Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Bears in the Streets
Lisa Dickey
Review by Priscilla Comen
Bears in the Streets
Lisa Dickey
Review by Priscilla Comen
Bears in the Streets by Lisa Dickey is the report of Dickey’s three trips to Russia in which she interviews the residents of small Russian towns. She re-visits the same people on each of her three journeys ten years apart. From the harbormaster at a Russian seaport to a farmer and to a Jewish community which Stalin had designated as a city for the Jews in Siberia. She learns much from the friendships she forms.
Most Russians she met liked V. Putin, saying he has been supportive of the people. From 1995 to 2005 and in 2015, Dickey chronicles the changes that have occurred. And the things that have remained the same. In 2015 the beautiful lake from which divers brought up important specimens, is dying. She goes out on the boat with the divers, talks with the captain, and hears his views.
The Jewish rabbi she interviews explains that the Jews in the 1995 meetings were planning to leave their community. By 2015, many had left, yet a new synagogue had been built and a school was teaching Yiddish to several students. Many photos illustrate Dickey’s stories with views of typical Russian couples. She drank many shots of vodka with them. Dickey explores the existence of homosexuality in Russia in spite of the fact it was outlawed there in the past. Men were sent to institutions to be “cured.” She met with homosexuals in their homes where they presented shows in drag and told her of their wariness of “coming out.” She felt secure enough to tell them of her marriage to a woman.
The title “Bears in the Streets” comes from Russians saying that Americans think of Russia as so backward and primitive that there are bears in the streets. However, Dickey found in 2015, that cell phones and Facebook were ubiquitous. New modern housing and fast food joints and high-end clothing stores peppered the city of 1.5 million residents. From the mother of a young Russian killed in Chechnya to a rapper in now modern Moscow, author Dickey tells us all. She was pleased to see more similarities among people than differences. Check out this interesting book on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.
Most Russians she met liked V. Putin, saying he has been supportive of the people. From 1995 to 2005 and in 2015, Dickey chronicles the changes that have occurred. And the things that have remained the same. In 2015 the beautiful lake from which divers brought up important specimens, is dying. She goes out on the boat with the divers, talks with the captain, and hears his views.
The Jewish rabbi she interviews explains that the Jews in the 1995 meetings were planning to leave their community. By 2015, many had left, yet a new synagogue had been built and a school was teaching Yiddish to several students. Many photos illustrate Dickey’s stories with views of typical Russian couples. She drank many shots of vodka with them. Dickey explores the existence of homosexuality in Russia in spite of the fact it was outlawed there in the past. Men were sent to institutions to be “cured.” She met with homosexuals in their homes where they presented shows in drag and told her of their wariness of “coming out.” She felt secure enough to tell them of her marriage to a woman.
The title “Bears in the Streets” comes from Russians saying that Americans think of Russia as so backward and primitive that there are bears in the streets. However, Dickey found in 2015, that cell phones and Facebook were ubiquitous. New modern housing and fast food joints and high-end clothing stores peppered the city of 1.5 million residents. From the mother of a young Russian killed in Chechnya to a rapper in now modern Moscow, author Dickey tells us all. She was pleased to see more similarities among people than differences. Check out this interesting book on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.