The New Sweet Style (First American Edition)

Few writers enjoy the kind of international praise and prestige that Russian émigré novelist Vassily Aksyonov has earned for his previ-ous books. In his latest and most surprising novel, The New Sweet Style, Alexander Korbach--a singer/composer/playwright adored by the counterculture in Moscow and reviled by the Communist powers-that-were--comes to the United States to start over and to search for new ways of pursuing his art.
    
No one is at the airport to meet him. Oh, well. Sasha soon discovers that he's a distant cousin of a rich American retailer with an elegant flagship store in New York. But before he can "capitalize" on this connection, Sasha has to work as a garage attendant in Santa Monica, deal with his Russian ex-wife, face down the KGB, get in bed with the KGB, and drink a goodly  portion of vodka now and again (and again).
    
With his inimitably hilarious and melancholy sensibility, Vassily Aksyonov draws a sharp portrait of a flawed but resilient hero who wanders through his new homeland in search of happiness and an audience for his work. It's a  perfect, wise vision of a world that somehow manages to grow smaller and crazier with every passing day.

A leading Soviet writer, Vassily Aksyonov was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union in 1980 after frequent clashes with government authorities made it increasingly difficult for him to publish there. Aksyonov currently lives with his wife in Fairfax, Virginia, and is a professor at George Mason University.