cover image Between Revolutions: An American Romance with Russia

Between Revolutions: An American Romance with Russia

Laurie Alberts, . . Univ. of Missouri, $24.95 (233pp) ISBN 978-0-8262-1598-7

Picaresque adventures between Moscow and Leningrad circa 1982 make up this affectionate, forthright memoir by an American teacher living briefly in Russia. Thirtyish New Yorker Alberts (Fault Line ) participates in a teacher exchange program at the tail end of the Brezhnev era (actually, the Soviet leader dies a few months into her sojourn), when the U.S.S.R. is at the height of its paranoid, anti-Semitic, KGB-rattled state; goods are scarce and people's movements restricted and monitored. Alberts is essentially locked into creepy tourist hotels and criticized at Moscow's School 45 for her liberal methods—she democratically calls on all the students and resists giving lectures and rote work. She befriends fellow teachers Grisha, who dreams of emigrating to the West and isn't even considered a Russian because he is a Jew (Alberts is also Jewish, but hides it), and his mercenary mistress, Tanya, who invites Alberts to a real Russian dinner with her frighteningly manly husband, Boris. In Leningrad, Alberts falls in love with a vodka-swilling mechanic, Kolya, and receives heartfelt doses of "Russian soul"; lured back the next summer on her own, she recognizes that Kolya's love for Russia is stronger than his love for her. Alberts's infatuation with Russia brings her back again and again. (Nov.)