Hello everyone, happy Wednesday! Today I’m going to be reviewing Ludmila Ulitskaya’s novel The Big Green Tent.

The Big Green Tent by: Ludmila Ulitskaya: translated by: Polly Gannon: The story of three school friends who meet in Moscow in the 1950s, this novel watches how these friends interact with one another and watches as they grow up, facing trials and tribulations. This was a large novel to get through and as much as the writing was compelling and very detailed, it was the actual storytelling that fell behind. This novel is rich in Russian history and Russian culture. It was good to get a taste of it and to read something so unfamiliar, but at the same time because it was so unfamiliar it made this harder to grasp and understand. This novel comes across as needing to be really invested in the subject matter to really enjoy this, otherwise it does get dull and bogged down in a culture the reader knows nothing about. What was done really well were the characters because they were interesting; some had more interesting plots than others, but Ulitskaya created these fascinating lives for these characters around real events. Overall, it’s worth the read for fans of Russian literature, or anyone looking for something new to read.