Russian born Amer. Writer Keith Gessen's Novel A TERRIBLE COUNTRY Written with Wit

Keith Gessen (b Moscow, Soviet Union 1975) is an Amer. author, journalist, and Prof. of journalism at Columbia.  Born Konstantin Alexandrovich Gess to Jewish parents, moved with his family to the US in 1981.  Gessen's proficiency in Russian allots him a profession in translation and an accessibility to Russian life, contemporary & historical found entrenched in his novel "A Terrible Country."  Gessen's life is embedded in the main character Andrysushik, (Andrei) an Amer. grad. student who moved to Amer. with his Jewish parents to the States as a young boy leaving behind his maternal grandmother,  He returns to Russia to care for in his elderly, dependent grandma.  Andrei is floundering as an assoc. prof. when his older brother Dima calls him to return to care for their grandmother.  Without a strong anchor, or financial security in the States, he returns to a nostalgic Russia for which he is desperately wants to feel current and relevant.  Gessen's writing is charming, complex, convoluted and enticing.  It lacks an elucidating conviction on Russian politics, the arts and its history.  Andrei quest to gain access into a hockey game, find a social network and comprehend the workings of how things now work in Russia is intriguing.  Andrei's loving attention to his grandma for whom "everyone she knows is dead" and his plight to fit in and find love make him an ingratiating and often irritating character.  Andrei succeeds in finding a comradeship of sorts with fellow hockey players, political activists, and in getting arrested & released.  But despite his warning not to saying anything if arrested, his blabbering leads to the arrest & severe sentencing of his Russian former friends.  Through the long bitter winters and interwoven social commentary & historical background, the reader becomes somewhat wore down much like "The frowns on the the faces of people wore you down.  The lies on the television too, after a while, wore you down."  Andrei is searching for the Soviet Union from his childhood memories and believes his compatriots are nostalgic for the same era.  An ex-pat living in the same complex comments to Andrei "'You seek to know Russian history.'  I did know Russian history, I thought.  And it wasn't good."  His grandmother tells him it's a terrible country and he ought to leave.  The meandering & mired plot is written in with such a beguiling hand had "War & Peace" a similar style, reading would be more palatable.  Gessen's ambitious intent is to paint Russia with a broad stroke for its people, heritage and way of life.  This is oftentimes overwhelming, but in a comforting & congenial manner from which the reader will glean an inkling for being back in the U.S.S.R. and feeling lucky they are.