I found this book fascinating, then deeply boring, then incredible. The end really made it for me. A "love story" that isn't so much that, that explores the strings that power and love have us connected to, and how they shape our lives. How much control do we really have over what happens to us? Where does destiny come in? This book took me for a ride and continues to haunt me.

Reading my namesake’s novel started on the wrong footing. Ignoring the blurb which I now always do for their often misleading commercial buzzwords, from the first pages I realized that the narrator/protagonist is a “red princess”. That is, she is the daughter of a Communist high-ranked leader, a member of the ‘New Class’ as Djilas memorably dissected in his classic reconstruction of the class system in a communist country which Goldsworthy quotes in one of the novel’s epigrams. Their sense of entitlement to an unearned luxury that make my stomach turn, as described with surgical precision in the character of Milena, brought back the memories of disgust I always felt toward “red princesses” while growing up.

I couldn’t pass a few pages before putting the novel aside again and again. Not because of the writing, which was impressively crafted, but because of the overwhelming disgust toward its main protagonist that deeply cut through me. I made a few more false starts to the point of giving up when I encountered this passage when Milena graduated from college: “I could have taken any job I wanted after graduation, but translation appealed most.” The brutal contrast to my own story was unbearably direct. Precisely because I couldn’t find a job in my profession since the jobs were routinely taken through political connections and privileges in this “new class” communist system, I turned to translation (also in English) which was thankfully available on the second market for the unemployed. It gave me not only the means to sustain my life financially but also a sense of elementary dignity so desperately needed, perhaps even more than basic financial sustenance, as known only to the unemployed. At this point, clinging barely to a sense of moral obligation for receiving an ARC, my reading was saved by my wonderful GR friend Joe when he joined me as a reading buddy. And how fortunate this turned out to be for me!

Through Milena’s observing eyes, who underwent a personal transformation after falling in love with a Westerner, Goldsworthy skillfully exposes the ironic twists behind the Iron Curtain ideological veils when the lenses zoom into personal lives. Loyalty and betrayal, one of the main themes in the novel, may be ideological, hovering like the sword of Damocles over the lives in a repressive society like the unnamed Eastern European country in this story, but their use and misuse in personal relations is universal with profound consequences. The same holds for opportunism, an easy way to sail through life and climb the social ladders for the morally weak. The novel shows its sameness on both sides of the Iron Curtain, just the power channels change - promotion through the Communist Party nomenklatura< in the East, opportunistic association with the privileged rich/aristocracy in the West. And in the character Artemis, Milena encounters her former self, a spoiled and privileged Western version of the “red princess”. Other parallels abound, both positive and negative, as shown through several turns of events that are believable and intelligently conceived.

The most impressive aspect of the novel is Vesna Goldsworthy’s writing. It feels so effortless that it draws a reader’s attention away from the writer and brings the story and characters to a sharp focus. Her astute social criticism is embedded in seemingly light observations, even interspersed with occasional humor. It reminded me of the similar talent of another writer, Percival Everrett, who also skillfully tackles even the most gruesome issues such as racist lynching with deceptively light prose and satire. Another aspect that attests to Goldsworthy’s talent is the way she seamlessly interpolates the allegory of Medea, intersecting personal and political threads in the novel. While I have never warmed up to the main protagonist, which was not the writer’s intention anyway, I came around to experience her walk along and across the Iron Curtain line, including her own transformation, as a telling metaphor for the Medea-like times. The myths do not die easily.

I’ve just read a fascinating feature article in The New Yorker about this new novel in the context of Vesna Goldsworthy’s life and her previous works which I highly recommend.

My many thanks to W. W. Norton for an ARC via NetGalley.

Milena is a privileged "Red Princess" in an unnamed Soviet satellite in the 1980s. While she enjoys a life of unparalleled luxury, she chafes against the restrictions and lack of freedom. She falls in love with Jason, a visiting British poet who tries to convince her to move to London with him. She doesn't immediately jump at the chance but eventually joins him, where she is taken aback at the squalid conditions he lives in. The novel explores the differences between East and West, luxury and poverty, repression vs. freedom, etc.

