Reviews of my favorite books written by expatriates, journalists, and diplomats on what it's really like to live abroad

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Book Review: Moscow Spring by William and Jane Taubman

In the best tradition of academics, the Taubmans eschewed the expat ghetto in Moscow when they lived there in the late 1980s. Instead, they were the only non-Russians in their apartment building and possibly entire neighborhood, just as Gorbachev's reforms kicked in.

In this memoir, written as events were happening and published in 1989, the Taubmans recount their Russian friends and neighbors' daily life and passionate feelings about a future with the cold war ended and capitalism blooming.

You'll find this book this book fascinating if you:

- want insight into the formative early adult experiences that shaped the (mostly) men who are the generation in power in Russia today.

- are interested in studying societies at their moments of earth-shattering transition (not to mention economic upset.)

- consider "may you live in interesting times" a blessing you'd like to be gifted with.

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