Mannequin Girl: A Novel

Kat is a wonderfully vivid character and I loved reading about her perilous years as a mannequin girl. Her novel's premise is fascinating and its execution is skillful.

Kat Knopman is a protagonist like none other I've come across. Cart Support Signed in as: Available Our Retail Price: Other Sites Ellen Litman's Website. Mannequin Girl A Novel. By signing up you agree to W. Norton's privacy policy and terms of use. Overview Inside the Book. 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 In Russia, a mannequin girl is a model on the cover of a magazine. 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.

Jul 12, Cyndi rated it really liked it Shelves: 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. May 02, Patricia Geller rated it really liked it. 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. May 07, Rana rated it did not like it Shelves: I ain't got time for this MFA nonsense. I just really, really dislike literary floof. So many words but so little actual fucking story.

Mar 28, Robin rated it liked it Shelves: 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. Because being exceptional is nothing but a trap.

Mannequin Girl

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 "A moment comes, Kat thinks. 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.

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.

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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 s 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. Jan 18, David rated it really liked it Shelves: 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.

Ellen Litman's Mannequin Girl describes childhood in s Moscow To those of us who participated in rallies and other activities in the s and s 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 he My review appears on New York Journal of Books. Norton in the middle of next month will come as no surprise. 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. Feb 05, Jodi rated it it was amazing. 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. 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 di 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. 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. Apr 01, Julia rated it really liked it. 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 '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. 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. Mar 28, Lisa rated it liked it.

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This is a coming of age story about Kat, who has scoliosis and lives in s 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. Jul 03, Amanda rated it liked it Shelves: 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 s Russia. Dec 08, Angela rated it it was amazing. Kudos to the author. I will be recommending this book to all my friends!

Feb 05, Angie rated it liked it Shelves: 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, I received this book as a GR first reads giveaway win, and from the description given I was immediately intrigued. 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.

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 s.

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.

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. 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. He's a secondary character, but by the end I ended up feeling the most 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. 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, view spoiler [ not even when Anechka almost dies hide spoiler ]. 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. However, as an American reader, the details Litman provides is confusing and not complete.

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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. Feb 22, Renee rated it really liked it.

Mannequin Girl by Ellen Litman

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 s 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.

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. May 07, Jeanne rated it it was ok. At a young age, Kat appears to have great promise: But everything changes when Kat goes for her physical exam before entering first grade.

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. All of a sudden, their own plans have changed. I have missed feelings about this novel.

The latter half of the novel does not sustain the same level of interest for me. May 09, Susan rated it really liked it Shelves: 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.