Description: These twenty pieces address the politics, culture, and literature of Russia with both flair and erudition. Passionate and opinionated, often funny, and using ample material from daily life to underline their ideas and observations, Tatyana Tolstaya's essays range across a variety of subjects. They move in one unique voice from Soviet women, classical Russian cooking, and the bliss of snow to the effect of Pushkin and freedom on Russia writers; from the death of the czar and the Great Terror to the changes brought by Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin in the last decade. Throughout this engaging volume, the Russian temperament comes into high relief. Whether addressing literature or reporting on politics, Tolstaya's writing conveys a deep knowledge of her country and countrymen. Pushkin's Children is a book for anyone interested in the Russian soul.
Brief description: Tatyana Tolstaya is the author of two collections of stories and a novel, The Slynx. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New Republic, and other periodicals, as well as in the New York Review of Books, where most of the pieces in Pushkin's Children first appeared. After teaching at Princeton University and for many years at Skidmore College, she now lives in Moscow.
Review Quotes:
"Tolstaya is simply the most fearless female observer of the very male-centric culture . . . of the USSR." --Ben Dickinson Elle
"Tolstaya's essays in this compact, historically significant volume offer a fascinating, highly intelligent analyis of Russian society and politics." Publishers Weekly
"Collectively [the essays] become one of the great political and cultural documents of our time . . ." --Richard Eder The New York Times Book Review