Behind the Iron Curtain

Behind the Iron Curtain

Maxim Starchenko

This book details the life of a boy on the Druzhba-78 Hockey team from the Ukraine. The coach used every abuse tactic in the book to "motivate" the boys. He, the coach, was a monster that shouldn't have been allowed around children. But for some reason the author endured eleven years of his abuse before he was able to get away from him to go to college. His parents weren't aware of the problem and forced him to stay with the team. The author wrote this book to reveal what type of coach is still teaching children in the Ukraine. But I also believe he wrote it as a therapeutic measure.

This book was very well written. Considering that the author is writing as an ESL (English as a second language) the grammar, spelling and wording were great. I was impressed with the writing style even before I knew who wrote the book. The story ends on a positive note, which is nice considering what you will have just read. The details of the story are what brought it down for me. As a mother, it is very hard to read of the abuse to children. If you have a weak stomach then don't read this book. The author mentioned that he felt similar to Dave from "A Child Called It". I definitely saw similarities between the two books as far as the abuse went.

While I can say that I completely understand the reasons for writing the book and enjoyed the the writing style, I can't say as I enjoyed reading the subject matter. I just hope that the author uses his writing skills to write another book.

I received this book free of charge from Dorrance Publishing in exchange for my honest review.