Mikhail Iossel
Autor von Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia
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- USSR (birth)
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- 3.7
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I was interested in reading Mikhail Iossell's book because my own childhood was overshadowed by the Cold War with the USSR. The Soviets, especially the Russians, were always "the bad guys" in this "war" of nearly fifty years. And as an adult, I spent my Army years keeping tabs on the Soviet military. So I wasn't surprised that in Iossell's childhood -
"It was important to hate America ... Every Soviet citizen was supposed to feel that way. It was one's basic patriotic duty."
There are a couple essays here about the writer's memories of the deaths of Brezhnev and Andropov, events which I remember too, but from "the other side." Indeed, my colleagues and I agreed with Iossel's aparent opinion that Brezhnev appeared to be dead for years before his actual demise.
The title story here gives a good sense of the fear and terror that was ubiquitous in the Stalin years, but I felt it was too long and redundant and I lost patience with it. The city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg, again) becomes an important character in many of these stories, with its Obvodny "Canal," actually an open sewer system, and its featureless cinder block housing developments added in the Khrushchev era.
Iossel's childhood is vividly portrayed in several stories. In one, he witnesses a parade honoring Fidel Castro. In another he surprises a naked couple having sex in th hallway of his new communal apartment.
Bottom line here: Iossel's stories provide a pretty descriptive look at what it was like to grow up Jewish in the old USSR. Highly recommended, especially for old spooks and spies from the Cold War era.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (mehr)