by Robert | Sep 8, 2011 | Deception, Soviet Union
You are traversing a large and dark room. Dim bulbs glow and extinguish, here and there, without illumination. There is sound; now loud, now low, its source and direction uncertain, then silence. Smells; oil or burning rubber. Touch; your shin strikes an iron bar, a...
by Robert | Jun 25, 2011 | Deception, Publishing, Russia, Soviet Union
The purpose of this web site is to make sense of liars whom I’ve lived and worked among, against, and for in my life. There are moments when I shake with rage at the memory of trust broken; as well I quiver with shame at the memory of breaking trust. We deceive...
by Robert | Mar 12, 2011 | Book Reviews, Deception, Russia
On reading War and Peace (Tolstoi), On War (Clausewitz) and War (Sun Tsu) March 15, 2011 In writing my next novel “Wounded,” I have been thinking how to create the eminence grise, Alexander Soroka, is a disillusioned Bolshevik Russian Jew who had had a...
by Robert | Dec 2, 2010 | Book Reviews, Russia, Soviet Union
I am reading interviews about Soviet Repression Orlando Figes [ http://www.orlandofiges.com/familyHistory.php ] with the assistance of Russian Memorial had gathered. It is about as sad as it gets. Memorial, controversial in Russia, is both an organization and an...
by Robert | Nov 9, 2010 | Book Reviews, Wisconsin
On 1 October I served as a Wisconsin Book Festival usher for Kao Kalia Yang, http://www.kaokaliayang.com/ a 28-year-old passion-filled Hmong woman born in one of the post-Vietnam refugee camps in Thailand. This is an exceptional young woman. As part of a larger...
by Robert | Nov 2, 2010 | Soviet Union, Wisconsin
September 7, 2010 A clap of thunder ricochets down Park Street in the space between the Mosse Humanities Building and Chadbourne Hall. Winds off Lake Mendota drive sheets of cold rain upon students in flip-flops and T-shirts, who screech and laugh, excited this first...