... I'll assume that, on general principle, you've all gone out and
bought a copy of fellow FoRKer Alexander Blakely's new book. While the
review is broadly fair, I have to admit that the criticisim is a little
facile. The key to writing, as with software, is to take away detail,
not add more. But even a map would have helped with all the details of
how vast Xander & Natasha (& Max!!)'s territory is...
Best,
Rohit
PS. feel free to drop by SF tonight for his reading/signing!
===============================================================
Monday, August 19 at 7 pm
Alexander Blakely
Siberia Bound is a coming-of-age account of life as an entrepreneur in a
new wild-and-free-market‹ Russia of the early 1990s. Alexander Blakely
uses his gift for storytelling to describe the four years he spent
living and working toward the American dream in the former Soviet Union.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books
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=====================================================
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24428-2002Aug15.html
'Siberia Bound: Chasing the American Dream on Russia's Wild Frontier' by
Alexander Blakely
Reviewed by David Tuller
Sunday, August 18, 2002; Page BW08
SIBERIA BOUND
Chasing the American Dream On Russia's Wild Frontier
By Alexander Blakely
Sourcebooks. 320 pp. $22.95
Judging from Siberia Bound, Alexander Blakely seems like a pretty cool
guy -- adventurous, engaging and fun to hang out with. After all, most
chroniclers of Russian life base their tales in Moscow or, alternately,
St. Petersburg, the most livable of Russia's not-very-livable cities.
Deciding instead to settle in a former academic community outside of
Novosibirsk, one of Siberia's major cities, Blakely set out to pursue,
as his book's subtitle declares, "the American dream on Russia's wild
frontier."
Blakely, who moved to Siberia after finishing college with an economics
degree, has a breezy writing style. And although his book is flawed in
many respects, it does include some sharp observations of life in
Russia. "Usually with construction," he tells us, for instance, "you
have two choices: 1) you can do it quickly, or 2) you can do it right.
The Soviet construction worker . . . takes his time doing things wrong."
Anyone who has spent time in Siberia knows that its inhabitants are a
breed apart. They disdain their compatriots in the country's Western
regions and pride themselves -- perhaps excessively -- on their courage,
strength and inner fortitude. Siberia, in fact, occupies a space in the
Russian national psyche similar to that of the Wild West in American
mythology. The efforts throughout the 16th and 17th centuries to settle
Siberia's vast expanse and exploit its natural resources still resonate
with Russians. So does the region's role as a convenient dumping ground
for criminals and political dissidents during the czarist centuries and
as home to the cruel network of gulags in Soviet times.
Unfortunately, little of this rich brew of history and myth makes an
appearance in Siberia Bound. Neither do lots of other pertinent facts.
Russians often say that, in Russia, anything can happen -- and usually
does. So it's easy to believe that two young men could establish a
chocolate business on little more than hope, smarts and chutzpah. But
while Blakely describes establishing a cocoa-bean importing business
with his friend Sasha, we never learn how they met in the first place or
why he believes Sasha to be a trustworthy associate. The two of them
strike a deal to sell their beans to a local chocolate factory, yet we
find out virtually nothing about the chocolate the factory produces. Is
it tasty? Disgusting? Are we talking chocolate bars, chocolate truffles
or chocolate syrup? A few details would go a long way here.
The author has the makings of a terrific story. But even though Siberia
Bound includes frequent humorous episodes, Blakely generally fails to
transform the pungent ingredients into a satisfying meal. The constant
descriptions of encounters and conversations ultimately differ little
from one another. People are forever winking, smirking and slapping one
another on the back. Slamming down shots of vodka and making sentimental
toasts to women and friendship play an inevitable role in any account of
Russian life, but reading about such occasions becomes tiresome after
the 20th or 30th repetition.
Blakely is also given to facile comments that are meant to sound smart
but often fall flat. "Democracy and the free market, the best
institutions the West had to offer, stormed over the borders and ran
deep into Russia," he tells us. "But like all foreign armies throughout
history, they quickly were spread too thin and became diluted." And then
there's this summation of his time in Russia: "Those four years have
left me with a lifetime of rabid ambivalence to chew on until I've got
no teeth left."
Blakely manages to include a few unpleasant -- and wholly unnecessary --
laughs at the expense of Chinese workers and gays. And although I like
wordplay as much as the next guy, it's jarring when non-English-speaking
characters make puns in English. "In a pinch," says one character, a
chocolate factory director who warns Blakely not to store extra cocoa
beans on site, "I'm afraid we would probably take a pinch."
Some of these faults wouldn't matter if Siberia Bound were a picaresque
novel or an account that didn't aspire to authenticity. But the effect
here is to undermine a reader's faith in the narrator's reliability and
to reduce most of the characters to the stock figures encountered in
dozens of other accounts of Russian life. So in the end, I believed the
broad contours of Blakely's story but found it hard to take seriously
many of the particulars. And his ultimate conclusion -- that capitalism,
material comfort and wealth do not bring happiness -- hardly qualifies
as a revelation. •
David Tuller is a contributing writer at Salon.com and the author of
"Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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