European-Union

As a student of Rollins College, I took the course "Great Russian Writers". Victor Brook's collection of short stories has been my favorite, definately the most entertaining and thought provoking Russian literature I have read so far. Can you imagine? I even wrote a paper on the recurring theme of happiness in many of Victor Brook's works. Will his characters find happiness or will they simply pursue it in vain? Thank you, Victor Brook, for the great stories.

It is refreshing to read genuine literature in an age of popular fiction. Victor Brook's writing combines imagination with interpretative meaning in each of his short stories. These stories appeal to the inner soul and are adventures in life at its best, at its worst, and in the extraordinary. "A Ceiling with Lizards," for instance, is captivating and evokes thought about why the protagonist ever went to India. The mystery behind each story leads you further into the mind of Victor Brook and encourages you to read more. Victor Brook is an artist with words, and his stories are straightforward and characteristic of literature, which belongs to a generation of uniquely gifted authors.

These are stories for study, for re-reading, for analysis, for plumbing the depths of both human experience and the art of writing. Especially, these are stories for sharing with other lovers of REAL literature, those who are able to undertake an analysis of the nature of reality. Challenge yourself!

As a director of an history museum I am often asked to review books and such was the case of Hudgins recent book. Most Americans live so close to our many comforts that we really don't know how the rest of the world actually lives "a normal life." This books will truly open you to this experience. You will love her story of living in the "high rise village" and her story on wash day will make you really appreciate your laundry service broken buttons and all! I also loved her "food writer" description of the the sheep's head dinner. I hope we get more from this wonderful writer about living in Russia. Ted Peters, Director, Heritage Farmstead Museum.

The Other Side of Russia is part travel narrative, part social history, part memoir, part food writing. All these parts come together to make a delightful book.

Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom spent a year and a half in post-Soviet Siberia teaching business management for the University of Maryland's overseas program. As peripatetic ex-patriates, they were familiar with unfamiliarity. But they were still not prepared for what Siberia had to offer them.

Join Sharon and Tom as they picnic with the Russian Mafiya, try to teach in an educational system that discourages questions and independent thinking, and ponder why a herd of horses is tangled in downtown rush hour traffic.

In "Absurdistan" it is just one perplexing thing after another. The electricity and water in their poorly-constructed apartment building work only intermittently. But in spite of such challenges, they make friends and entertain regularly. Cultural differences mean that the same friends who swoon over delicacies such as wafer-thin horse liver slices rolled with layers of horse fat, are unable to enjoy a Hudgins Tex-Mex feast.

Hudgins's previous work as a food and travel writer are evident here, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she writes fiction as well. The narrative is effortless and the stories she tells are by turns engaging and frightening.

From 1993 to 1995 Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom lived and worked in post-Soviet Siberia, teaching at the university level through the University of Maryland's overseas programs. Originally from Texas, they had formerly worked in Germany, Spain, Greece, Japan, Korea under the same program in which he taught economics and she taught cross-cultural communication. Ms. Hudgins was particularly interested in Russia and her first master's degree was in Soviet-US relations. Both she and her husband had also learned the language, which made communication possible. This book is about the two years they spent in Siberia, specifically in Vladivostok and Irkutsk.

Ms. Hudgins' descriptions are rich with detail and the book is full of anecdotes that transported me immediately to the world she describes. I had always heard about the inefficiencies and breakdowns that were common in Russia. But after I read about their living conditions, the reality of it hit me immediately. In both cities they lived in high-rise apartment buildings, a commute of 1-1/2 hours each way to their jobs. These high rises were built with shoddy material and shoddy workmanship and were nowhere near food shopping or any other conveniences. The elevator never worked and they would have to walk up and down eight floors. But the worst thing of all was that heat, water and electricity were intermittent. They would suddenly be without heat in the middle of a Siberian winter. And even when the undrinkable and polluted water did come through their pipes, it could be cut off at a moment's notice. Same with electricity. As a result, they learned to be very creative, especially in their preparation of meals.

Speaking of food, in addition to all Ms. Hudgins' other accomplishments, she is also a trained food writer. And so her descriptions of food were some of the most memorable parts of the book. She and her husband are experienced gourmet cooks and befriended some Russian people who were also good cooks. There's a lot of interesting food descriptions and I was fascinated by the time and trouble they took to prepare even the simplest meal.

