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Between Revolutions: An American Romance With Russia
by Laurie Alberts
Product Group: Book
Publisher: University of Missouri Press (2005-10-28)
ISBN: 082621598X
EAN: 9780826215987
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 233 pages
SKU: C104NJC
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Clean unmarked pages. Clean unmarked cover. Pages have some dog ears. Has some shelf wear. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. All orders include an e-Book about starting your own Internet Business in PDF format. FREE Domestic DELIVERY CONFIRMATION! We ship daily Mon-Sat and will let you know when your item has shipped along with your e/DC number. [HI, AK, PR, VI, GUAM, SAIPAN & West Coast customers, please use Expedited Shipping, otherwise it may take longer than the estimated 14 business days.] Items are from a smoke free and air conditioned environment.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In "Between Revolutions", Michener Award-winning author Laurie Alberts relives her experiences teaching in Moscow and Leningrad for a year as a participant in an American Field Service exchange program before the fall of the Soviet Union. Her memoir provides a unique glimpse into the lives of ordinary Russians during the last years of the Soviet empire, while also portraying the difficulties of American/Soviet relations on the most personal of levels - the ways in which Cold War politics warped human connections. Alberts begins her tale in 1982 with her arrival in Moscow and describes her interactions with the students and her complicated friendships with some of the teachers. Her own novelty as an American allowed her to be privy to the intrigues, romances, and humor through which these Russians coped with their difficult, frustrating lives. The isolation of her experience and her romantic notions of Russia, as well as her need to belong, lead her to make choices that are not always the best. When she moves to Leningrad, Alberts unwittingly develops her own intrigue by beginning an affair with a charming but somewhat shady Russian named Kolya. Her tryst with Kolya mirrors her own lifelong fascination with Russia, a place that, despite her efforts, she will never quite understand. After leaving Leningrad for the summer, she returns to find that the political turmoil of the country has altered her connection to Kolya irreparably. Alberts' story ends in 2002, when a return visit to Russia - and Kolya - reveals the drastic changes brought by the fall of Communism to the lives of her friends and to their nation.
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Customer Reviews
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Engrossing and accurate
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-01-23
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This memoir is as compelling as a novel. It describes the author's stay in Moscow and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) as an English teacher in 1982, and in particular her romance with Kolya, a Russian living in St. Petersburg. She describes a return trip the following summer to see if the relationship had a future, and I was completely engrossed by the story. This is a very candid memoir, and Alberts is very honest about her own insecurities. In addition, the memoir is an accurate portrayal of life in the Soviet Union (at least according to my wife, who spent her first forty years there, and who also read the book).
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