Moscow Racetrack

Billed as ""a novel of espionage at the track,"" this quirky book, which was first published in the U.S. in 1990, will appeal most to students of recent Russian history. Gladilin, a Russian emigre now living in France and best known as one of the pioneers of his native country's Young Prose movement, writes incisively about the Russian Revolution through the controversial views of his hero, an academic known simply as the Teacher. Supplementing the political commentary are notes on horses slated to run at a Moscow racetrack as well as a plot involving a government plan to use the Teacher's gambling skills to raise money for the Soviet regime. This curious blend may leave some readers scratching their heads and others wondering what the book would have been like without the diverting interludes, the relevance of which is less than apparent.