This is not a romance. For the record, this isn’t a romantic book in any sense of the word. But, just like the title implies, it is a love story–just not the love story between a boy and a girl (though a boy and a girl do fall in love, I suppose).

Iron Curtain: A Love Story is about Milena, one of communism’s Red Princesses, and though one might be tricked into thinking this is a traditional love story, it’s not. Milena is in love with one thing and one thing only, and that is her homeland, behind the Iron Curtain. That’s the genius behind this whole book, a communist Cold War twist on “There’s no place like home”.

Milena Urbanska ran away from her communist homeland not because she hated communism and wanted to defect; no, she ran away because she was young, she had witnessed something traumatizing when she was younger that had shifted some of her thinking, she didn’t want to be forced into marriage at her parent’s hands, she didn’t want to be a politiburo wife, and she was sick of being who she was and of everyone knowing everything about her and constantly being a subject of conversation across the country. So she decides to slip away to England and marry the young Irish poet she had fallen in love with when he was in her country a few years prior, even though she hates the western world. She’s hoping their love and his poetry fame will make up for living in a Capitalist society.

But best laid plans…

England is both everything she thought it might be and nothing like she knew it would be. She hates it. There’s only two things she loves about England: fresh vegetables and her in-laws. At first, she’s deliriously in love with her husband, too. But in Thatcher-era England, being poor was more than a kick in the teeth, and it didn’t help that Milena’s husband seemed to fancy himself a man who ran on Lady Luck and whimsy.

This novel is full of a specific type of ennui I love: A sense of listlessness, of not knowing what to do with oneself. It’s the feeling of being in some kind of suspended state between two choices or situations you’ve been presented with but not being able to determine which is the lesser of two evils. You hate your life, but either not enough to leave it or you’re too stubborn to give up just yet.

I’m a sucker for Cold War-era fiction. Well, I’m a sucker for Russian historical fiction in general. I loved the research and detail put into this book, both on the Russian and British sides. It couldn’t have been easy researching everything from Thatcher economics to Russian Nationalism and how one could fly from the USSR to Cuba and how many different stops they could make while doing so.

Vesna Goldworthy’s characters blaze to life, each so distinct in voice, style, and worldview they not only form the unshakeable framework for this novel but they also create the ebb and flow around Milena, moving her around in that suspended state, all making impacts large and small on her life and decisions as they go.

I can’t say anything else about this book other than it was a tremendously lovely read that I highly recommend.

I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction/Political Fiction/Satire/5 Star Reads

Milena lives a privileged life by any stretch of the imagination but even more so by the standards of her small unnamed Communist country in the 1980s thanks to her father's position in the leadership. And then a game of Russian roulette goes terribly wrong and she recalibrates herself to become a dedicated translator of information about maize (don't worry- no maize info here). She's unenthusiastic when recruited to translate for a British poet come to town to read but her world changes when she meets Jason. He looks at everything so differently and then, before he leaves, he asks her to come with him, an offer she rejects. Until much later, when she rigs travel to London and goes to him. Life in London isn't what she thought it would be (there's no money, the cold is different) but they're in love. And then-no spoilers from me. I liked this for Milena (aka Mimi aka Millie) and for all the small atmospheric details, not only in her home country but also in London and at Jason's parents' home as well as for his parents. Milena's voice = and the storytelling- is strong. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Terrific read.

I found this book to be a challenging read. I liked all the description of life in a Communist country before 1989 because most people don’t understand the restrictions and extreme limitations.
I couldn’t connect with Milena. I thought she was very remote and detached.
I didn’t get the vibe of the book so found it to be a very slow read.

𝑴𝒚 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆-𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒔, 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐, 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒋𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚.

