Black Earth City
When Russia Ran Wild (And so did we)
by Charlotte Hobson
Overview
From the Publisher
In September 1991, the Soviet Union is collapsing and people conquer uncertainty, hunger, and negative-twenty degree temperatures by drinking too much vodka and reveling in their new-found sexual freedom. Charlotte Hobson is our irresistible guide to this tumultuous time. We meet Yakov, who blows half-a-million rubles on a taxi to see a girl in Minsk; Lola, who sleeps with her peers for a share of their dinner; Viktor, who struggles to forget his brutal memories of military service; and Mitya, Hobson's wild and optimistic lover, whose gradual disillusion and dissolution mirror his country's lurch from euphoria to despair.
My thoughts
I had to invoke the Nancy Pearl Rule of 50 on this book. This book is not my cup of tea. Had I noticed the last part of the title (And so did we) I'd have realized this book is not for me, but unfortunately I didn't pick up on that until I sat down to read.
Way too many instances and details of intimate situations cheapened by the lack of love and commitment. The writing is good (see passage below) but the storyline is not something I want to read.
Favorite Passage
While my mother declined Russian nouns, I climbed on a chair and passed the time in awed and loving contemplation of the house. She always bribed me not to touch it. "A chocolate bar on the way home if you leave the house alone." Every week the temptation was too great. A little piece of the back wall and an icicle or two would disappear, and my mother and the lady would emerge at the end of her lesson to find sugary smears across my cheeks and a welling of guilty tears. Thus I discovered that Russia was forbidden and it tasted of gingerbread.
