Mannequin Girl

by Ellen Litman

A moving coming-of-age story in the tradition of A Separate Peace, Prep, and Skippy Dies.

Seven-year-old Kat Knopman worships her parents, temperamental Anechka and soft-hearted, absent-minded Misha. Young Jewish intellectuals, they teach at a Moscow school and dabble in political radicalism. Kat, about to start first grade at the same school, sees herself as their heir and ally. But when she's diagnosed with rapidly progressing scoliosis, the trajectory of her life changes and she finds herself at a different institution: a school-sanatorium for children with spinal ailments. Confined to a brace, surrounded by unsympathetic peers, Kat embarks on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and a free spirit despite her physical limitations, her Jewishness, and her suspicion that her beloved parents are in fact flawed. Stark, heartfelt, and deftly told, Mannequin Girl captures the bleakness of Soviet Russia and the hopeful turmoil of adolescence.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Coming Of Age, Russia, Jewish, Historical Fiction, Novels

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2014

About the author

Ellen Litman's first book, The Last Chicken in America, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A native of Moscow, she teaches writing at the University of Connecticut and lives in Mansfield.

Reviews

[Beata Zwarycz · Rating 4 out of 5]

You may think that this book is about a girl, who grows up in the Soviet Union and has to wear a brace for her scoliosis. But it's really more a book about her parents. The beautiful and restless (and most likely bipolar) Anechka and the intellectual and passive Misha (who's also a huge enabler). They're both teachers and if that doesn't sound glamorous, then you weren't raised in the Eastern Bloc before the fall of communism.

Misha and Anechka are the Brad and Angelina of academia. They're charming, alluring, and mysterious. They have their own entourage and their own detractors. They're also rather ineffective as parents and that's where Kat's problems really blossom. Not because of the brace or the fact that she grows up being encouraged to join the Komsomol. They're also Jewish and that doesn't help, especially when Perestroika hits and all the old steadfast communists start finding Jesus again.

A really interesting read, especially for someone like me, who also grew up in that corner of the world around the same time and had a teacher for a parent.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review:
WW Norton|March 18, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-393-06928-0
"A perfect little figure," he says. "Our mannequin girl." She knows who mannequin girls are. They are in her grandmother's Working Woman magazines, modeling flouncy dresses and berets. "Bend," he tells her, and she does, so pliant, so obedient."
Growing up in Soviet Russia, Kat Knopman worships her parents, tempermental Anechka and soft-hearted, absent-minded, Misha. Young Jewish intellectuals, they teach literature at a Moscow school, run a drama club, and dabble in political radicalism. Kat sees herself as their heir and ally. But when she's diagnosed with rapidly-progressing scoliosis, the trajectory of her life changes and she finds herself at a different institution a school - sanatorium for children with spinal ailments. Confined to a brace, surrounded by unsympathetic peers, Kat embarks on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and free spirit on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and free spirit despite her physical limitations, her Jewishness, and her suspicion that her beloved parents are in fact flawed. Can a girl with a crooked spine really be a mannequin girl, her parents pride and her doctors and teachers glory? Or will she prove to be something far more ordinary and, thereby, more her own? An unforgettable heroine, Kat will have to find the courage to face the world and break free not only of her metal brace but of all the constraints that bind her.
Kat Knopman is a brave girl struggling to do what is right and what is best for her in her world. MANNEQUIN GIRL is rich, funny, humane, devastating, and beautiful. I fell in love with Kat.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review appears on New York Journal of Books. Read that review first. Additional remarks that appeared in a different and now defunct publication begin with the next paragraph.

Jewish books: Ellen Litman's Mannequin Girl describes childhood in 1980s Moscow

To those of us who participated in rallies and other activities in the 1970s and 1980s on behalf of the right of Jews living in the Soviet Union to emigrate the complete lack of Jewish ritual observance in the family life of Kat Knopman and her parents Misha and Anechka in 1980s Moscow as depicted in Ellen Litman’s second novel Mannequin Girl (forthcoming from W.W. Norton in the middle of next month) will come as no surprise. Kat has a physical disability and attends a school for children with her condition, and amid increasing anti-Semitism during the USSR’s final years her Jewishness also becomes a disadvantage.

