Oksana, Behave!

Oksana has pretty rancid energy and just the right amount of self awareness to make herself insufferable.

This book follows Oksana, a child of Ukrainian immigrants to the US, as she grows up from a 7 year old hoping her schoolmates don't notice her grandmother waiting to pick her up after school, to a mother-to-be attending her grandmother's funeral in Kiev. Her energy, acerbic outlook, and full-tilt approach to life get her in trouble, especially as a child, but also make her irresistible–to read about, but apparently also to the people in her life. One storyline of the book leads to Oksana's realization of how much she is like her beloved Baba, whom she has always viewed as a somewhat outrageous character with an operatic life story.

I thought about labeling this as a comic novel, but decided not to. It is very funny in places but not all the way through, and I don't think comedy was its central goal. It's a light-spirited growing up story. Don't let the cover art (which I love) fool you.