... the wisest and most engaging parts of The Anna Karenina Fix are culled from the author’s own life in relation to the texts ... There is a lot of knowledge, worn with suitable lightness, in this fun book. But there’s also a forced comic lightness at times that, even in a self-help book by a comedian, simply doesn’t belong... If this sort of thing makes the subject matter more appealing to you, you’ll enjoy this book unashamedly. If you find it flippant or reductive, you’ll probably still enjoy it, but wince quite regularly between the laughs.
Groskop has a knack of giving you just enough biography of the author, just enough tantalising kiss-and-tell detail from the works. You find yourself thinking, of all those books that you’ve labelled too difficult, too gloomy, too long, too Russian ... This book is a delightful primer and companion to all the authors you are ashamed to admit you haven’t read during after-dinner games of Humiliation ... [Groskop's] enthusiasm (obsession) carries you along.
... enchanting ... [Groskop's] impressive knowledge of which she conveys with a charmingly breezy tone. This is the first time I’ve seen Tolstoy described as 'Oprah Winfrey with a beard'. It’s Samantha Ellis’s How to Be a Heroine meets Elif Batuman’s The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them.
While cheerfully acknowledging Russian lit’s frustrating aspects—the multiple diminutive forms for a single name could by themselves drive a reader to distraction—Groskop joyously and convincingly argues that it’s worth the challenge ... Most of all, [Groskop] advocates reading for fun, and for oneself—a life lesson, indeed.