What is surprising is how normal Kat’s childhood seems despite her disability and the novel’s setting. Some aspects of childhood—friendships, rivalries, and being both the victim and perpetrator of malicious behavior—are more or less the same in most countries.

I related to Kat on a personal level, because like her I am the child of intellectual parents, and during my childhood and young adulthood I too felt the burden of being expected to realize my potential.

In my New York Journal of Books review I describe Mannequin Girl as “a welcome addition to the coming of age genre that will appeal both to adult readers and to precocious teenagers.”

[Evanston Public Library]

In Russia, a mannequin girl is a model on the cover of a magazine. Kat wants nothing more than to be her parents' mannequin girl, perfect, smart, flawless, noticed. Unfortunately, Kat has a crooked spine, forcing her adored parents to enroll her in a therapeutic boarding school for children with differing degrees of spinal malformations. The teachers vary in kindness, prejudice and caring as do the students. When Kat's parents, mildly dissident teachers, are hired at the school a few years after Kat's advent, she is thrilled but discovers they have many more concerns and many more children now to worry about. When her parents' marriage starts to implode, each member of the family acts out to various and painful degrees. Kat, in order to discover who she is, must finally separate her will from her parents' needs. Young adults may find this coming-of-age tale more appealing than adults, though the glimpses into Russian life are fascinating.

[Patricia Geller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book unlike any other I have read about a young Jewish Russian girl growning up in a back brace, with parents who neglect her in their "glamour" and narcissism. Her story of coming of age rings so true and is wonderfully told.

[Readersaurus · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A moment comes, Kat thinks. A moment came. You're a glitch in a plan, an unfortunate error, and even your parents don't like who you've become. And once this knowledge sinks in, nothing else out there can scare you." [p.247]

"Except, Kat knows, it won't happen. Because being exceptional is nothing but a trap. It makes you obsessed with your significance, and also, it riddles you with doubt. You do harsh things when you believe yourself one of a kind. You push away those who love you and sneer at those you deem not good enough. She's seen it up close. She's done it herself all her life - believing that she had some sort of promise." [p.346]

This is a little gem of a book. It deserves more stars but I'm hesitant because of the way it made me feel.

The story opens when Kat is young, just getting ready to begin school, to enter into the magical world of her glamorous, intellectual, slightly subversive teacher parents. She longs to become a pupil in their school and bask in their attention and praise for her exceptional intellect. An unexpected medical diagnosis derails her plans, sending her, instead, to a residential clinical school, where she is neither beloved nor special. By the time she is an adolescent and her parents have joined the faculty at her school, a distance has grown between them and she eventually becomes disenchanted.

Fascinating for the details of life in 1980s Russia. Deeply heartbreaking for the details of Kat's longing for the attention her parents lavish on other students, and for the terrible mistakes she makes while trying to get it.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received an advanced copy from GoodReads or someone--I entered to win because it was compared to A Separate Peace and Prep, two books I really enjoyed--and I was not disappointed--the comparison was accurate.

I grew up in the 1970's / 1980's and always heard about the shortages and how challenging life was in Russia. This is what made this book intriguing to me.

Litman makes Kat and her family come alive on the page. It's easy to get involved--the writing flows. Kat's life would have been much different if she was an American child diagnosed with scoliosis. If you're in the USA this book just reinforces that we hit the geographic lottery by being born her.

Thanks for sending me the book--hope it's a best seller-I'm going to pick up the author's first book and give it a try.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially read this book because there are very few coming of age stories where the main character has scoliosis. Believe me, I was happy that I wasn't treated for my scoliosis in 1980's Russia. This was so much more than a coming of age book though and it was so interesting to read about being Jewish in Moscow at this time. A great read. Though I think it is marketed as YA (not sure), it was in with my library's new adult books. I definitely think it is more adult in content.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coming of age story about Kat, who has scoliosis and lives in 1980s Russia. She goes to a special school because of her condition. Were there really that many kids with scoliosis issues? Despite myself, I want to know what happens to the characters after the story ends, because much is left up in the air.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about a 6 year old Russian Jewish girl about to start school who is suddenly diagnosed with scoliosis. Instead of her planned life course, she goes to a treatment-oriented boarding school. The book follows her through to age 14, skipping several years here and there, showing her complex relationships with her family and friends and the treatments she endures. A coming of age story.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wanted to be an epic like Doctor Zhivago or Anna Karenina, but it was more of a review or an abridged book. The pace was fast and years slipped by. The characters aged, but with little change. I couldn't sink into plot, or relish in characterization. That said, it was short and sweet and had interesting glimpses of 1980s Russia.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

wasn't sure what to expect with this book but got to say it was one of the better books I have read in a while. Kudos to the author. I will be recommending this book to all my friends!

