Review: A coming of age novel with a historical twist
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 14, 2013
Marina is a bright and determined fourteen year old girl who is living in Moscow. The novel starts just before her entrance into the Russian equivalent of high school. Which, coincidentally, happens during the very last summer of the old Soviet Union.Her dream is to travel and see the world. For that, she is learning English, transfers to a specialized high school that has a heavy emphasis on foreign languages, and is planning to take exams for the Moscow State Linguistics University, a school that will allow her to get a job as a Russian-English interpreter, or perhaps even work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or something similar; jobs like that are a ticket to see the outside world.Marina and her friend Nadia go shopping for school supplies, and decide to stop on the way to try this new exotic food they've heard so much about from a newly opened, "fancy" American restaurant, McDonald's. As they leave, the girls find themselves right in the middle of the  Soviet coup d'état attempt of 1991. Tanks are roaming the streets of Moscow, the hard-line Communist "Emergency Committee" is making declarations, people protesting one side of the putsch or the other, and the state TV stations are broadcasting nothing but "Swan Lake" ballet. Boris Yeltsin, then the president of the Russian Republic, is gathering support and making a stand in the Parliament building.Things are changing and will never be the same.This novel, "Moscow Dreams," is a coming of age story, for both Marina and the just-born Russian democracy. Not everything in the storyline is tied up to the politics and social and economic changes of the time. Friendship, love, desire for a better future are universal independent of what government is in charge. However, Marina's life, whether she likes it or not, and lives of her friends, are affected by those changes. It is interesting to see how an uncertainty in the future gradually develops over the period of a couple of years, and how the young people, especially Marina and Nicolai, are managing to still strive to achieve their dreams.This novel is also a treasure trove of little, but authentic tidbits about the Russian culture. Celebrating New Year's eve instead of Christmas, for example. It's still the biggest holiday for Russians, no matter where they live; even though, today, they celebrate Christmas as well. Truly, reading this book was like taking a time machine into that era, at least for me. I was a couple of years older than the protagonists, but I still remember the references and the general ambiance of that time.The constant theme that is running through this novel is "change." Frightening, yet exciting change, with absolutely no guarantees for the future, that can be experienced only by those who lived through turbulent times. There is a constant metaphor for this "change" in the form of a colorful, sacred Tibetan sand, that Marina's father brought for her from one of his overseas expeditions, that runs through the story and neatly loops into itself at the end.A couple more things to say about this book. First, it's authentic, down to little details. The author was there, in Moscow, when the events unfolded, and experienced everything first-hand. Secondly, the way this book is written is textbook-perfect. The language is deceptively simple and clear; the words melt into the background and do not interfere with your immersion into the story; the characters act naturally; the dialogs and the actions of characters move the story forward; the storyline has twists that keep the pages turning. This is no surprise: the author is a college professor who teaches English composition. So, if you are interested in the coming of age novels with a historical twist, pick this book up, you won't be disappointed. Recommended.