One incident in particular stays in my mind. They went out to countryside to buy fresh milk at a farmers' market. In this Siberian area the farmers milk their cows, fill a pail and leave it outside to freeze. However, they put a branch of a tree upright in the pail. Later, they lift the frozen milk out of the pail. It now looks like a huge popsicle. These "popsicles" are then loaded on a wagon and brought to market. The Hudgins purchased milk this way, carried it home on public transportation and it actually stayed frozen the whole time. Naturally they had to boil it before they used it. But they said it was delicious.

Another area which particularly interested me was the education system. Formerly, it was all about privilege and favoritism. People paid teachers for good grades. Bribes were considered a fact of life. And students themselves could never really understand the idea of plagiarism. But now that the Soviet era was over, this was gradually changing.

Yes, there were many challenges that the Hudgins had to meet. But they did it all with a spirit of good will and adventure. That's why this book was a pleasure to read. It's only 295 pages long, but so dense with insights and information, that I purposely took my time reading it.

I definitely identified with the Hudgins and know my understanding of Siberia has certainly been enriched. Highly recommended -- especially for armchair travelers such as myself.

Here are the dark side of the human soul, with all its charm and idealism! The beauty of the female, the goodness of the idiot, the criminal who falls in love and punishes himself. Here are love stories that make you weep and laugh. You meet a noble thief, and get to know the insulted and the inhumiliated that suddenly seem to you to be the most loveable people in the world. The world of Dostoyevsky is full of love, children, women and... contradictions and conflicts.

The Soviet Union burned Bibles and banned their importation. Yet, possibly out of national pride, they never censored the work of this great Russian novelist. Luther once said that if the entire Bible were lost, except the Book of Romans, that it alone would be enough for salvation. Dostoyevesky takes us a step further: in a land where one could be born, grow up, and die at normal life expectancy, all under the aegeis of Communism, without ever seeing a Bible, could the message of the Gospel still be found? Of course, the author died decades before the Revolution of 1917, but his work answeres the question we pose in the affirmative. His works, excerpted for this book, contain what can only be described as lengthy homilies, clothed as literature. From the famous "Grand Inquisitor" from "The Brothers Karamatzov," to lesser-known passages from "The Idiot" and other works, each selection expounds on Christian doctrine. Strongly influenced by the Gospel of St. John, Dostoyevesky uses the resurrection of Lazarus, for example, as the basis of a conversation between a murderer and a prostitute in "Crime and Punishment." The eleventh chapter of John is included in near entirety, as one sufferer reads it to the other. Nearly all of the imagery here is Johnnine; perhaps Dostoyevesky was a visionary: Spengeler wrote that the next millenium of Russian histoty would belong to St. John. Al all events, this is a bedside companion that will provoke deep reflection in those who read it, and perhaps make them wonder, as I do, if Dostoyevesky's works weren't intended by a higher power to be a light in the darkest days of the Evil Empire. -Lloyd A. Conway

These two words describe simply the book. However, for those "busy souls intimidated by the length of his great novels", I must say: "Buy his long great novels, particularly 'The Idiot' and 'Crime and Punishment'. It will only take you more time reading them but it will be worth it for sure. Believe me."

I just want to add a note to the review I wrote earlier. De Jonge's "Stalin" was written before glasnost opened some new materials from the Soviet Union for scholars to access. Thus, it is limited from that standpoint. However, this is in no way a serious hindrance to the book. Having also read Conquest's biography of Stalin, which WAS written after glasnost, there is very little that Conquest added to de Jonge and certainly no major re-interpretation. Both books are excellent, de Jonge's a little easier read.

Joseph Stalin is a fascinating subject. Alex de Jonge is an outstanding writer. They combine for a great book. There are other biographies of Stalin; Deutscher is a bit dry, Conquest is excellent, but perhaps a bit short. De Jonge covers his subject thoroughly, but not with so much detail as to overwhelm or lose the reader. De Jonge is an excellent writer, and he combines his talent with useful information and a plethora of fascinating, sometimes hilarious, anecdotes. He doesn't get bogged down in Marxist theory, but he does give a brief synopsis which will benefit the average reader; a scholar might wish for more. Perhaps the most outstanding and useful part of the book are those sections dealing with foreign affairs, especially in the aftermath of World War II. Brilliant analysis....