[Kalyn Botz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this in a Goodreads giveaway and put it up on a shelf. When I pulled it down a couple years later I was very pleased at the start of the book. I loved the unique topic of a child suffering from a disorder that can be common where I live but not enough to warrant being put into a seperate school. However, being set in Russia during the 1980s, it offered an insight to how Communist Russia dealt with children of deformities. Kat was not denied an education but lacked understanding and belief by those closest to her. As Kat grows and begins to straighten up her spine, the book grows even more dull. The common rebellion of youth grows stale and eventually Kat finds her path that is true to her.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this coming-of-age story. It meandered for a while, not quite picking a clear narrative path - a little of “this happened and then this and this”. But by the end, we have a good trajectory of a young woman learning to be herself as separate from her parents. And the setting, USSR in the 1980s at a boarding school for children with skeletal problems, is certainly unusual in literature but very believably rendered.

[anonymousreader]

to-read

[Michelle Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

1950 era girl with scoliosis is sent to state school.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a GR first reads giveaway win, and from the description given I was immediately intrigued. Unfortunately, the book fell a bit flat to me. I liked it, and found many aspects of the storyline interesting but I didn't love it. I never got emotionally attached to any of the characters even though I really wanted to. Litman has created interesting characters, but somehow the emotional weight isn't there. I hate to say that I was never even attached to Kat, the main character, all that much. The storyline also didn't have much of a punch despite all the intrigue it could've had.

- the storyline:

This is both a good and bad for me. Mannequin Girl has so much potential to be an amazing coming of age story. We have a girl, Kat, who thinks of herself as a wunderkind as a small child. She believes she's destined for success, but her life's trajectory is changed when it's discovered she has scoliosis. Now this might not be such a big deal for an American child, but Kat lives in Soviet Russia in the 1980s. She is seen as crippled and attends a special school for children like her.

The book follows Kat from the summer before her first day of school until her last day at the special school. The children around her have varying degrees of scoliosis, and the school is also a place for the children to get treatment. Litman discusses the treatment in detail at the beginning, but after the first part of the book, the treatment Kat and her classmates undergo falls to the wayside. I think if Litman would've incorporated the treatments into the storyline more then perhaps I would've felt more connected to the characters. Most of the girls in her class end up needing surgery and are left suffering. It is only glanced over. Kat is lucky and doesn't need it, but where are her thoughts and emotions about this? Where's her elation that she doesn't need the surgery that is leaving the other girls in constant pain? In fact, Litman doesn't even include a scene where Kat is told she is done with the brace forever, which I would think would be an important scene for Kat, who has been defined for so long because of her scoliosis. Instead the storyline stagnates a bit in the second part. It feels a bit drawn out, and while there is a lot going on for Kat and her family, I don't care all that much because the characters haven't made me care for them. This book has a tendency to forget about storylines or push them away until needed and then sometimes what was important isn't anymore and is only given a few sentences here and there. I never got a sense of rising action or conclusion with this book.

My favorite character ended up being Mironov/Serge. He's a secondary character, but by the end I ended up feeling the most for him. I wish Litman had provided some sense of conclusion for him. I wanted to know how his surgery went, and if he and Kat ended up together. It was great to see him turn from a flunking student to one who excelled and interested in the humanities.

- point of view

I think this was Litman's worst choice for the novel. Mannequin Girl is written in third person omniscient, present tense POV. Surprisingly, the present tense did not bother me when it usually does. However, the third person omniscient POV I feel was the wrong choice. The POV feels too distant, and I think this factored into not letting the reader get attached to the characters. I never felt their emotions, not even when Anechka almost dies . At one point the POV tells what's going on inside the headmistress' head, which I felt strange since her thoughts weren't necessary. She played such a small role in the book that the writing choice left me wondering why Litman chose to do that. Additionally, sometimes Litman slips in second person POV which I found distracting and unnecessary.

