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4.5
To me, this is a novel that expertly weaves three significant plot lines – Ilya coming to America, the mystery of three murders, and Vladimir’s drug addiction – along with the stories of several other significant characters – Maria Michailovna and her husband Dmitri, Gabe Thompson, plus Sadie and the mother who abandoned her. All of these plotlines are skillfully handled so that they come together in the end. Similarly, all of these characters, as well as those of Ilya’s and Sadie’s families, come to the reader as distinct individuals. This is a world, or two worlds, that come alive.The central character, Ilya, is beset by a conflict. Although he wants to go to America and seems to recognize it as an opportunity that can change his life for the better, he nevertheless cares more about his wayward brother Vladimir, and about being accepted by Vladimir and his circle of drug using friends. He even sacrifices taking his exams and is willing to do krokodil to gain their acceptance. It’s only Vladimir’s intelligence, his recognition of Ilya’s potential, that saves Ilya from doing drugs and losing his chance to go to America. In a nice twist, although Ilya wants very much to save his brother throughout the novel, it is his brother who saves him.The parallels between the Russian and American worlds are striking, particularly, I think, for those of us who tend to think America is unequivocally superior to Russia. The comparison of Berlozhniki with Leffie works on many levels. It begins when Papa Cam pulls into “a cul-de-sac where a lone house bit a chunk out of the sky. It was as graceless as a kommunalka.” Moreover, just as Ilya’s mother works in a refinery, so too Papa Cam works in a refinery. Both refineries are visible from the characters’ homes. This is not to say there aren’t differences, as when Ilya notes about the Mason’s house: “the house did seem like something on TV. It was all polish; it lacked dimension, it lacked the smells and sounds and smudges that were life in the kommunalkas.”The most obvious parallel between America and Russia appears in the ravages of drug use. Individuals close to Ilya and Sadie are affected, which brings the issue into the foreground and makes it personal rather than an abstract societal problem.I particularly enjoyed the depiction of the Mason’s church. Initially, the church and pastor are presented in almost perverse terms: “The pastor looked like a porn star . . .[his] sermon was a mishmash of sound bites.” But at the end of the novel, the congregation generously takes up a collection to fund Vladimir’s stay in America, and Pastor Kyle recommends Tomorrow’s Sunrise as a facility that can help Sadie’s mom escape her addiction.Perhaps what I appreciated most was the quality of the prose; on every page it’s rich and detailed in its descriptions of people and places. Also, in a novel that is quite serious in its intent, there is nevertheless a steady stream of subtle and not-so-subtle humor, as when Ilya comments about the Mason’s pool: “But he hadn’t ever thought of this: in America they light their pools...” Or Vladimir on the shopkeeper: “Did you see his mouth? He looks like he’s been sucking cock for a decade.” Or Babushka telling Ilya, “Even you can’t make English sound pretty.”If I were to have any quibble with this excellent novel, it would be with Ilya, whom I didn’t feel a lot of sympathy for because he always seemed relatively passive. His academic success came so easily that it didn’t seem like a real achievement, and even his most dramatic action—driving to see Gabe—came off rather easily. To me, Vladimir was the more interesting brother, and heroic in his secretly recording Dmitri’s subterfuge. But this is a minor shortcoming in a novel that is noteworthy for so many other impressive attributes.