It is the 1980s, Milena Urbanska, “a red princess living in a Soviet satellite state”, lives in luxury and freedom but always under watchful eyes. She and her friends can only rebel so far, there is nothing her powerful father isn’t aware or in control of. He knows what she gets up to better than she does, especially antics at the Youth Palace. She and Misha are the golden couple, until fate spins a cruel, stupid tragedy. The fallout changes Milena, after she graduates, she becomes a translator. Her mother isn’t thrilled about her learning English, but it is how she meets Jason Connor, a handsome, Irish twenty-seven-year-old Marxist poet. As the only Westerner invited to the international poetry festival, Milena is the best choice to avoid any embarrassments and keep up the socialist facade. Four days of her time, it isn’t much to ask. She isn’t interested in him, even if his stirring reading has other girls swooning, Milena is simply getting through it. Despite her best efforts to remain unmoved by his wooing, she wonders what it would be like to sleep with a Western man, and the two become lovers. His time there is limited, but it doesn’t stop them from falling madly in love.

It would be impulsive to leave with him, and not easily done, though he desperate for her to do just that. She suffers as she watches him leave. She can’t let go of her longing for him, nor remain unaffected by the reminders. It is during her stay at a villa extended later into the season, swimming in the lake that she makes a decision that changes her life. Milena loves Jason, and despite the risks of leaving her country, parents, and privileged life, she knows he will be worth it. She lies to her parents, but in London with Jason she ‘could lead a more truthful life’. The moment she steps off the plane, nothing is as she envisioned. Meeting his parents and staying at their primitive farmhouse is the first dent in the fantasy of lover’s bliss. In the English house she is stunned at the gothic setting, witness to chores that she had never in her life done. The difference in their upbringing is evident in his parents disinterest in her, so unlike her own parents hungry questions for suitors. His family raises thoughts about Western notions of Eastern poverty. Certainly, this isn’t the wealth of the West you hear so much about? In truth, her own people were better cared for, despite Jason’s father’s assumptions to the contrary. When her mother tracks her down, tells her she is making a big mistake, it’s too late. Milena is rooted to her decision, even against his own mother’s warnings that a poet’s pay ‘won’t butter bread’. They move to a dingy, depressing flat, more like a basement. Milena experiences poverty for the first time, but her heart is rich with love, just as a poet would write it. She is finally free, even if her father’s comrade makes his presence known, proving her father’s reach is beyond borders. Milena and Jason have a ‘pauper poet’s’ wedding, despite their financial troubles, she knows he has his own special genius. Milena feels alienation each day in England, rejections for work pile up, Jason seems to be in no hurry to earn money and his grant is running thin. She finds work, and before long she is with child. Just what will become of their bohemian love nest, when she really gets know the poet she married? Is the world they created together worth everything she sacrificed? They really are opposites, in country and in their souls. Interpreting love is much harder than interpreting written language, just as his ‘year of miracles’ arrives, Milena feels lonely, and is beginning to confront the truths about their marriage and herself that she has been ignoring.

This is a novel about the cultural differences between the East and West but it is also about love, it’s youthful fantasies and hard realities. The lure of poetry, desire, seduction and the cold slap of obligation orbit Milena’s decisions. How much face can a ‘privileged princess’ stand to lose before she turns to her roots for salvation? This isn’t your usual love story, not with the Iron Curtain, Cold War, and divided loyalties at stake. Betrayal, infidelity, passion, love, death… what could go wrong?

The culture shock is genuine, the beliefs they have about each other based on their nationality drives much of the story. It’s interesting how we truly are molded by our country, even in the small ways we never contemplate, little behaviors that only an outsider can spot. I loved the ending, it’s perfectly fitting. Yes, read it.

Publication Date: February 14, 2023

W.W. Norton & Company

Although the Communist country our narrator hails from is left unnamed, this novel is rich in specificity and detail. I really felt I understood what it was like to be the daughter of a Soviet satellite country's second most-powerful man, even though her experiences were worlds away from mine. The writing was crisp, the pacing quick, the characters crystalline.

For all that, I finished "Iron Curtain" with a "so what?" shrug. I expected some sort of resonance, a sense of significance, but came up short. Maybe it's because I never warmed to the narrator. It was less a matter of not liking her and more of not caring much about her one way or another. I still recommend the book, though, for its precision, (at least to me) extraordinary Eastern Europe setting, and perfect depiction of a certain class of Englishpeople.

Thank you, NetGalley and W.W. Norton, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.