Wild East: Stories from the Last Frontier

by Boris Fishman (Editor)

Suffering the hangover from decades of totalitarian rule, Eastern Europe since 1989 has been a crossroads of political upheaval, cowboy commerce, old hatreds, and new in other words, fertile ground for a new literature. In this unique and timely anthology, twelve of today’s best young writers prove the point in exploring one of the most fractious, mercurial, maladjusted, and misunderstood corners of the globe.
Drug-addled New Russians preaching the gospel of high finance on Nevsky Prospekt; a UNESCO chief’s pressing need for a Parisian blowtorch in Sniper’s Alley in Sarajevo; the romantic entanglements and divided loyalties of an alluring Czech intelligence officer caught up in the Velvet Revolution; a diplomat’s son on a hedonistic spree in a Central Asian republic–these are the subjects of Wild East , a collection of passionate, raucous stories about the bohemians, danger junkies, and thrill-seekers reveling in the cultural, social, political, and sexual renaissance that followed the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Genres: Short Stories, Russia, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2003

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories Read:
"Shylock on the Neva" - Gary Shteyngart
"The Ambassador's Son" - Tom Bissell
"The Condor" - Milenko Jergovik
"Babylon Revisited Redux" - John Beckman
"Hiroshima" - Vladimir Sorokin
"Wenceslas Square" - Arthur Phillips

This compilation of short stories from and about Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics was shockingly good in places. I picked it up for the Vladimir Sorokin story which concludes the volume, but that short ended up being one of the lesser reasons for liking this book.

Gary Shteyngart's "Shylock on the Neva" is told from the perspective of a doomed ogliarch paying a portrait painter to capture his true debased nature. It will certainly propell me to read further Shteyngart. We are made privy to such a weird world in this piece and the text nonetheless seems utterly native to it; worthless wealth and resignment.

"The Ambassador's Son" is the second thing I've read from Tom Bissell. The first was an elegiac travel narrative about Uzbekistan. That text was somewhat self involved but very interesting in places. The same could be said for this work, which is actually more successful because he has invented the self-obsessed character of the Ambassador's Son to propell the action through a Grimy Central asian capital.

Arthur Phillips much heralded novel Prague is a little wishy-washy in my opinion with lots of overblown nostalgia for events as they unfold. His piece in this book is no different, except that in unravels around some convoluted spy game. But besides that it takes place some melancholy capitol where there is a palpable sense that the life you love is gone before you've lived it.

I loved "The Condor" which read like a fable of war and seems effortless in its relation of fact, deadpan in its reportage of humor. I've never read any Milenko Jergovik, but he seems to approach the short story much like Julio Cortazar through simple language, shoulder shrugging and with a complete lack of bafflement by the absurd.

The capper on this collection is "Babylon Revisited Redux" by John Beckman. Told from the perspective of Dan Quayle, we watch the former vice president stagger innocently, though drunkenly into a shady Polish real estate scheme only to be delivered by his mystery author wife who has solved the case before any permanent damage is done. A mix of affable mid-western attitudes on the part of Dan Quayle and a vague thuggish Polish crime syndicate.

All in all, I doubt I've encountered a short story compilation that gathers so many good quality reads in one place.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

great and erudite and entertainingly funny (gruesome black humor, but still funny) survey of the east europe and russia. highly recommended for an easy and fun geo-socio-political tour. buy a ticket here.

also has a nice map, and really does not seem all that dated even though 2003 imprint.

[Chuck O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

2012 seems to be the year I long for 1/2 star ratings. Goodreads only allows for full star ratings so this book is better than a 3 but not quite a 4 star offer. This is a slim but powerful book of short stories either written by or centering on former Iron Curtain residents. It captures the disassociate pain often over-looked inside democratic and capitalistic promise, when what has been known as rudimentary becomes alien, and new habits have yet to form out of the leftover social chaos. The title is apt, a play off of the euphemism attributed to the American expansion, adapted to its eastern European context. These stories are filled with the kind of high noon desperation that is part of the cowboy vernacular, yet go deeper to reveal a wildness buttressed by deep history, and therefore reveal an existential angst worthy of the Russian masters. The spirit of this book can be summed up by the narrator and protagonist of Aleksandar Hemon's "Fatherland", who has returned to his ancestral Ukraine as a 1991 summer study and is caught in the demise of the USSR, while he simultaneously calls into question his sexual identity. He speaks to the longing articulated throughout the collection when he says, "There was a time, I freely confess, when I thought it noble not to know where one was heading. I thought that being lost meant being in mid chapters of one's own Bildungsroman (coming of age story), but then I became very lonesome climbing up the steep, craggy cliff of self-knowledge." The one failing of the collection is that it seems to lock into this note of existential uncertainty throughout each selection, and while I am one who believes this type of introspection captivating, it did become a bit repetitive in theme, for my taste. But overall, this is a fine collection and I enjoyed it.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must admit, having read a lot of crap expat and travel novels about the region, I started this book with significant trepidation. My nervousness was increased when I noticed short stories included by three authors I had read whose books I could not bear to finish - Gary Shteyngart's "Absurdistan," Arthur Phillip's "Prague," and Wendell Steavenson's "Stories I Stole". However, it was this book and this book alone that cried out from the bookshelves to be read last weekend, so I gave it a shot. Strangely enough, these same authors were some of the most impressive in this particular anthology. While I found Alexander Hemon's "Fatherland" unreadable and Charlotte Hobson's "The Bottle" just slightly better, the rest of the contributions were good reads, including:
Tom Bissell - "The Ambassador's Son"
Wendell Steavenson - "Gika"
Gary Shteyngart - "Shylock on th Neva"
Arthur Phillips - "Weceslas Square"
Josip Novakovich - " Spleen"
Paul Greenberg - "The Subjunctive Mood"
Miljenko Jergovic - "The Condor"
John Beckman - "Babylon Revisited Redux"
Thomas de Waal - "The English House"
Vladimir Sorokin - "Hiroshima"

