Rating: 
Summary: A normal life in eastern Russia?
Review: As a director of an history museum I am often asked to review books and such was the case of Hudgins recent book. Most Americans live so close to our many comforts that we really don't know how the rest of the world actually lives "a normal life." This books will truly open you to this experience. You will love her story of living in the "high rise village" and her story on wash day will make you really appreciate your laundry service broken buttons and all! I also loved her "food writer" description of the the sheep's head dinner. I hope we get more from this wonderful writer about living in Russia. Ted Peters, Director, Heritage Farmstead Museum.
Rating:
Summary: A normal life in eastern Russia?
Review: As a director of an history museum I am often asked to review books and such was the case of Hudgins recent book. Most Americans live so close to our many comforts that we really don't know how the rest of the world actually lives "a normal life." This books will truly open you to this experience. You will love her story of living in the "high rise village" and her story on wash day will make you really appreciate your laundry service broken buttons and all! I also loved her "food writer" description of the the sheep's head dinner. I hope we get more from this wonderful writer about living in Russia. Ted Peters, Director, Heritage Farmstead Museum.
Rating:
Summary: Best book about the Siberian people and lifestyle!
Review: Best book I've ever read that truly delves into the personalities and quirks of Russians in their daily lives. Especially in the second half of the book, I couldn't stop smiling at all of the author's observations of Russians because they really rang true to me. I spent some time working in Siberia too, and this book brought back so many funny, frustrating, and touching moments. I want to read my copy again! My only wish is that it was more current, updating observations into the 21st century.
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Summary: More than a glimpse into Siberia and the Russian Far East
Review: Foodies in particular will relish award-winning author Sharon Hudgin's magnificiently rich book about Siberia and the Russian Far East, "The Other Side of Russia." Teaching assignments took Sharon and her husband, Tom, to Asian Russia in 1993 as part of a new program established by University of Maryland University College. This book is an engaging personal narrative about life in the challenging early years following the fall of communism. The author discusses in fascinating detail her social, political and economic environment, but she is at her very best when recounting her extraordinary culinary experiences with Russian friends. Dinners, by necessity often pot-luck, were cobbled together under difficult and often harsh conditions. Ingredients were obtained piecemeal from numerous shops and vendors, following rumors of availability, and with luck were purchased after tedious waits in long lines. All goodies had to be trudged up many flights of stairs, typically in tall concrete apartment monstrosities with defunct elevators. Rarely were basic amenities-water, electricity and heat-simultaneously available for the comfort of the guests. Despite the hardships, the meals were amazingly sumptuous. This engrossing, informative book is a valuable resource and a great read. --Joan Peterson, author of the EAT SMART series of culinary travel guidebooks.
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Summary: Realities of the joys and absurdities of living in Siberia
Review: From 1993 to 1995 Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom lived and worked in post-Soviet Siberia, teaching at the university level through the University of Maryland's overseas programs. Originally from Texas, they had formerly worked in Germany, Spain, Greece, Japan, Korea under the same program in which he taught economics and she taught cross-cultural communication. Ms. Hudgins was particularly interested in Russia and her first master's degree was in Soviet-US relations. Both she and her husband had also learned the language, which made communication possible. This book is about the two years they spent in Siberia, specifically in Vladivostok and Irkutsk.Ms. Hudgins' descriptions are rich with detail and the book is full of anecdotes that transported me immediately to the world she describes. I had always heard about the inefficiencies and breakdowns that were common in Russia. But after I read about their living conditions, the reality of it hit me immediately. In both cities they lived in high-rise apartment buildings, a commute of 1-1/2 hours each way to their jobs. These high rises were built with shoddy material and shoddy workmanship and were nowhere near food shopping or any other conveniences. The elevator never worked and they would have to walk up and down eight floors. But the worst thing of all was that heat, water and electricity were intermittent. They would suddenly be without heat in the middle of a Siberian winter. And even when the undrinkable and polluted water did come through their pipes, it could be cut off at a moment's notice. Same with electricity. As a result, they learned to be very creative, especially in their preparation of meals. Speaking of food, in addition to all Ms. Hudgins' other accomplishments, she is also a trained food writer. And so her descriptions of food were some of the most memorable parts of the book. She and her husband are experienced gourmet cooks and befriended some Russian people who were also good cooks. There's a lot of interesting food descriptions and I was fascinated by the time and trouble they took to prepare even the simplest meal. One incident in particular stays in my mind. They went out to countryside to buy fresh milk at a farmers' market. In this Siberian area the farmers milk their cows, fill a pail and leave it outside to freeze. However, they put a branch of a tree upright in the pail. Later, they lift the frozen milk out of the pail. It now looks like a huge popsicle. These "popsicles" are then loaded on a wagon and brought to market. The Hudgins purchased milk this way, carried it home on public transportation and it actually stayed frozen the whole time. Naturally they had to boil it before they used it. But they said it was delicious. Another area which particularly interested me was the education system. Formerly, it was all about privilege and favoritism. People paid teachers for good grades. Bribes were considered a fact of life. And students themselves could never really understand the idea of plagiarism. But now that the Soviet era was over, this was gradually changing. Yes, there were many challenges that the Hudgins had to meet. But they did it all with a spirit of good will and adventure. That's why this book was a pleasure to read. It's only 295 pages long, but so dense with insights and information, that I purposely took my time reading it. I definitely identified with the Hudgins and know my understanding of Siberia has certainly been enriched. Highly recommended -- especially for armchair travelers such as myself.
