Dinner with Stalin and Other Stories

by David Shrayer-Petrov, Maxim D. Shrayer (Editor)

Overview

These fourteen stories by the acclaimed master of Jewish-Russian fiction are set in the former USSR, Western Europe, and America. Dinner with Stalin features Soviet Jews grappling with issues of identity, acculturation, and assimilation. Shrayer-Petrov explores aspects of antisemitism and persecution, problems of mixed marriages, dilemmas of conversion, and the survival of Jewish memory. Both an author and a physician, Shrayer-Petrov examines his subjects through the double lenses of medicine and literature. He writes about Russian Jews who, having suffered in the former Soviet Union, continue to cultivate their sense of cultural Russianness, even as they-and especially their children-assimilate and increasingly resemble American Jews. Shrayer-Petrov's stories also bear witness to the ways Jewish immigrants from the former USSR interact with Americans of other identities and creeds, notably with Catholics and Moslems. Not only lovers of Jewish and Russian writing but all discriminating readers will delight in Dinner with Stalin and Other Stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815610335
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2014
Series:	Library of Modern Jewish Literature
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Shrayer-Petrov, a well-known contemporary Russian-American writer and medical scientist, was born in Leningrad in 1936 and immigrated to the United States in 1987. He has published twenty-five books in his native Russian, most recently the novel The Story of My Beloved. Shrayer-Petrov's books of fiction in English include Jonah and Sarah: Jewish Stories of Russia and America and Autumn in Yalta: A Novel and Three Stories. Maxim D. Shrayer, the author's son and translator, is a professor at Boston College and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow. His books include An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature and Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story.

Table of Contents

Behind the Zoo Fence 1

A Russian Liar in Paris 23

White Sheep on a Green Mountain Slope 33

Round-the-Globe Happiness 46

A Storefront Window of Miracles 65

Mimicry 76

Where Are You, Zoya? 92

Alfredick 104

Dinner with Stalin 120

The Valley of Hinnom 135

Mimosa Flowers for Grandmother's Grave 157

The House of Edgar Allan Poe 169

Trubetskoy, Raevsky, Masha Malevich, and the Death of Mayakovsky 187

The Bicycle Race 206

Notes and Commentary on the Stories Maxim D. Shrayer 225

About the Translators 261

Editorial Reviews

The tantalizing title, Dinner with Stalin, by Russian-American writer David Shrayer-Petrov holds out the promise of a captivating read. This collection of 14 stories delivers on that promise, revealing Shrayer-Petrov's mastery as a storyteller.

Hadassah Magazine

An important contribution to Jewish-Russian fiction.

Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

These fourteen stories by the acclaimed master of Jewish-Russian fiction are set in the former USSR, Western Europe, and America. Dinner with Stalin features Soviet Jews grappling with issues of identity, acculturation, and assimilation. Shrayer-Petrov explores aspects of antisemitism and persecution, problems of mixed marriages, dilemmas of conversion, and the survival of Jewish memory. Both an author and a physician, Shrayer-Petrov examines his subjects through the double lenses of medicine and literature. He writes about Russian Jews who, having suffered in the former Soviet Union, continue to cultivate their sense of cultural Russianness, even as they and especially their children assimilate and increasingly resemble American Jews. Shrayer-Petrov's stories also bear witness to the ways Jewish immigrants from the former USSR interact with Americans of other identities and creeds, notably with Catholics and Muslims. Not only lovers of Jewish and Russian writing but all discriminating readers will delight in Dinner with Stalin and Other Stories.

Jewish Book Council

The tantalizing title, Dinner with Stalin, by Russian-American writer David Shrayer-Petrov holds out the promise of a captivating read. This collection of 14 stories delivers on that promise, revealing Shrayer-Petrov's mastery as a storyteller.

Penny Schwartz

Dinner with Stalin and Other Stories, the new book by Russian-American author and physician David Shrayer-Petrov of Brookline, makes a perfect Father's Day gift.
This collection of short stories, was edited and co-translated by the author's son, Maxim D. Shrayer of Brookline, a Boston College professor, and Emilia Shrayer, the author's wife.
The 14 stories explore aspects of anti-Semitism, persecution, mixed marriages, conversion and the survival of Jewish memory. In "Dinner with Stalin," Soviet Jews grapple with issues of identity, acculturation and assimilation. In other stories, Shrayer-Petrov writes about Russian Jews who continue to cultivate their sense of cultural Russianness, even as they and their children assimilate and increasingly resemble American Jews.
"'Dinner with Stalin' is simultaneously a product of family love, love of language and literature, and commitment to Jewish culture," said Shrayer. "I hope the American readers like the book as much as I do."
David Shrayer-Petrov and Maxim Shrayer will read from and discuss "Dinner with Stalin" on Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at the Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline. A book signing will follow the reading.

Jewish Journal Massachusetts - Editorial Staff