As the author states,"Stalin successfully imposed his vision upon one sixth of Earth's landmass." Whereas Hitler's charisma was instrumental in his rise to power, Stalin's success was due to his self control and his extraordinary ability in successfully interacting with others, even his enemies. De Jonge's detailed account of Stalin's life helps us understand the man who greatly influenced the course of Russia's recent history.

I think anyone who can get past the acknowledgments section of this book is in for a real treat. In that section the author tells her life story: how she was inspired to pursue the intellectual arts after her parents consecrated them as the "highest calling." We are privy to her inspirations: an Indian professor who shared with her the joys of Russian history, colleagues who helped her maintain her sense of humor while she carried her enormous teaching and research workload. We discover that she was stimulated by her students, who she so sincerely thanks for all they have done for her. And, of course, we learn that, because she was a foreign-born graduate student, she was ineligible for two specific grants.

Yes, it was enough for me to shake my head in teary-eyed shame at the way this racist and sexist country continues to make life so miserable and difficult for women and minority students, particularly immigrants. While we roll out the red carpet for rich white boys who thumb their noses at equal opportunity and academic fairness, we continue to discriminate against qualified and capable graduate students such as the author. How she and her immigrant husband ever managed to overcome the rampant discrimination against women, minorities, and immigrants, in order to live a priveleged life in the Los Angeles suburbs is too much for me to consider.

The entire section brought to mind Claudia's words to Pilate during the film "Passion of the Christ:" "If you don't know the truth when you hear it, nobody can tell you what it is."

We live in a vastly different age now, of course, one in which there is no rational basis for morality (particularly in academia). [See Hume for more on this; he wrote about it extensively.] And yet, I am compelled to add that if you don't know baloney when you hear it, you cannot be much helped there either.

A fine work by a thoughtful and sensitive scholar who takes her research as seriously as she takes her job.

As a woman, I would feel most grateful and honored if Choi Chatterjee would share more of her wisdom with the faceless and unwashed masses. In particular, I am interested in the history of feminists with six figure husbands, the best kind of feminists money can buy. I became interested in this subject as a student of Carol Srole's, and my interest blossomed as I became more interested in how I could be a feminist, and still get a man to pay most my bills.

Though not written in Alexander Pushkin's native Russian, this edition of his immortal classic "Eugene Onegin" is as near to perfection as it could possibly be. This particular translation is eloquent and full of the lighthearted humor and poetry that I believe to be an integral part of Pushkin himself. Yet the novel in poetry is also able to evoke a melancholy sadness, and it leaves the reader with feelings that aren't easily shaken.

It is written by one of the famous russian writers of the 19 century. I love reading his poems and novelizatiosn to no end.

"Eugene Onegin" was the first major work written in Russian, helping to establish that language's illustrious literary tradition. This novel in verse brought to fame Aleksandr Pushkin, who later turned his talents from poetry on to prose fiction with such titles as "The Captain's Daughter", "The Queen of Spades", and "Dubrovskii".

Briefly, the story concerns the encounter between two landed gentry, Eugene, who is disillusioned by his former experiences of St. Petersburg, and Tatyana, a provincial girl who sees the world through her English romance poetry. Obviously, the meeting is an ugly one. The ending is left for the reader to discover, but we all get to see how pitiful Onegin really is.

This edition includes the unfinished poem, "Onegin's Journey", and the classic "The Bronze Horseman", which is famous for describing the unstoppable and cruel will of Peter the Great in modernizing Russia.

The only problem that I had was in the English translation of "Eugene Onegin". Translating a poem from one lanaguage to another, while still maintaining proper meter and rhyme is no mean feat. Nevertheless, something is lost in the delivery of the poem and unfortunately, we can appreciate only part of Pushkin's genius by reading the English translation. I'd like to learn Russian well enough to be able to read Pushkin's poetry in order to appreciate his work more fully. Well I'm working on it!

Having read several books on the move to EMU, this is definitely one of the most thoughtful and incisive (and by far the best written!!). Clearly the French perspective on the EMS and EMU is absolutely crucial to understanding why European monetary integration happened at all. Well done! This book enters into impressive detail about the French perspective but places the development of French policy clearly in the context of wider European developments so that the non-specialist can follow the text and learn about monetary integration more generally.

This is a well-balanced, thoughtful study of French policy on European monetary integration. For those looking to understand EMU go no further!

This is a detailed yet highly readable account of the reasons why the French sought European monetary integration. I recommend it all those interested in why the French embraced EMU.

