Snow in May: Stories
*Starred Review* In her first book, Melnik’s nine tender, linked stories constitute a stark mural painted against the backdrop of political change in late-twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union, images only a Russian could craft. Pre-perestroika, post-perestroika, it all makes little difference to the residents of cold, snowbound Magadan on the northeast Russian coast. Melnik knows these people well, and portrays them and their determination, stoicism in the face of regime changes, and dry sense of dark humor with an economy of language that mirrors their economy of life. There is the young mid-century woman who yearns only to escape the crowded bed she shares with her two sisters and who grasps at the only available route, marriage. She learns too late that life as a military officer’s wife can be its own punishment. The glasnost generation differs little, caught up as it is in the fantasies that television delivers. It’s difficult to pick a favorite among Melnik’s striking tales, but Love, Italian Style, the story of busy working mother Tanya on a trip from Magadan to Moscow to stock up on provisions, creates a surge of poignancy that sets the tone for all the others in this affecting and timely collection. --Donna Chavez