Review - Oksana, Behave!

Oksana, Behave!

​​By Maria Kuznetsova

​​272 pages

​​Release date 3/19/2019

​​5 out of 5 stars

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​​According to the publisher, “When Oksana's family begins their new American life in Florida after emigrating from Ukraine, her physicist father delivers pizza at night to make ends meet, her depressed mother sits home all day worrying, and her flamboyant grandmother relishes the attention she gets when she walks Oksana to school, not realizing that the street they're walking down is known as "Prostitute Street." Oksana just wants to have friends and lead a normal life--and though she constantly tries to do the right thing, she keeps getting herself in trouble.

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​​As she grows up, she continues to misbehave, from somewhat accidentally maiming the school bus bully, to stealing the much-coveted(and expensive-to-replace) key to New York City's Gramercy Park, to falling in love with a married man. As her grandmother moves back to Ukraine, her father gets a job at Goldman Sachs, and her mother knits endless scarves, Oksana longs for a Russia that looms large in her imagination but is a country she never really knew.

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​​When she visits her grandmother in Yalta and learns about Baba's wartime past and her lost loves, Oksana begins to see just how much alike they are, and comes to a new understanding of how to embrace life and love without causing harm to the people dearest to her--though, will Oksana ever quite learn to behave?”

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​​I can’t lie - I chose this book mostly because I couldn’t resist the cover, and less so because I’m really interested in Eastern European culture, and it absolutely did not disappoint!

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​​Oksana, Behave! follows the eponymous Oksana Konnikova at various stages throughout her life, starting as a young child in the Ukraine, following her until adulthood when she ultimately returns to her native culture.  While Oksana’s immediate family members are present throughout each vignette, for the most part each chapter gives us a different setting and supporting cast of characters for Oksana to interact with.

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​​I’ve read quite a few reviews of this book, and I seem to be in the minority by giving it five stars.  I believe that is because this book heavily relies on dry, dark humor.  If there is something wrong that Oksana can say or do in a situation, you can be sure she does it.  A lot of times, it leads to insulting someone or making everyone involved feel uncomfortable.  Oksana seems to live her life by Murphy’s Law; whatever can go wrong definitely will.  Perhaps I find this more humorous than others because I know several people, myself included, who have had similar life experiences.  As for the dark humor I mentioned, there’s smoking, drinking, adultery, cancer, and death; Oksana is a flawed character who makes flawed choices, and should seemingly make these heavy situations even worse, however, for me, the “what else could possibly go wrong?” aspect was the funniest part of the book. 

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​​I think part of what endeared this book to me so much is the fact that life often takes on a tone of dry, dark humor.  Death is a universal experience, yet we all have different, and inevitably, inappropriate reactions to it.  By openly being flawed, Oksana can act as a mirror for all of us; if you’ve ever said something totally innocent, but totally wrong, and then didn’t understand why people reacted negatively to you, you have something in common with her. We all have our flaws, but if you can learn to accept them, and even laugh at them,  you’ll get through life just fine.  

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​​While this book is fiction, there is a very strong “immigrant experience” element to it.  Though it’s not a biography, I can’t help but wonder if the author included elements of her own upbringing, which gives the book even more of an interesting twist.  Fiction or not, it’s always interesting to learn about other cultures!

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​​If you are looking for a light, silly comedy, this is absolutely not the book for you.  If you enjoy finding humor in the absurdity of everyday life (anytakers…?), I think you’ll enjoy this book very much!

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