Rating:
Summary: Realities of the joys and absurdities of living in Siberia
Review: From 1993 to 1995 Sharon Hudgins and her husband Tom lived and worked in post-Soviet Siberia, teaching at the university level through the University of Maryland's overseas programs. Originally from Texas, they had formerly worked in Germany, Spain, Greece, Japan, Korea under the same program in which he taught economics and she taught cross-cultural communication. Ms. Hudgins was particularly interested in Russia and her first master's degree was in Soviet-US relations. Both she and her husband had also learned the language, which made communication possible. This book is about the two years they spent in Siberia, specifically in Vladivostok and Irkutsk. Ms. Hudgins' descriptions are rich with detail and the book is full of anecdotes that transported me immediately to the world she describes. I had always heard about the inefficiencies and breakdowns that were common in Russia. But after I read about their living conditions, the reality of it hit me immediately. In both cities they lived in high-rise apartment buildings, a commute of 1-1/2 hours each way to their jobs. These high rises were built with shoddy material and shoddy workmanship and were nowhere near food shopping or any other conveniences. The elevator never worked and they would have to walk up and down eight floors. But the worst thing of all was that heat, water and electricity were intermittent. They would suddenly be without heat in the middle of a Siberian winter. And even when the undrinkable and polluted water did come through their pipes, it could be cut off at a moment's notice. Same with electricity. As a result, they learned to be very creative, especially in their preparation of meals. Speaking of food, in addition to all Ms. Hudgins' other accomplishments, she is also a trained food writer. And so her descriptions of food were some of the most memorable parts of the book. She and her husband are experienced gourmet cooks and befriended some Russian people who were also good cooks. There's a lot of interesting food descriptions and I was fascinated by the time and trouble they took to prepare even the simplest meal. One incident in particular stays in my mind. They went out to countryside to buy fresh milk at a farmers' market. In this Siberian area the farmers milk their cows, fill a pail and leave it outside to freeze. However, they put a branch of a tree upright in the pail. Later, they lift the frozen milk out of the pail. It now looks like a huge popsicle. These "popsicles" are then loaded on a wagon and brought to market. The Hudgins purchased milk this way, carried it home on public transportation and it actually stayed frozen the whole time. Naturally they had to boil it before they used it. But they said it was delicious. Another area which particularly interested me was the education system. Formerly, it was all about privilege and favoritism. People paid teachers for good grades. Bribes were considered a fact of life. And students themselves could never really understand the idea of plagiarism. But now that the Soviet era was over, this was gradually changing. Yes, there were many challenges that the Hudgins had to meet. But they did it all with a spirit of good will and adventure. That's why this book was a pleasure to read. It's only 295 pages long, but so dense with insights and information, that I purposely took my time reading it. I definitely identified with the Hudgins and know my understanding of Siberia has certainly been enriched. Highly recommended -- especially for armchair travelers such as myself.
Rating:
Summary: Siberia and the Russian Far East unveiled
Review: IN THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA author/educator Sharon Hudgins manages to give us more insight into an area of the world most of us have known only as a destination for political prisoners from the Tsars on, a faceless frozen tundra where few (if any) of our fellowmen could possibly elect to live! than any other author I have read. Hudgins and her husband were sent to Siberia and the Russian Far East as educators - transplanted from the University of Maryland to the universities (yes, they exist!) in Vladivostok and Irkutsk in 1993 and 1994. In the pages of this enormously readable, educational, and fascinating book Hudgins manages to reveal much about the Russian people, the changes brought about by perestroika, the economy of the hinterlands, the pitiable (yet ofen hilariously related!) conditions of high rise living, the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the holidays, the drinking and eating, the educational system, and in short the day to day existence of a people little known to us. Hudgins writes eloquently about the beauty of the terrain (her chapter on Lake Baikal is sheer poetry), the harshness of the winters contrasted with the beauty of Spring and Fall, and when it comes to her chapter on Feasts and Festivals she reveals her own proclivities of being a meticulously detailed, fascinatingly interesting food writer. There are moments in Hudgins' book when it seems as though we are seeing a negative side of a people who are far behind the rest of the world in the areas of the 'excesses of capitalism' (read electricity, gas, heating, adequate food, sanitation, shopping conveniences), but within pages she turns the negative aspects of life as she and her husband survived it into a praise of the friends and the indomitable spirit of the people around her. Others have written books about this area of the world and each author has a direction for justifying his/her investigation. Hudgins writes as though for her own pleasure which easily extends to "our" pleasure. Well written, well documented, funny, tender, and in general an all around excellent book. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Under the midnight moon
Review: In THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA, the University of Maryland University College has established a joint undergraduate degree program in business management with the Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok and the State University in Irkutsk. In the summer of 1993, author Sharon Hudgins and her husband, Tom, packed off to Siberia and the Russian Far East to serve as teachers in this cooperative venture, while the former was also Maryland's on-site program coordinator in both cities. This book chronicles their experiences from their arrival until their departure in December 1994.
