Personal Essays – Page 8

I’m 28

I slept for about three hours, because Lev had what appeared to be food poisoning. I put out the paper today and bought cherries for the office. My colleagues repaid me with flowers and kisses – and a paper that came out on time – which was very generous of them. Somehow, my body isContinue reading “I’m 28”

Irresolution

If I could pick one word to describe Russia today it would be “uncertain.” Doesn’t strike you as the right kind of word at first, does it? What is this? “An uncertain Russia”? How can a country be uncertain? And yet uncertainty is the biggest governing force both in Russia’s daily life and the moreContinue reading “Irresolution”

Moscow. Jean-Jacques on Nikitsky

Snails. Gossip. Playwrights. Annoying actor types. The greatness and terriblness of power. Class anxiety and cheap wine. Or, in other words, a personal take on the famous (and, some would say, famously obnoxious) cafe that became the site of a police crackdown during Vladimir Putin’s inauguration on May 7 of this year. Remember that oldContinue reading “Moscow. Jean-Jacques on Nikitsky”

Keep Istanbul weird

I’ve decided that I highly recommend seeing a strange city through the prism of something like a film festival when you first arrive. You can begin to contend with it then. It was because of the film festival that I didn’t find it strange when a beautiful woman drinking coffee from a disposable cup parkedContinue reading “Keep Istanbul weird”

Way down south

… From Kiev, that is – and Istanbul, as I always suspected, is just as glorious in May as Kiev is. It’s a different gloriousness – calmer, I think, less tragic (but tragedy is endemic to natives anyway – a foreign spring always feels gentler, it results in possibilities, as opposed to memories). Now IContinue reading “Way down south”