My Life at First Try

by Mark Budman

This semi-autobiographical debut novel chronicles the life of Alex, born in Siberia in 1950, and his dreams of becoming a writer and of meeting Annie, his distant American cousin. As a child, Alex observes a group of foreign tourists do something that non-drunk Soviet adults seldom do: they laugh. Alex yearns to become one of them--a free and happy foreigner. Those aspirations quickly fade as Alex begins to encounter the absurdities and constraints...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158243400X
• ISBN13: 9781582434001
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

I loved it

I devoured this book and it was a tasty meal - sweet, bitter and occasionally salty. Budman's prose is lean and light but conveys so much of the flavor of Alex's life. Nearly every page had a sentence I wish I'd written.

Wonderful book

My life at first try is a wonderful book, very well written in a unique and irresistible style. In Budman's semi-autobiographical novel he tells the life story of Alex. Every chapter contains a little story as if he shows us a photo-album with snapshots of his life. The book starts with Alex as a four year old Russian boy, in the last chapter Alex celebrates Thanksgiving with his family as a fifty-six year old American from Russian descent. The first part of the book has a vivid atmosphere, and even if you've never been in Russia you can feel it as if you are there: clear pictures of the environment and the people, both serious and funny, sometimes hilarious. The second part, in the United States, is more subtle and has many touching moments. Mark Budman is a true narrator and chooses his word with care. This book is one of the best I read this year. I hope he will write at least a dozen more.

Beautiful, heartfelt and true.

My Life At First Try is an intimate read, successful in grounding the reader in Alex's world as he comes of age, and then comes into middle age, and, finally, arrives at late middle age. The story moves at a clip due to the short chapters (it is a novel-in-flashes, meaning most of the chapters are under 1000 words), and yet one gets the feeling that each word, phrase, sentence is falling carefully from the narrator's tongue. There is no fluff in this book, just heartfelt experience rendered in a beautiful, economic prose. What I especially loved were the truths inherent in the narrator's responses to life, whether he's facing communist bureacracy, American work ethics, family politics or the travails of his own heart. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Lovely

A poignant semi-autobiographical story of an immigrant -- stark, funny and beautiful. I read this book in one sitting, anxious to see what happened, and was continually astounded by Budman's unique prose.

You'll like it!

In the sea of books, it's too easy to overlook the yet unknown author (I am sure he won't remain unknown for long). I am so glad that I risked my hard-yearned pennies to buy "My Life at First Try." I found that this book is truly a marriage of exquisite language and a racing plot. It's like a great dinner for everyone: pizza for the kids, truffles for the high-brow, salad for the vegetarians and a raw steak for down-to-earth guests.