Russian Voices - Hardcover

Parker, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224030205 ISBN 13: 9780224030205

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 1991

Synopsis

The author has spent the last twelve months in Moscow, interviewing wherever he went, and everywhere finding people eager to exercise their new freedom to speak without fear. From their words he builds a picture of the Soviet Union today, a picture which includes an old lady selling newspapers in the street, the manager of the huge and internationally famous GUM Department Store, a stagehand at the Bolshoi Theatre, and the Director of the USSR's first McDonald's hamburger bar. He spoke to a World War two tank commander, an Army veteran recently returned from Afghanistan, to hippies and pacifists, as well as meeting a chess Grandmaster, a beauty queen, a private detective, and drinking tea for two hours in the Lubianka with officers of the KGB. All responded to Tony Parker as he encouraged individuals to speak for themselves. As a result this book mirrors a cross-section of contemporary Russia and its people.

About this title

About the Author

Tony Parker was born in Manchester. He has written many books including Lighthouse, Soldier, Soldier, Red Hill, A Place called Bird and most recently Life after Life: Interviews with Twelve Murderers. He lives with his wife in Suffolk.

From Publishers Weekly

Parker ( Bird, Kansas ) spent five months in Moscow in 1990, conducting these 77 interviews with a broad cross-section of Muscovites, whom he asked about their lives and about topics ranging from religion to war. First published last year in Great Britain, the book suffers somewhat from the passage of time. Parker draws out his subjects skillfully, occasionally eliciting eloquence ("Now I feel as though I am one thousand years of age," says a Chernobyl victim), and the interviews cumulatively portray aspects of society such as sexism, the pinching of family life in small living quarters and the intense warmth of the Russian spirit. There are even a few surprises, such as a tea session with three friendly but cagey KGB men and an interview with a black woman whose father emigrated from the U.S. However, the mosaic is limited to Moscow, and Parker concludes with an interviewee who predicts a "coming spring." Understandably, the book only hints at the turbulence of that spring, with the rise of nationalism, the folding of the Communist Party and the painful economic transition to democracy. Because of that, this book stands as an interesting artifact of very recent history.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0224030205
• ISBN 13: 9780224030205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1