Review — AWKWARD STUMBLES AND FUZZY MEMORIES by Kathy Ivchenko (Ukraine)
Awkward Stumbles and Fuzzy Memories: Memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer by Kathy Ivchenko (Ukraine 1994-96) Independently published 176 pages February 2021 $8.99 (Kindle); $14.95 (Paperback) Reviewed by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) • Awkward Stumbles and Fuzzy Memories, Memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer is a lively, entertaining, and insightful account of the author’s experiences living and teaching English in Ukraine in the mid-1990s. Author Kathy Ivchenko takes us out of her comfort zone, a small town in Wisconsin, to Eastern Europe during a time of regional transformation. She returns home two years later with a lifetime of memories and a Ukrainian husband. The author is a wonderful storyteller, and her writing is very personal. We feel her frustrations, “awkward stumbles,” and achievements. There’s substantial detail throughout the book, a testament to her precise recollection of people, places, and experiences. The author informs us at the outset of her . . .
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"Time quietly compiling us like sheaves/ Turns round one day, beckons the special few,/ With one bird singing somewhere in…