Susan Richards (2)

This book describes the author's travels to Russia right after the fall of communism in 1992 up to 2008 - the time of enormous, almost day-to-day changes in the country. What impressed me about this author is that she writes not as a superior condescending westerner (at a time in Russia when it was so easy to do just that) but as a person who is herself vulnerable and eager to understand the mystery that is post-soviet Russia. At first, she writes, "The frightened little person who sits inside every Russian was starting to shrink ". But through the numerous trips to Russia during this period, Susan Richards understood that nothing is that simple in that country: "Again and again I had come against things I could not describe, because I didn't understand them. Doing so made me despair, for what kind of a writer was I if I couldn't lasso the reality around me into words?" Yet she did it brilliantly. We come away with a vivid picture of the events and people.… (más)

Author Susan Richards, who is obviously fluent in Russian and comfortable in Russia, spent around sixteen years after the fall Communism journeying around in Russia. She visited the same town repeatedly and became good friends with several of the residents. The book follows the fortunes of these people and also the political climate of Russia in those years. It is obvious that the degree of freedom has decreased since those heady early days of post-Communism. Also, the fortunes of her friends rose and fell, sometimes repeatedly. The book goes through 2008, and it doesn't really have an ending, rather it comes to an end. The people are still living their lives and waging their struggle. Some, after a rise to the middle class, ended up in abject poverty. It's an interesting read about what happened in an amazing country. May it never happen here.… (más)