Review of Our Man from the Ukraine
Posted: 23 Dec 2022, 02:05
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Our Man from the Ukraine" by Allan LeLoup.]
Harry Zakal—the main character in Allan LeLoup’s novel, Our Man from the Ukraine—and his twin brother, Paul, fled from their homeland, Lviv, Ukraine, in search of freedom from a politically instigated famine. Harry, whose father was Jewish and his mother Ukrainian, eventually settled in Kingston, Canada, where he got an engineering job with a Canadian multinational, Ferguson. Paul, on the other hand, settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a restaurateur. Not long afterward, Harry and his Scottish-born wife, Cynthia, sired three children, Raymond (Ray), Mary, and Charlie. However, Mary died young because of polio fever, while Charlie developed a cognitive impairment condition caused by oxygen deprivation during birth.
I liked LeLoup’s politically charged novel because it was a poignant reminder of how polarizing political rhetoric can be. Harry and Paul aptly demonstrated this when they ditched their homeland in favor of a foreign country across the political ideological divide. I also noted that the novel’s release date might have been timed to coincide with the ongoing war in Ukraine that stemmed from the deep-rooted political and ideological developments that led up to it. I thought this was an effective way of promoting the Ukrainian people’s cause toward self-determination. Through the character of Harry, LeLoup also captured fond memories of a peacetime Ukraine with its fields of wheat, its beautiful sceneries, its alluring buildings featuring foreign-inspired architecture, and its stunning women.
Thematically, liberalism and communism, among a few other “-isms,” were a few conflicting political ideologies that captured my interest and drove this narrative forward. Despite this, the novel had an ingeniously crafted plot twist that seemed to solve this problem of irreconcilable ideas. Readers will also benefit from learning about some events of historical importance, such as the great migration of people or refugees from Eastern Europe to North America, the Jewish cause, and the effects of the 1946 polio outbreak and its vaccine.
On the other hand, the book was poorly edited, and that was the only aspect I disliked about it. Because of the identified editorial errors, I rated the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Even though this novel is a work of fiction, it taps into some fundamental issues and realistic concerns about the political world we live in, its people, and its leaders. I recommend this book to any reader who finds world politics to be a bit difficult to follow. At the same time, the novel may come across as academic and intellectual because it includes material on some political governance systems practiced in various parts of the world over the years. If you are intimidated by such books, you may be better off reading elsewhere.
******
Our Man from the Ukraine
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Harry Zakal—the main character in Allan LeLoup’s novel, Our Man from the Ukraine—and his twin brother, Paul, fled from their homeland, Lviv, Ukraine, in search of freedom from a politically instigated famine. Harry, whose father was Jewish and his mother Ukrainian, eventually settled in Kingston, Canada, where he got an engineering job with a Canadian multinational, Ferguson. Paul, on the other hand, settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a restaurateur. Not long afterward, Harry and his Scottish-born wife, Cynthia, sired three children, Raymond (Ray), Mary, and Charlie. However, Mary died young because of polio fever, while Charlie developed a cognitive impairment condition caused by oxygen deprivation during birth.
I liked LeLoup’s politically charged novel because it was a poignant reminder of how polarizing political rhetoric can be. Harry and Paul aptly demonstrated this when they ditched their homeland in favor of a foreign country across the political ideological divide. I also noted that the novel’s release date might have been timed to coincide with the ongoing war in Ukraine that stemmed from the deep-rooted political and ideological developments that led up to it. I thought this was an effective way of promoting the Ukrainian people’s cause toward self-determination. Through the character of Harry, LeLoup also captured fond memories of a peacetime Ukraine with its fields of wheat, its beautiful sceneries, its alluring buildings featuring foreign-inspired architecture, and its stunning women.
Thematically, liberalism and communism, among a few other “-isms,” were a few conflicting political ideologies that captured my interest and drove this narrative forward. Despite this, the novel had an ingeniously crafted plot twist that seemed to solve this problem of irreconcilable ideas. Readers will also benefit from learning about some events of historical importance, such as the great migration of people or refugees from Eastern Europe to North America, the Jewish cause, and the effects of the 1946 polio outbreak and its vaccine.
On the other hand, the book was poorly edited, and that was the only aspect I disliked about it. Because of the identified editorial errors, I rated the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Even though this novel is a work of fiction, it taps into some fundamental issues and realistic concerns about the political world we live in, its people, and its leaders. I recommend this book to any reader who finds world politics to be a bit difficult to follow. At the same time, the novel may come across as academic and intellectual because it includes material on some political governance systems practiced in various parts of the world over the years. If you are intimidated by such books, you may be better off reading elsewhere.
******
Our Man from the Ukraine
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