- politics

I don't know what else to call this, but the book focused quite a bit on some of the political aspects of Soviet Russia at the time. However, as an American reader, the details Litman provides is confusing and not complete. The narrative assumes the reader knows a lot about Soviet Russia and doesn't take the time to give a general explanation to the political scene.

Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the book. It got me interested in researching some of the things mentioned in the novel about Soviet Russia. This book is a good light read for someone who wants a bit of a glance into a foreign culture.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up off the new release shelf at my library based solely on the cover which usually people would tell you not to do but in this case worked out quite well for me.

Kat is a little girl of two school teacher parents who are deeply in love and deeply loved by their students. She looked forward to the day that she can go to the same school that they teach at and take part in the conversations with their beloved crowd. Her first year of school is about to start, she got a new brown skirt and a new bag to keep all her books in, all she needs to do is pass the prescreening physical and she will be in the clear. The one problem is, as she leans over getting her back tested the nurse realizes that she will not pass with her back. She had scoliosis, curving her spine.

Heartbroken and her life now taking a turn in a direction she had never imagined possible Kat is sent to a boarding school for children with the scoliosis. Kids in back braces, laying down instead of sitting up in chairs, swimming lessons is what she is met with. Here is where she changes.

The book goes through the story of Kat and her parents. How one crooked back changed the path of all of their lives and how they grew up and apart.

I would recommend reading this book. It’s one of the books that, as I have mentioned before, will be on my daughters to read list as she grows up.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for the "Read the World" Challenge for: Russia! 🇷🇺

Mannequin Girl is a fairly quiet coming-0f-age novel about a girl named Kat with scoliosis and two academic parents in Soviet Russia. They also, unfortunately for them, happen to be Jewish, in a time and place where discrimination and antisemitism was rampant.

While I found the premise fairly interesting, especially knowing a fair amount of people who came from the USSR, but the writing never grabbed me. This book definitely takes a fairly literary tone, but I never felt the personalities of the characters were strong enough to hold the rest of the story. The writing did get significantly stronger in the last section, though.
Unfortunately, the part I probably would have enjoyed the most, about Kat's dealings with antisemitism when she was finally old enough to really understand it, was shoved into the last 50 pages and by then I didn't really see it fitting in.

That's honestly my biggest struggle with coming-of-age style novels - it's hard to continue thematically once your main character has come of age. And if the reader doesn't love them, it's kind of a struggle to read or care about.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Growing up in Soviet Russia isn’t easy for anyone, and Kat Knopman is no exception. At a young age, Kat appears to have great promise: she is the exceptionally intelligent daughter of two intelligent educators.

But everything changes when Kat goes for her physical exam before entering first grade. She is diagnosed with rapidly progressing scoliosis, and all of her family’s plans quickly change.

Kat goes to a special school with children just like her. She wears the cage-like brace that we all associate with scoliosis patients.

This is the story of her struggles with her body and mind as she grows from a first-grader to a high school graduate. It is also about the struggles of her parents. Their daughter’s condition and the reality of their own situation challenge Kat’s parents. All of a sudden, their own plans have changed.

I have missed feelings about this novel. The beginning is fascinating—Kat’s experience is interesting and unfamiliar. The latter half of the novel does not sustain the same level of interest for me. Meh.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weirdly intense ugly duckling story that unfurls mostly inside a coed Moscow school for children with orthopedic problems narrated by (what else) a precociously literate Jewish girl whose charismatic parents are activist literature teachers. Kat goes from pretty to ugly to pretty as she loses her innocence about her parents and finally, it seems, finds a path for herself. The story hits home because the deformed children are no different from stand-outs one can remember, in my case, the now celebrated Deborah Eisenberg, our pet who wore a neck brace during high school.
The narrative perhaps trying for transparency in describing the maddening life in Moscow during the 1980's, instead assumes a numbingly plodding monotony. Only in retrospect could I feel empathy for Kat's self-involved mother Anechka. I might have struggled in similar ways had my family moved to Moscow rather than coming to Chicago.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't what I expected. It is about Kat Knopman. The novel begins when she is a child getting ready for a bright future when during a routine physical she is found to have scoliosis. Her bright future is curtailed and a perfectly average little girl is now found to have a moderate disability. This affects her brilliant pedagogical parents greatly who now do not know how to handle this change in their plans for their and her future. This all takes place a few decades earlier in Russia. There is a underlying of anti-Sematic and anti-communist underpinnings.