The collection features a mix of authors from CEE-CIS in translation, expat writers and travel writers.

[Katarzyna Bartoszynska · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I was already annoyed at the outset by this whole Eastern Europe as "last frontier" idea (as described by Fishman in the introduction), and the notion that this book was going to reveal some kind of truth about Eastern Europe to me (if you wanted to do that, why not compile a collection of stories by Eastern European writers, rather than by Americans and ex-pats?). So I could certainly be accused of being overly critical. A few of these stories, I might have enjoyed if I'd read them in a different context.

... but not that many, I suspect. Honestly, aside from being boringly stereotypical (Eastern Europeans as violent, criminal, money-seeking, hard-drinking, mysterious, yet often charming), most of the stories just aren't that good. Partly, I'm just tired of hearing what Americans think about different parts of the world. But also, there just wasn't much to these, the plots were uninteresting, the characters unbelievable. Much of the violence seemed sensationalized or gratuitous, the one exception being Thomas de Waal's piece on Chechnya, which was really more journalism than fiction, and also, though horrifying - not all that good.

Overall - meh. Not worth the read.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection. Every story a jewel, some more diamond than others. I would own this. Wonderful reference book.

Shylock on the Neva--Gary Shteyngart
The Ambassador's Son--Tom Bissell
Wenceslas Square--Arthur Phillips ***
Gika--Wendell Steavenson *****
Spleen--Josip Novakovich
Fatherland--Aleksandar Hemon
The Subjunctive Mood--Paul Greenberg
The Condor--Miljenko Jergovic´
Babylon Revisted Redux--John Beckman
The Bottle--Charlotte Hobson
The English House--Thomas de Waal
Hiroshima--Vladimir Sorokin

lazy momentum --from Arthur Phillips' story "Wenceslas Square"

Abkhazia was once part of Georgia and was known as the Riviera of the Soviet Union, where subtropical hills fell into pebble beaches and so many blue Natashas came south in the summer to play with the Georgian boys. --from Wendell Steavenson's story "Gika"

... destroy its books and graveyards... from Thomas de Waal's story "The English House: A Story of Chechnya"

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were great stories in here and some that are weaker. The only criticism is that some of the writers had similar themes in the writing, but the writing was mostly great and the stories interesting and entertaining. It is a great way to learn more about the new frontier of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Love the story about the Ambassador's son. Speaking on behalf on Foreign Service officers everywhere - he is my nightmare, but he is entertaining.

[Audrey Babkirk Wellons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again the RLPG free book bin yields a gem!

This collection of tales of the "new East" (Russia and its Slavic neighbors) includes stories of spies in love, Dan Quayle getting snookered, a magical bottle, and much more. There's a tremendous variety in these dozen or so stories, and I was captivated by most all of them.

[Eveline Chao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not *that* interesting if you don't have a pre-existing fascination with Russia & the Caucasus like I do, but great if you do and a good intro to a couple writers, both native and not, who cover the region in other books of theirs.

[Marley]

I heard a great story by Arthur Phillips excerpted from this book on This American Life. I hope the others are just as good.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

sorokin story is great

[Sarah McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection.

[Amanda Eggleston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since it's a book of short stories it is hard to give it one rating. I found some stories to be 4 stars and others to be 2 stars. Overall, it's worth reading.

[Tyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a weakness for eastern European fiction. This was a good set of stories, many of the authors were familiar to me.

[Daylily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good read if you are up there in testosterone. I ean that in the Hemingwayest way ever. Thumbs up.