Panic in a Suitcase follows the lives of the Nasmertovs, who emigrate from Odessa, for over two decades. The elders wonder if they made the right choice in moving to America while at the same time they try to convince the lone hold out, their son Pasha Nasmertov, to join them. He steadfastly resists in a passive aggressive manner that infuriates his sister.

I found the novel to be uproarious and engaging, full of vivid characters with idiosyncrasies and foibles. Akhtiorskaya’s style — her language, her fresh analogies and wit — captivated me.

The Plot

Some readers have commented about a lack of plot, or they say the novel is confusing or episodic. I disagree. For me, the story essentially pivots on two characters and how they relate to one another: Pasha, a renowned poet living in the Ukraine who doesn’t want to join the family in Brighton Beach, and his niece, Frida, who lives in Brighton Beach.

They are years apart but have much in common. They are both floundering, but for different reasons. Their apathy allows life to happen to them. Pasha visits America but isn’t tempted to stay. Then, years later, Frida gets the opportunity to visit the Ukraine for the wedding of her cousin (Pasha’s son), and stays with with her uncle. She doesn’t remember much about Pasha, but she’s heard plenty of stories. This excerpt is from Frida’s point of view:

But what about her uncle? She had so little to go on, practically nothing of any substance, yet he loomed so large over the household. He was a mythic creature, a legend. It was impossible to imagine him as the father at a wedding. Dancing? Rejoicing? He slipped out of all the scenarios her mind conjured up for him… Entire seasons refused to contain Pasha. Surrounded by icicles, heaps of snow, and grime, sure, but not sunbathers or trees in bloom. Frida was always hearing about terrible snowstorms, Pasha unable to leave his home for weeks, classes at the university cancelled, heating broken, tram tracks iced over… Pasha choses not to leave the snow. He wears fur caps with the earflaps pinned, exposing a catastrophic excess of cartilage. His overcoats are as sever as his facial expressions.  The sky is low, almost as dark as the shadows under his eyes…

It’s there in Odessa that Frida has a revelation and discovers her purpose in life. Her ambition will impact Pasha’s life, although this is something readers will have to imagine. Panic is a Suitcase is not the kind of novel that ties everything up in a neat bow. Life isn’t like that.

Omniscient POV

This novel is written in omniscient point of view, which gives readers the perspectives of many different characters in the Nasmertov family: the matriarch, Esther, and her husband, Robert, their daughter, Marina, and their son, Pasha, Marina’s husband, Levik, and their daughter, Frida. Omniscient point of view isn’t as common as it once was, and I think this may be distancing to some readers. I have to admit, I found it a little disconcerting at first to be observing everyone at once, but I soon became a fly on the wall, seeing every motion and feeling every emotional stir. It became surprisingly engrossing. Akhtiorskaya does a marvelous job.

Stylistic choices

Some readers are put off by the lack of quotation marks. For me, it read cleaner without them and was not difficult to understand. It’s a stylistic choice an author makes. Her sentences are long and wieldy. She demands the reader pay attention. Why anyone would criticize her for this is beyond me. Some of her details and analogies tip into the absurd. For example, a rainstorm that suddenly blows in over sunbathers at Brighton Beach results in total mayhem in which Pasha, on a rare visit to the states, is stripped of his swimsuit. I think it’s comical because its preposterous.

______________________

Yelena Akhtiorskaya was born in Odessa and emigrated to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn at the age of seven with her family. She has a BA in English from Hunter College and an MFA from Columbia University. She is the recipient of a Posen Foundation Fellowship in fiction. Her debut novel is eligible for a 2014 Kirkus Prize. A feature article on her and her novel can be read in Kirkus.