Hardly Ever Otherwise English edition edition by Maria Matios Literature Fiction eBooks
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Everything eventually reaches its appointed place in time and space. Maria Matios’s dramatic family saga, Hardly Ever Otherwise, narrates the story of several western Ukrainian families during the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and expands upon the idea that “it isn’t time that is important, but the human condition in time.”
From the first page, Matios engages her reader with an impeccable style, which she employs to create a rich tapestry of cause and effect, at times depicting a logic that is both bitter and enigmatic. But nothing is ever fully revealed—it is only in the final pages of the novel that the events in the beginning are understood as a necessary part of a larger whole, and the section entitled Seasicknesspresents a compelling argument for why events almost always have to follow a particular course.
In Matios’s multi-tiered plot, the grand passions of ordinary people are illuminated under the caliginous light of an ethereal mysticism, and digressions on love, envy, transgression, and atonement are woven into the story. The reader is submerged into a rich world populated by a grand cast of characters and ideas, which Matios animates with her prolific imagination and subtle wisdom.
Each character in this outstanding drama has an irrefutable alibi, a unique truth, and a private conflict with honor and duty. Her characters do not always act in accordance with logic and written-law, as the laws of honor clash with the laws of the heart. And this is why it is hardly ever otherwise.
Hardly Ever Otherwise English edition edition by Maria Matios Literature Fiction eBooks
Maria Matios' Hardly Ever Otherwise combines elements of different genres - family saga, mystery, and novels exploring human psychology - to great effect, giving us a gripping and yet profound account of events and emotions affecting the lives of country folk in Western Ukraine. Set in the times of the Austro-Hungarian empire around the time of the First World War, the novel addresses enduring themes - family, love, and community, to name but a few.The role of morals in how we live our lives is a key theme of the book: although morality in many ways strongly structures the lives of this small, rural community, Matios shows how easily it can be abandoned: it only takes a moment for the sometimes cruel vagaries of fate, or a swell of emotion in your breast, and everyday morals can fly out of the window. Unfortunately for some of the characters, such as the battered Dmytryk, these transgressions often come at a price. Matios cleverly works up the tension around the twisted yarns of the book's central mystery (which I won't spoil for you here!) and plays upon the grey area between fantasy and reality as young wife Dotska bears witness to the Cain and Abel-like battles between her husband and his brothers.
Matio's portrait of a certain point in Ukraine's history was enthusiastically received in its native country; it was seen as filling in a historical gap by its use of local Hutsul (highland Ukrainian) dialect and vividly portraying of what are, for most people, long-forgotten ways of living. We see food customs and weddings, legal wrangling and pagan rituals carried out by the local wise woman, Marynka Godspirit. Although it is primarily an entertaining rather than an educational book, the author's exploration of the inner emotions of her characters - especially the women - is a reminder of the constraints faced by our ancestors (whether you are Ukrainian or not); the village's judgement weighs heavy on their actions, even if they do not always choose to pay it heed.
I sped through this book in a single day - although I'm not usually a fan of mysteries, the believable and often sympathetic characters (particularly Dotska and Petrunia), and Matios' ability to make us wonder what their motives really are had me hooked from the first chapter.
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Hardly Ever Otherwise English edition edition by Maria Matios Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Maria Matios is a contemporary, award winning Ukrainian writer. Several of her works have been translated into other languages, but "Hardly Ever Otherwise" is her first novel translated into English. The book is a literary triptych - overlapping parts of the whole told from three different points of view - exploring a tragedy of romantic and sexual obsessions in a conservatively traditional and oppressive culture. However, this background, though particular to western Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, is still universal. The characters are fully human and sympathetic. The translation from the Ukrainian by Yury Tkacz is more than just competent. It is fluent, but doesn't draw attention to itself and intrude into the story. I highly recommend this novel for readers who appreciate psychological complexity.
The name of writer Maria Matios is well known in Ukraine, and reading the book will never let you forget that you are dealing with a leading lady of Ukrainian literature. The plot of the novel centers around a murder in a Hutsul village around World War I when that part of Ukraine belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Divided into three parts, the novel explores the personal and psychological aspects of the murder through different points of view, mainly the women of the village. The latter - the victim's mother, lover, sister-in-law, and his father's former mistress - present their own version of the events leading to the murder, thus providing additional details about the event and solving the main psychological mystery - what motivated people to kill their neighbor and brother. This is what moves the plot and makes one wonder till the last page what really happened. At the same time the women's stories reflect their own interpretation of the surrounding world and family life, thus creating a portrayal of a turn of the century Ukrainian mountainous village with all its problems, superstitions, anguish and hopes. The novel mingles realistic details with elements of folklore which are part of women's lore. The shifting of the points of view of the main women characters only reinforces this. Even though the murder victim is a man, the story of his murder and its impact on the village life is told by women, using their point of view and assessment of the events. It is no wonder then that the title of the book comes from one of the female characters whose life's wisdom dictates that "...people never manage to thank others for their good deeds, or to pay them back for their insults. Not anyone. Not even themselves. And it is hardly ever otherwise." "Hardly Ever Otherwise" is an excellent piece of fiction which would be enjoyed by readers of different ages and walks of life. I can highly recommend it.
Maria Matios' Hardly Ever Otherwise combines elements of different genres - family saga, mystery, and novels exploring human psychology - to great effect, giving us a gripping and yet profound account of events and emotions affecting the lives of country folk in Western Ukraine. Set in the times of the Austro-Hungarian empire around the time of the First World War, the novel addresses enduring themes - family, love, and community, to name but a few.
The role of morals in how we live our lives is a key theme of the book although morality in many ways strongly structures the lives of this small, rural community, Matios shows how easily it can be abandoned it only takes a moment for the sometimes cruel vagaries of fate, or a swell of emotion in your breast, and everyday morals can fly out of the window. Unfortunately for some of the characters, such as the battered Dmytryk, these transgressions often come at a price. Matios cleverly works up the tension around the twisted yarns of the book's central mystery (which I won't spoil for you here!) and plays upon the grey area between fantasy and reality as young wife Dotska bears witness to the Cain and Abel-like battles between her husband and his brothers.
Matio's portrait of a certain point in Ukraine's history was enthusiastically received in its native country; it was seen as filling in a historical gap by its use of local Hutsul (highland Ukrainian) dialect and vividly portraying of what are, for most people, long-forgotten ways of living. We see food customs and weddings, legal wrangling and pagan rituals carried out by the local wise woman, Marynka Godspirit. Although it is primarily an entertaining rather than an educational book, the author's exploration of the inner emotions of her characters - especially the women - is a reminder of the constraints faced by our ancestors (whether you are Ukrainian or not); the village's judgement weighs heavy on their actions, even if they do not always choose to pay it heed.
I sped through this book in a single day - although I'm not usually a fan of mysteries, the believable and often sympathetic characters (particularly Dotska and Petrunia), and Matios' ability to make us wonder what their motives really are had me hooked from the first chapter.
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