Two Sisters of Coyoacán

This is my second second Trotsky assassination novel. The first was [b:The Lacuna|6433752|The Lacuna|Barbara Kingsolver|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480104396s/6433752.jpg|6812077] and I am giving up this genre after a few chapters of [b:The Obedient Assassin: A Novel|18643559|The Obedient Assassin A Novel|John P. Davidson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387751849s/18643559.jpg|27570491] which would have been my third. When I started The Lacuna, I didn't know its subject and the same goes for Two Sisters. If you're an "everything happens for a reason" type, The Lacuna was recommended to me by a psychoanalyst who attended the same institute as Roberta Satow, someone told me he knew Trotsky's granddaughter, and on the same day, someone else told me they were related to the person whose kitchen was the provenance of the icepick used to murder Trotsky.

But the reason I picked this book up was curiosity about the author after reading about her in Rate My Professor (the absolute worst ratings I'd ever seen! Go look for yourself. You'll be amazed.) To my surprise I really enjoyed reading this book. Kingsolver's book was too slick, Davidson's too cliche. Satow's writing is original and involving and Lilly is a great character. The Brooklyn intellectual/leftist Jewish community and the Coyoacán household both feel real with the accurate historical details meshing well with the made up dialogue and observations.

I'd have rated the book higher but some elements bothered me. The reveal that [spoiler alert] Manny led Ramón to Lilly is a little too on the nose (plus Manny isn't the type to silently ignore Lilly's involvement with Trotsky). The details surrounding [2nd spoiler alert] Gertie's death are too thin. Was she still alive the previous day when Lilly was turned away? Was she perhaps killed for some nefarious reason so she wouldn't talk to her sister? This is rushed through and Lilly barely seems to react. Then, somehow, later she reacts to the point of needing therapy. Dr. Bloom seems awfully self-disclosing for an analyst of that time period (which could be ok but is barely remarked upon.) And the ending seemed abrupt with the multiple resolutions of Lilly and Howie's relationship, her guilt about her "infidelity" being brushed away by Howie who is always such a mensch and now seems slated to go off to war. It's as if the real plot is Lilly's relationship and she and we didn't know it until now. Analysts of that time told you not to make any major decisions while in treatment so could we assume she was now cured? Is getting married and living happily ever after the sign of it?

I thought the term is "bubbe meise" not "bubbameister." The yiddish is באָבע־מעשׂה and has no "T" sound in it, but now I see both versions all over the internet, so maybe I'm wrong? (ending in a question mark because you should read it with a rising inflection,)

Lastly the capitalism of book promotion (for a book about Trotsky? Really?) bothers me. The "question" and "quiz" for this book were both added by the author herself (something I'd never seen before) and almost all of the other reviews I see are suspect because this is the only book they review and they give it 5 stars. We're living at a time of "fake news" as it is and the book seems to be scrupulously researched.

Let's write off the flaws of this book to it being a first novel. I would certainly read her next one.