Three Books About Women

DIM AND DISTANT DAYS:

Stories from My Life

By Larissa Miller

Glas No. 25 • 2001 • 200 pages • $14.95

From the very first words of this highly personal, poetic memoir, you are hooked:

When one is a child, anything can serve as a foothold: Granny’s faded apron which she wears constantly (even in bed?); the orange lampshade with its long soiled fringe; the doorbell, which you can barely reach on the third jump. All these little things create stability.

My native land is Bolshaya Polyanka Street. I will never forget this point of reference in space: 10 Bolshaya Polyanka, Apt. 2. My native land is the church domes, the Udarnik cinema, the Moskva river, the neighboring Ordynka and Yakimanka streets. That’s where our local fool lived. He was nicknamed ‘Pear. ...’

And so we follow Miller through the streets and months of a fascinating life, one in which the daily details, the special singular moments with family, are not overshadowed by the tumultuous events swirling about in the world beyond. This is a major achievement, because Miller’s life has been closely twined with all the major postwar events in Russia.

Miller’s mother was a famous journalist, Bela Miller; her father was a dissident killed during WWII; she was Jewish; she partook in the Virgin Lands reclamation work as a student; she became a interpreter and had repeated run-ins with the KGB for this work and when later she was married to human rights activist Boris Altschuler …

But these events are not the main attraction of this book. Instead, it is the poignant and poetic detail with which Miller evokes the personal transformations going on inside and around her. The picture of her grandfather, previously bedridden, standing at attention, with tears rolling down his cheeks, when he hears of Stalin’s death; the portraits of the fastidious grandmother and the workaholic mother and their raucous spats; the torment of trying to cheat out of a P.E. exam and getting caught; the description of her first encounter with the sea, of being beaten up at school during waves of anti-semitism, of her first encounter with music.

This is a graceful, thoughtful memoir, constructed tightly yet dense with detail. You will race through it, pausing on a wonderful turn of phrase and then, when you are done, be amazed at how Miller has compressed so much life into 200 pages.

IN THE SHADOW OF REVOLUTION:

Life Stories of Russian Women From 1917 to the Second World War

Ed. By Sheila Fitzpatrick and Yuri Slezkine

Princeton Univ. Press • 445 pages • 2001 • $24.95

Maria Belskaya was six when collectivization began to thrash away at the lives of her mother and father and 12 (!) brothers and sisters. Her harrowing account of their survival of dekulakization in the Altai puts a human face to the otherwise unfathomable numbers of dispossessed and disappeared from those horrible years.

Princess Sofia Volkonskaya escaped from Bolshevik Russia, but her husband did not. So she went back in and got him out of a prison camp and back out to Europe.

It can only be said that this is a truly remarkable book. Alongside stories of almost unimagineable poverty and distress—of dispossessed kulaks and prisoners, are the stories of zealous Stakhonovites and “true believers.” What results is an incomparable portrait of Russian life in the first five decades of the last century.

They are women with ancient-sounding names like Praskevaya, Efrosinia or Agrippina, or, more familiarly, like Anna, Alla and Irina. But all have unique and and absorbing tales to recount.

In addition to their very personal elements, these 36 accounts explore the schism that split Russian society for a century: Us and Them, Red and White, Bolshevik and Bourgeous, etc. Thankfully, this dichotomization is ending. But equally thankfully, stories such as these have been preserved and catalogued so that we and our children cannot be allowed to forget.

THE FUNERAL PARTY

By Ludmila Ulitskaya

Translated by Cathy Porter

Random House • 2001 • 154 pages • $18.95

Death is not an easy subject to make the centerpiece of a novel. But with the joy, celebration and sorrow of a prolonged and beautiful wake, Ludmila Ulitskaya presents the death of a charismatic, creative artist, Alik, as the focal point of this marvelous work of fiction, recently translated into English.

This is not a book just about death, and yet it is a book only about death. Ulitskaya offers vivid characterizations of colorful, interdependent émigré personalities, who all take some measure of their life force from young Alik. And when he lays dying—in 1991, coincident with the failed coup in Russia—it becomes a story about the death of the Russian émigré experience, of the renewal and rediscovery of deep relationships—the kind that can only develop in exile.

Flitting effortlessly back and forth between past and present, between close-ups and distance shots, Ulitskaya explores Alik’s relationships with all the different women in his life—each of whom wants to claim the rank of “most special” before he dies. But all of the women are as deeply flawed and as they are attractive, as eccentric as they are appealing. Their stories and their histories with Alik unfold throughout the course of the novel until it builds into a poignant funeral party with a wonderful surprise.

This is a delightful novel. Ulitskaya—this is not her English debut, as the dustcover of this novel suggests, however; her Sonnechka was published in Glas some time back—thankfully checks the myth that Russian writers can only be depressing and morbid. For, even with death as her centerpiece, Ulitskaya offers a colorful, touching story of great emotional power.

THE JEWEL OF RUSSIA: CLASSIC

Made in: Russia

Distributed n the US by: BMC Imports

Main raw material: Grain

Expected retail price: $ 29.00

The vodkaphiles.com website reviews new and unique premium vodkas. The vodkas are reviewed by our National Vodka Tasting Panel, according to procedures set forth on the website. Each of the seven panel members reviews the vodka independently and post their results to the website, blind to what other reviewers have done.

As of February 25, this vodka had received the highest score (out of 100) from our Panel. Here is the vodka’s combined score, together with our Panel’s comments.

Characteristic Score Possible

Aroma/Fragrance 17.57 20

Appearance/Texture 18.14 20

Taste/Aftertaste 44.57 50

Packaging/Marketing 8.43 10

Totals 88.71 100

Here are the comments our experts shared on this vodka:

I had difficulty opening the vodka, but do think the bottle is outstanding. Vodkaphiles who want to impress their fellow imbibers would do well with this line of vodkas — difficult to obtain (at least at first), beautifully packaged and quite tasty.

I loved this one. It is clean and fresh-tasting. It strikes me as an excellent Russian-style vodka, with real character and a nose that increases anticipation. Ever so slight aftertaste of alcohol.

Has a rich, almost buttery feel in the mouth. Exceptional.

The smoothest vodka I have yet tasted. Everything about it is superb. Should make a big presence in the crowded marketplace of premium vodkas.

Supple melon, plum, stone fruits, mild mineral and gravel essence hint at camphor. Rounded and viscous, offering some earthy character of stone, mineral with subtle coca, baking spices, cardamom, carraway flavors kicking in, leading to a complex, interesting ending. Slightly hot but beautifully balanced finish. Package is awkward, clumsy and heavy with little to offer the uninitiated. Bland and unassuming, looks like inexpensive off-brand. Pourers are problematic and should be omitted.

A very luminous and creamy vodka. The texture is smooth and consistent and the aroma very appealing—touched with a bit of vanilla and walnut. Definitely not an “over-distilled” vodka, this one has plenty of flavor without any of the bite. A very distinctive, hearty bouquet of flavors that is not pungent or harsh. The pouring device is a minus, but the solid, simple feel of the bottle gives the product a feeling of aged confidence. Superior vodka!

Pleasing aroma, subdued yet attractive with undercurrents of spice, grain and a trace of fruit. Crystal clear, clean, creamy, full. Faintly sweet on palate with no medicinal notes. Faint grain, spice and fruit. Note of camphor. Well-balanced, smooth, silky and creamy in mouth carrying through to finish. Close to Ultra but not as finesseful. Again, a beautiful bottle.