Everyone is familiar with those dolls within dolls within dolls that are so prevalent in historical Russian culture. This tale reminds one of such a set. There is the outer doll, the Soviet state in all its uncaring, soul-numbing, politically drenched stasis. Then there is the next doll, the Cancer Ward itself, a pitiful place where harried doctors and nurses attempt to attend to patients under the most primitive of conditions. Finally, the last doll is the group of individuals that stay at the Cancer Ward - their lives.

This is a story about hope - hope that one can survive the system, hope that the disease can be conquered, hope for a future with friends and the things one values. In his usual way, the author explores all facets of Soviet socity with a particular emphasis on the world he knows best - the world of the zek, the political prisoner. The reflections of Oleg and his determination to survive shine through the utterly gray and workout Soviet background. It is this dramatic accentuation that makes the word pictures so moving. For despite all the reasons to give up, he endures. This is a quiet novel but a deeply moving one, so different from the historical works that followed.

Having just finished reading it for the third time, I believe that Cancer Ward is a very fine novel, rich at many levels: in its depiction of Soviet provincial society in 1955, a poor society just emerging from Stalinism; in its portrayal of many separate characters (doctors, nurses, patients, hospital workers) in that society, many of whose lives have been permanently damaged by the terror and the GULAG, but in different ways; and, as I know from personal experience, in its depiction of the isolated world of the cancer patient, from which the rest of society is seen dimly, as though through dirty glass. In spite of all medical progress, the basics of this world have not changed much in 50 years: the core treatments are still surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and the side effects both long and short term can still be brutal.

The ending of the book will disappoint those who want a happy ending, or just an ending with all the loose ends tied up. In real life, though, loose ends usually stay loose. My thought is that Solzhenitshyn intended the reader to understand that for the characters and the society who are so damaged by the past there can be no happy endings; the best they can hope for is to continue from day to day, grasping at whatever happiness briefly comes their way.

It's not as if the protagonist had only a disease to battle. He is also facing a culture, a souless state that seems to devour all who dwell within its guarded borders. What is fascinating is the world within a world within a world. First, there is the Soviet regime, then the Cancer Ward and finally the individuals within this ward - three concentric rings.

Solzhynetsin again provides the reader with an in-your-face portrayal of the Soviet state but his primary mission is the exploration of the humanity of people in distress. If there is one common theme it is universal hope - hope for freedom, hope for recovery, hope for the future.

Oleg stands out in all his suffering and good humor. His portrait, against a background of drab, cold, gray and utterly barren physical, emotional and spiritual landscapes, is a tour de force of sympathetic semi-autobiographical writing. Who can forget the pitiful state of Soviet medicine against the care of the nurses and doctors. Again, Solzhynetsin the storyteller and Solzhynetsin the seer unite in an unforgettable portrayal of Russia and Russians.

I bought this baby as the background for an advanced level international econ paper on the fluctuations of the Euro, and it is wicked good. It hands out the basic knowledge like the Rams hand out touchdown balls, and even though it was written before the Euro's current problems, you can easily piece together the reasons behind the malaise.

The only caveat is that if you're really into the mathematical and graphical side of economics -- this puppy ain't for you. If you look at the overload of math that Krugman's International Economics textbook gives you, this pales in comparison. I wish it had more of that, if only so that on those nights I can't sleep, I have one more resource to use. But that's what I have my girlfriend's stories for.

Anyway, go buy it. It's good.

I have read 2 other books about the Euro and this one is by far the best. It offers an unbiased view of the Euro unlike most other books. It is very easy to read, informative, well organized... I could go on and on. If you want to learn about the Euro if you are a student or businessman, get this book.

This is an excellent introductory book. It is very easy to read and is very concise. It is written from a general rather than a particualar nationalist view as are several other books on the EURO. It also has a large listing of web sites where other interesting information is available.

