A Foreign Woman

A Foreign Woman

From Library JournalMarusya Tatarovich, a young Russian woman, falls unsuccessfully in love with a Jew, Tsekhnovitser. She gets bored with the dull medical student she does marry, is divorced, and has a common-law marriage and son by the pop singer Razudalov. She "marries" Tsekhnovitser so he can emigrate to Israel and she to America. But the Russian community in Queens is poor as well as free, and her Latin lover Rafael is a doubtful provider. In despair she tries to return to the USSR but is told by the Soviet Embassy she must "earn forgiveness." Razudalov shows up briefly on a music tour in New York but fears meeting his son. The disappearance of Marusya's pet parrot, Lolo, is the last straw. When the bird does turn up, Marusya recovers and marries Rafael. Entertaining as well as politically relevant, this novel shows that life is finally what we make it, USSR or USA. Recommended.- Kenneth Mintz, Hoboken P.L., N.J.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.After leaving the Soviet Union following a series of unsatisfying relationships, Marusya Tatarovich quickly becomes the center of the Russian community in Queens, New York, but finds that it mirrors in many ways the community she left behindFrom Publishers WeeklyThe late Russian-born novelist was a natural storyteller whose gift for mimicry and delicious sense of the absurd are showcased in this novella about Russian emigre life in Forest Hills, N.Y. Dovlatov ( The Suitcase ) deftly sketches in the community--former dissidents, bibliophiles, lawyers--who grapple with having to begin again, and at the bottom. The narrative centers around Marusya Tatarovich, spoiled daughter of party apparatchiks whose behavior has led to something of a cause celebre. Marusya, a free-spirited divorcee, has fallen in love with a posturing Latin American. Their drunken fights, the scurrilous parrot they keep as a pet, Marusya's benign neglect of her son--the product of her relationship with a Soviet porn star--are irreverently and, indeed, unsympathetically described by the author, who also figures as a character in the book. This mischievous look at one ethnic community is a delight, and makes Dovlatov's untimely death even more regrettable.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.From Kirkus ReviewsA slight but engagingly humorous novel by Russian migr Dovlatov (Ours: Scenes from Russian Family Life; The Suitcase) about life in the Russian section of Queens. When Marusya Tatarovich falls in love with Rafael, a charming womanizer, the whole neighborhood is worried. Marusya emigrated not for political reasons but ``because there was something unreal about emigration. Something like life after death. You could try to start all over, get rid of the burden of the past.'' She had been a member of the nomenklatura, but somehow her life hadn't quite turned out as she wished. A first marriage to a general's son ended in divorce; a common-law marriage to a famous singer, and the father of her son Lyova, broke up over other women; and her third marriage was one of convenience--so that she could leave the Soviet Union. Attractive and friendly, Marusya has many friends in the community, even among the dissidents who despise her background. But life in the US hasn't been that good either--until Rafael, who is supported by his wealthy family, turns up. Rafael, however, is unreliable and unpredictable; he gives her a parrot, Lolo, which ``swears like a hung-over Soviet laborer,'' as a birthday gift, and he frequently forgets to pay bills or goes off with other women. Marusya is tempted to return to Russia, but when Lolo disappears, Rafael finally comes through. Lolo is found and Rafael marries Marusya, much to the neighborhood's delight. A choice assortment of comic characters and incidents make this a wry but affectionate portrait of one of New York's newer communities. -- Copyright