ALL THE CLEAN ONES ARE MARRIED: And Other Everyday Calamities in Russia
Lori Cidylo, . . Fromm, $27 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-88064-264-4
Working as a newspaper reporter in upstate New York in 1991, Cidylo told her Ukrainian-born parents that she wanted to live in Moscow. The Cold War having only just ended, they were appalled. But she persevered, and for the next several years lived and worked in the capital as it quickly sold itself to the highest bidder. Fluent in Russian, Cidylo lived in a Muscovite apartment and immersed herself in the city's everyday life, which she describes with humor and compassion. For example, her efforts first to find a washing machine, then to use it, are poignantly funny. "What did you expect? This is Russia," is the usual refrain of her Russian friends to daily indignities. Many of her anecdotes focus on her experiences of close relationships and gender relations in Russia, which have been much less affected by feminism than in the West—though the Russians are enlightened in their own way. (In Russia, Cidylo writes, "what's important is not
Reviewed on: 05/28/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 254 pages - 978-0-89733-745-8