A Terrible Country

Someone asked me the other day what is *the one* book on Russia I would suggest that they read.   My answer without hesitation: A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. Not one by Dostoevsky, or Tolstoy, or Chekhov, but an easily readable literary fiction written in English about life in contemporary Moscow by a Russian-American writer.   If nothing else, I guaranteed that they will actually finish the book. And laugh while they are it. And cry a little, of course, because if a book on Russia doesn’t make you wipe away even one subtle tear, then it possibly is more propaganda than fiction.

 

You will find yourself intrigued by the contrasts between the older generation living just above poverty even while they inhabit coveted apartments near the Kremlin and the well-heeled Moscow youth carrying a glock under their Gucci suits while getting their $8 cappuccinos. You will come to see how our Russian-American protagonist Andrei, in the market for a U.S. English department faculty position, can barely afford the internet connection needed to conduct his Russian literature MOOC. There is no Navalny-like character, possibly because recorded Russian history has not yet registered someone like Navalny until now, with everything to lose, including his life, and nothing to gain. But there is Sergei, a politically-principled intellectual with nothing to lose except his life and nothing to gain except a stint in Siberia -- it may be the 2000s in the book and the economic model is new and defies known rules, but some things in Russia never change, the author seems to say through Sergei.  And then there is Dima the brother, coldly practical, worldly-wise, and knows when it is time to get out of Russia with or without some wealth stashed away.  

 

Keith Gessen is on faculty at Columbia University’s Journalism School.  Among his literary contributions is his translation of Nobel prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices from Chernobyl. Keith is the brother of respected political journalist and prolific writer Masha Gessen.