Wild East: Stories from the Last Frontier

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic first effort
Review: First-time author Boris Fishman will definitely be around for years to come, if his forthcoming books are anything like this one. Wild East is a wonderful collection of short stories with an Eastern European flair, each reflecting the unique perspective of its author. (Especially look for the selections by Gary Shteyngart and Tom Bissell.) As a Cold War junkie, I can say that this is one of the most well-written and compiled sets of stories that deal with Eastern Europe AFTER the fall of the Iron Curtain. Heartily recommended.

Rating:
Summary: greetings from the vodka belt
Review: This is a smart and funny collection of short fiction. I especially liked Arthur Phillips's story "Wenceslaus Square," which reads like postmodern John Le Carre. The story by Tom Bissell, about the reprobate son of a career diplomat posted to the ass-end of the world is hilarious, then turns very dark. And John Beckman's "Babylon Revisited Redux," in addition to the nod to Fitzgerald in the title, made me remember why spoofing Dan Quayle was so much fun. And Gary Shteyngart's "Shylock on the Neva," which was originally in The New Yorker, strikes me as a nuanced slice of life in Russia today. Excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but weirdly over-hyped
Review: This is an entertaining collection, some entries better than others. A few of the smirkier, light-weight writers like Gary Shteyngart, fatigue with their lack of real wit or daring - the tone of uppermiddle class elites who think they represent some sort of vanguard. Others were genuinely unusual, fresh and even beautiful. Worth checking out, just be wary of the hype.

Rating:
Summary: Wild East, indeed...
Review: Wild East collects an even dozen stories that take as their subject matter the chaos of life in the post-Soviet, post-Berlin Wall east. The stories range from Bulgakov-like surrealist fables to visions of apocalyptic meltdown, with a good deal of vividly- described dissolute behavior by the inhabitants of these curious demimondes. Tough, scary, and funny, and an early taste of what may well be the next literary hotbed.