Bits and Pieces: Fragmentary Memoirs

by Alexander J. Motyl

"Bits and Pieces" consists of semi-biographical essays, interviews, as well as a plethora of paintings, drawings, poems, and photographs as well as a novella. Alexander Motyl's "fragmentary memoirs" focus on art, writing, identity, and Sovietology, in general and as experienced by the author. Particular attention is paid to the author's relationship with New York's Lower East Side, his love of cafes, his obsession with Fall River, his collaboration with Andy Warhol's Superstar Ultra Violet, and his emotional and intellectual engagement with Ukraine, the Soviet Union, and Vladimir Putin.

389 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2020

About the author

Alexander J. Motyl (Олександр Мотиль) is professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, as well as a writer and painter. He served as associate director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University from 1992 to 1998. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, he is the author of several political science books and articles.

Nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008 and 2013, he is the author of six novels, Whiskey Priest, Who Killed Andrei Warhol, Flippancy, The Jew Who Was Ukrainian, My Orchidia, and The Taste of Snow.

He has done performances of his fiction and poetry at the Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club. Motyl’s artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows in NYC, Philadelphia, and Toronto and is on display on the Internet gallery, www.artsicle.com. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark and lives in NYC.