I'm a Russian Language and Literature major in Yonsei Univ. in Korea. Having lived in Moscow for around 3 years, I'd heard there a lot about Pushkin and read many of his famous works. The most prestigious of his, however, must be "Onegin." It's a great mixture of verse and prose in its form. If possible, try to read this in Russian, as well. This long poetical prose was written for 8 years and the ending rhyme perfectly matches for the entire line until the very end. Compared to others, it is definitely a conspicuous and brilliant one. "Onegin" can be the author himself or yourself. The love between Onegin and TaTyana is neither the cheap kind of love that often appears in any books nor the tragic one that is intended to squeze your tears. As a literature, this book covers not only love between passionate youth, but also a large range of literary works in it, which can tell us about the contemporary literature current and its atmosphere. Calling Onegin "My friend", Pushkin, the author, shows the probability and likelihood of the work. Finally, I'm just sorry that the title has been changed into English. The original name must be "Yevgeni Onegin(¬¦¬Ó¬Ô¬Ö¬ß¬Ú¬Û ¬°¬ß¬Ö¬Ô¬Ú¬ß)." If you are a literature major or intersted in it, I'd like to recommand you read this. You can't help but loving the two lovers and may reread it, especially the two correspondences through a long period of time. Only with readng this book, you'll also learn a huge area of the contemporary literature of the 19th century from the books mentioned in "Onegin" that take part as its subtext. Enjoy yourself!

Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's favorite among all his works, and although it seems to take a back seat to some of the great late-19th century Russian novels among western readers, Russians themselves tend to prize it above all other works of their country's literature. In case you're not familiar with the story, it deals mainly with two of the title character's ill-fated relationships: one with his friend and neighbor Vladimir Lensky, which ends tragically due to a very unnecessary rivalry over Olga Larin; and the other with Olga's sister Tatyana, which never comes to fruition because Eugene initially rejects her, only to fall in love with her later. Interwoven among all this, Pushkin himself periodically appears to invoke his muse or to digress on such seemingly unrelated topics as his penchant for women's feet.

The work can't possibly be praised enough in a single review, and I won't try to do so; suffice it to say that Eugene's provincial boredom, Tatyana's passion, and Vladimir's poetic romanticism are all splendidly drawn, and many of Pushkin's digressions have justly become proverbs in his native land. Presumably much of the reason that the novel doesn't receive quite so much attention in the non-Russian speaking world is that, due to its verse structure (it consists of 14-line stanzas in iambic tetrameter with a consistent ababccddeffegg rhyme scheme), it's very hard to translate while still retaining both the meaning and the delightfully spirited rhythm of the original. Vladimir Nabokov asserted very emphatically back in the 1960s that any faithful translation would have to almost completely sacrifice the original's lyric quality, and Nabokov's translation is notoriously dull, if extremely adherent to Pushkin's exact meaning. Not speaking Russian, I haven't read the original, nor have I read any other translations than the one I'm reviewing, so I can't say for sure how it compares, but I can say that Falen's translation is extremely good. It adheres, for all intents and purposes, exactly to Pushkin's meter, and does so without any particularly awkward diction, resulting in an end-product that must at least approach the beauty of the Russian version. Some others seem to agree with me: in the preface to his own recent (1999) translation of Onegin, Douglas Hofstadter praises Falen's translation so highly that he has to spend a section explaining why he bothered with a translation when Falen had already done it so perfectly. While most bilingual readers would probably state that to call Falen's (or anybody else's) translation "perfect" would be a stretch, it is still a delightful work, and hopefully other English-speaking readers will acquire, as I have, a better appreciation of the beauty of Pushkin's greatest work as a result of it.

James Falen has offered his version of the Russian classic, and has captured both the meaning and the verse. The stanzas flow effortlessly in Falen's hands, it may very well be the best translation yet. Of course, Nabokov is not around to cast his judgement on it. He panned every other translation that had been printed and penned his own in prose, so as not to stray too far from original meaning. But, even he said it was no more than a crib, as what Puskin had achieved in Eugene Onegin was a restructuring of the Russian language, giving it a beauty few had thought it possessed.

Orlando Figes similarly noted that Onegin was the first truly Russian lyrical novel. Pushkin had forsaken the standard French and sought to find the words expressive enough to convey the contradictory nature of the Russian soul. The novel in verse ebbs and flows as Pushkin takes you from St. Petersburg to Moscow to the Russian countryside, weaving a charming tale with many fascinating asides. The texture is so rich and the characters so enduring that this lyrical novel has attained mythological status in Russian literature. No understanding of the subject is complete without having read Eugene Onegin.

But, if language is essential to understanding Onegin then any translation will ultimately come up short. However, Falen has shown great respect for the novel and its language, unlike Douglass Hofstadter's juvenile attempt to translate it. Falen offers copious endnotes and a fascinating introduction. He tips his hat to Nabokov and the others who have translated this novel in the past. The language Falen uses is modern, giving Onegin a freshness lacking in other translations.