Archive - April 27, 2011

A Russian Requiem Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979–80) AJAR Contemporaries March 2011 461 pages Paperback $22 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–02; Madagascar 2002–03) ROLDAN MERULLO’S 1993 NOVEL, A Russian Requiem, has been re-released by AJAR Contemporaries. Coming new to the book, I can’t help but draw parallels between his take on the last days of the USSR and the contemporary changing of the guard we are fortunate to be witnessing in North Africa, bloody as it’s been. For those of us old enough — yes, there is already a generation too young to remember drunk Boris Yeltsin waving the Russian flag from the hood of a tank in Red Square — the lightning quick obliteration of the Iron Curtain seemed, to me, at least — having practiced hiding under my school desk in Chicago through the ’80s as the nuns conducted our nuclear attack drills — something so monumental . . .