This darkly comic memoir "reveal[s] much about the poverty, drunkenness, political corruption, anti-Semitism, and fundamental absurdity of rural life in the Soviet 1960s" (Deborah A. Field author of Private Life and Communist Morality in Khrushchev's Russia).
"To understand the confusing reality of Russia today, it helps to recall the 'bad old days' of the late, unlamented Soviet Union. This warm, touching and occasionally hilarious book can assist those recollections." Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio show host