REVIEW: Ivan and Misha, by Michael Alenyikov

Ivan and Misha, by Michael Alenyikov. Published 2010 by Northwestern University Press. Literary Fiction.

Ivan and Misha is a novel composed of interrelated short stories, about two Russian-American men and their father. Ivan and Misha are fraternal twins, born in the Soviet Union, who came to America with their father as small children. Their mother is dead. Now, the brothers are approaching middle age and their father is elderly and dying. Both brothers are gay and Ivan has mental health issues as well. When the book opens, Misha has a live-in lover, Smith, and Ivan is struggling to earn a living as a taxi driver while their father approaches the end of his life along with his friend and neighbor, a fellow ex-Soviet Jew.

Each story is told from the perspective of a different character, so we learn a lot about what each man thinks and how he sees the world. The stories also shuffle back and forth in time so we don't get a straight narrative so much as a series of impressions and scenarios. Characters come in and out of the story, and they don't always say what you expect. There is a mystery around the boys' mother's death, and much uncertainty about their future, but there is also a strong undercurrent of love and loyalty in the family. They might not understand each other, but they will be there for each other no matter what.

The book is also a bit of a love song to New York City; from the moment they arrive, New York is a land of wonders:

And on their first night in New York, Papa said there was only one way to start this new life: in Central Park, seen before only in movies, he rented a horse and buggy. Clippety-cop, clippety-clop, the horse trotted on roads covered with yellow leaves. Wherever he looked Misha saw trees, branches barren of leaves, coated white with snow that fell from a bright gray sky, rose colored along its edges and pierced by unimaginably tall buildings. Once, the horse lost its footing in the leaves and slush and Misha felt his heart clenched as if in a handgrip- now I will wake up from this dream.

The whole book has this dream-like, lyrical feel, driven by the characters and their feelings more than plot per se. Highly recommended for readers of literary fiction, Jewish fiction, LGBT fiction and any fiction, it's a wonderful, moving and emotional story about brothers and fathers, love and family, alienation and belonging.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review I won it in a giveaway from Dolce Bellezza.

REVIEW: The Dacha Husband, by Ivan Shcheglov

The Dacha Husband, by Ivan Shcheglov. Published 2009 by Northwestern University Press. Literary Fiction. Translated from the Russian.

The Dacha Husband is a short satire of bourgeois married life in nineteenth century Russia, centering on a couple with a home in the country and a husband who works in the city. As the railway grew in Russia during this time, such arrangements were common. The characters in Shcheglov's little comedy are archetypes and stereotypes- the overworked, harried man and the silly, spoiled, social-climbing wife. Think of it as Madame Bovary from the husband's persepctive, but written as a comedy.

The book is broken up into several parts, including an introduction to the concept of the dacha husband, a sort of philosophical meditation on the subject and a melodrama about what happens when the couple takes a vacation to a spa and the wife encounters handsome hangers-on vying for her attention. Let's just say matrimonial bliss is not in the cards for these two. I will say that I found some of the comedy to be slightly misogynistic from time to time, determined as our narrator is to portray himself as a martyr and his wife as an ungrateful wretch. But it's supposed to be funny and for the most part it is.

Read as part of Russo-Biblio-Extravaganza

So who should read The Dacha Husband? I'd suggest it to people who like satires and black comedy. Readers with any kind of semi-serious interest in Russian literature would find it worthwhile. It depicts the rise of the middle class in a way that I haven't really seen before and its characters are all unlikeable in one way or another as the book depicts a hollowed-out marriage based on material goods and consumerism. If you wanted to find a serious message here it's probably possible but for the most part it's just a light little after-dinner mint of a novel.

Rating: BEACH


FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.