This is a coming of age book where we look at our own weaknesses and compare with Kat as she tries to find her place in her world. She falls in love. She tries to find herself and what her purpose is. Very relatable book which I recommend.

[Dionisia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A recent GR giveaways win and my travel companion. I always love to take a book (or two or three or ten) along with me on my travels. It helps keep me happily distracted while I'm cooped up in close quarters with my fellow bus or plane passengers.

Mannequin Girl is broken up into 3 parts:

Part I: 1980
Part II: 1986
Part III: 1988

While reading, I kept having to remind myself that Kat Knopman was just a girl. Something about the dialogue didn't ring true for me. These were really adults wrapped up in small packages. And the grown-ups were actually children. Maybe that's the way Ellen Litman intended it to read?

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Very disappointing.

When I think of scoliosis and coming-of-age, my mind (because I'm old) goes to Judy Blume's Deenie. This book, set in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, doesn't replace that association. If anything, there's less here about both the scoliosis and about life in Moscow than there should be. For younger readers, those who came of age after the wall fell and Yeltsin took over, there are things that just won't make sense, like the endless lines for things or the specialized schools or how difficult intellectuals or Jews (or Jewish intellectuals) had it.

What could have been a good both about either ended up being a bland blend.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow and awkward beginning to this story of Kat, a young Russian girl, as she enters 1st grade in a special school for children with scoliosis or other diseases. She dreams of being a mannequin girl, a star in the theatre and seeks love, attention and acceptance from her parents, 2 arts teachers who seem oblivious to her. The one part that fascinated me was how bitter and mean she could be; from insecurity? Feeling above or better than others, too special to care? As i read, i became more interested and cared about her. Hard to imagine subjecting children to such cruel and painful experiences, but somehow they survived.

[Sarra · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know how sometimes you're reading a book, and you get halfway (or so) through it, and you realize that you're not particularly enjoying it because you don't like any of the characters and it's a pervasively unhappy book that you know isn't going to get any happier, but you're halfway through it already, and that's too far to give up, so you just keep slogging through it until you finally, doggedly, reach the end a month later? And then it is over, and you're not glad you read it, you're just relieved it's finally over? Yeah. It's very well-written, though.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5. At the beginning, in part 1, it was a bit boring to me. In part 2, it got a little more interesting but i found Kat's relationship with her mother and her mother more specifically, repetitive. Though, in part 3, REALLY enjoyed it. Kat is a character that can't be defined so i really liked her. I also liked (somewhat of a spoiler) that as much as i wanted her to become an actress like her parents were finally praising her to be, we finally got an idea of who she is, someone that's making decisions for herself without the influence of her parents and i really liked that.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. Some of the appeal of this odd little novel is the setting. I think I can safely say I’ve never read another book set in a Moscow boarding school for scoliosis and other spinal deformity students. Although this is a not-much-happens kind of book, there is satisfactory self-examination and growth in the characters as their quirky little lives progress in their quirky little ways. If you like this book, try “A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine” and “Midnight in Odessa.”

[Carol Ann Tack · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, let me say that I enjoyed Litman's writing style. Second, I wanted to love this book more than I did. The first half of the story really had me, but the way the characters evolved towards the middle and end, the story lost some focus.
Litman will be on my "to read" list going forward though because I think her narrative was terrific and capturing the Soviet Union of the 1980s was very poignant.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This almost comes across as a teen novel: a Russian Jewish girl is diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of six. Her next several years of treatment and schooling and relationships are detailed. The author has a very basic writing style, almost style-less but proficient enough to keep me reading. Nevertheless, I found almost all the characters (including the protagonist) more irritating than anything else.