I first heard about Petropolis in an interview that ran on Maud Newton’s blog. In her introduction to the interview with Anya Ulinich (conducted by Kevin Kinsella), Maud says, “I defy you to read the interview and not come away with the sense that you should pick up a copy immediately.” She didn’t even have to “double dog” dare me. It was Book Mooch-ed within the hour.
The novel tells the story of Sasha Goldberg, part Jewish, part African, and member of a Russian family that was part of the intelligentsia and now living in in pre-Glasnost Siberia. That’s a lot of baggage to carry around as a child. She’s a bright little girl growing up to be an awkward teenager who is beginning to realize that she may not exactly blend in with the blond-haired Russians all around her.
Sasha lives in the industrial town of Asbestos 2, home of the second biggest Siberian asbestos mine. Is there anything more depressing sounding that attending the Asbestos 2 Secondary School 13? How about going to art school at the District 7 Evening Art Studio for Children? The scenes in Siberia, and later Moscow, are hilarious and heartbreakingly bleak in equal measure.
Sasha’s father left the family to emigrate to the US while she was still young, and her proud mother wants more for her daughter than Asbestos 2 is prepared to offer. Through some shady dealings with her application, Sasha is accepted into a prestigious arts academy. Eventually and through an unexpected avenue, Sasha finds her way to the United States.
Sasha’s tale of immigration to the United States holds a mirror up to our own absurdities. In Arizona, Sasha notes the miles of sidewalks that no one uses from the windows of a bus. Another character in the story calls her preference for public transportation a third-world vestige that will hopefully be outgrown. Sasha’s travels through the US lead her to Chicago and finally to New York City, where her long-lost father may or may not now live.
I enjoyed Petropolis, and I’m grateful that I stumbled across the author interview on Maud’s site. I’m also a sucker for the Russians, modern or “classic,” so I imagine that I was predisposed to liking this novel. If you want to take the novel for a test drive, you can read the first chapter here.
Like Sasha, Anya Ulinich is herself a Russian immigrant, Jewish, and an artist. She has also lived in Arizona, Chicago, and New York City. She took a break from painting, which was her profession, to write Petropolis, which is her first novel.