Rating: 
Summary: at times brilliant ,at times really tiresome
Review: The book tells the tragic story of two illiterate losers who got stuck in Moscow. They claim to know Russian and even to have University degrees while heavily misspelling almost every Russian word (by the way German too, but it's less important here) and obviously believing that 75 square centimeters is just the same as 0.75 square meters. The only reason to read the book is learning about the dirty and bizarre life of the Moscow expat community to avoid these people for the rest of the life (that is why I am giving 3 stars). Not really worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: the bizarre world of the Moscow expat community
Review: The book tells the tragic story of two illiterate losers who got stuck in Moscow. They claim to know Russian and even to have University degrees while heavily misspelling almost every Russian word (by the way German too, but it's less important here) and obviously believing that 75 square centimeters is just the same as 0.75 square meters. The only reason to read the book is learning about the dirty and bizarre life of the Moscow expat community to avoid these people for the rest of the life (that is why I am giving 3 stars). Not really worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Garbage
Review: There's no doubt Russia could use the brilliant, satiric wit of, say, Jonathan Swift or for that matter Mikhail Bulgakov or Vladimir Voinovich. But it ain't Ames, et al. This is the most tiresome, vile, unfunny, unfeeling, inhumane sort of post Ivy League frat-house swill imaginable. Makes you hope Vladimir Putin really does bring the media under state control -- at least this noxious rag would be sent to the pulp-mill, where it belongs, and Ames & Taibbi (sic) sent back to live with their parents in the U.S.
Rating:
Summary: Book of the losers by the losers for the losers
Review: This book and all accounts of Exile have nothing to do with Russia. There is sewage under every city and those who live in gutters come out smelling anywhere. I spent three years from 1993 till 1996 in Moscow. This book is not about Moscow or Russia. It is about some rodents living in city sewage. If their writings and accounts are not fiction then it is a surprise that they are not in prison. The worst $12 you will ever spend.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This book is a brutally honest view of Russia in the 90's. Although some stunts and text may offend some readers, I would never ask the authors to tone down or censor any of their thoughts. The authors rip apart correspondents from America and Europe and you get a true understanding of why you won't read an accurate account of any event in Russia from America's big city newspapers. The tragedy is that those journalists haven't changed and continue to write much of the same swill.I highly recommend this book to anyone with a desire to invest in Russia or anything Russian. You have to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: an inner joke, and not a very good one
Review: This book may only be interesting for someone who may recognize the names of the characters (the authors didn't bother to change them). For the rest of us, especially a student of Russia, this book is useless, as the inner jokes and insults are lost on us. The writing is pretty bad, and the political analysis is helplessly shallow. If you are looking for a real journalistic account of contemporary Russian life, read Remnick.
Rating:
Summary: A Complete Waste Of Time
Review: This book reads like two high school boys got high and decided to have someone scribble down their rantings, then a wealthy daddy paid to have the book published out of his own pocket because no one would otherwise touch it! There are far better ways to spend money. And, did I have to give this trash even one star!?
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