recent resurgence of a Russian threat.

LC Classification NumberDK293.C653 2018