Whether she's describing the immensity of pristine Lake Baikal, the problematic living conditions in their high-rise apartment, local customs and food of the Buryat people, the vagaries and perils of shopping for household necessities, maddening water and electricity outages, local festivals, the growing pains of a free-market economy, the university students' learning ethic, or the conviviality and generosity of their Russian friends, Hudgins has a keen eye for small details, as when describing an open air market:
"An Uzbek woman ... sold raisins and nuts in small paper cones made out of official forms from the Irkutsk Municipal Water Department ... In one part of the market, a pretty teenage girl, wearing a garish, flower-printed dress and a thousand-yard stare, held a handful of peacock feathers and sipped a can of Dr Pepper, while in another section two older women, both drunk, tried to punch each other out in a fist fight."
I haven't been so engaged by a travel essay about Russia since Hedrick Smith's 1976 bestseller, THE RUSSIANS. My only criticism is the relative lack of photographs - only a couple at most per chapter. Luckily, Sharon's poetic prose paints pictures almost as effective as snapshots, as this from her vantage point on the Trans-Siberian Railroad:
"A profusion of wildflowers carpeted the meadows, like an Impressionist painting exuberantly expanding beyond the limits of canvas and frame: undulating shades of yellow, gold, and blue, maroon and magenta, soft pink and pristine white, the pale purple globes of wild onions gone to seed, thousands of red-orange tiger lilies, whole fields of dark purple Siberian irises, and occasionally a single red poppy or two, like a stubborn symbol of politics past. Outside Chita a small lake glistened under the midnight moon."
For me, a travel narrative is all it can be if it makes me want to go there myself. THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA accomplishes that. Well, maybe for just a brief visit, perhaps, because I certainly wouldn't want to live there.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating view of life in Siberia
Review: Sharon Hudgins and her husband took teaching jobs in Irkutsk and Vladivostok, two major cities in Siberia. They had to adjust to life in post-Soviet Russia, a far cry from the way things were at the University of Maryland, where they held teaching positions. Hudgins is a food and travel writer, so there is much detail about the food, cooking and grocery supplies in Russia. In fact, several chapters seemed pretty much one party after another with the hospitable Russians, who love a get-together with good food and drink, and party hard all night. It's a good way to ignore the intermittant electricity, lack of running water and other infrastructure problems that plague the crumbling post-Soviet urban landscape. The most interesting part of the book was a stint in Ulan-Ude, capital of the Buryat Republic. The Buryat are a Mongolian people, cousins of the Mongol Horde of Genghis Khan. The only Tibetan lamasery (monastery) is in Ulan-Ude. The Buryat Republic borders Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest lake in the world, home to unique species of flora and fauna and a fascinating place to read about. This is a fascinating travel book, with a lot of fun anecdotes and stories about horrific train rides, scary food (a sheep's head with the wool still on it, and blood pudding in a sheep's stomach, no way to say "no thank you" to the amiable hosts who are putting on a real spread for their guests.) If you are interested in Russia, in a part of Russia most Westerners never visit, you should read "The Other Side of Russia."
Rating:
Summary: Life in the Russian Far East
Review: The Other Side of Russia by Sharon Hudgins
Reviewed by Sharon Dirlam
Eight years ago, when the Peace Corps invited me to serve two years in the Russian Far East, my first stop was the nearest library. There was precious little information about the place I was headed.
"The Other Side of Russia - A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East" fills this gap. More thorough than any guidebook about the area, and more personal than any travelogue, Hudgins' account pulls aside the curtain and offers a perspective on this vast and complicated territory.
The book is admirable in a number of ways. Hudgins and her husband lived in Vladivostok (which some nearsighted travel writers have called "the San Francisco of the Russian Far East") and Irkutsk (dubbed with a wink "the Paris of Siberia"). Having shared many similar experiences during my Peace Corps years in Birobidjan, Russia, I can attest that Hudgins' account of life in post-perestroika Russia rings true.
A chapter on getting to know the Buryats, and sharing with them an exotically basic feast described in exquisite detail, is worth reams of academic reports. Another chapter on the perils and curiosities of train travel in Siberia goes humorously further than most accounts. And Hudgins' view of Vladivostok documents that formerly closed city's transition from heavily controlled Communist secrecy to wide-open, anything-goes, free-wheeling corruption, to embryonic attempts to establish a social order starting from less than zero.
Two other attributes stand out in this readable account of life in the territory of Russia that is light years away from Moscow. One is Hudgins' expertise as a food and travel writer, which gives her the ability to savor and describe the cuisines of the area in ways that are both interesting and authoritative. The second is what differentiates this book from others that have been written in the past few years: a laudable amount of research that contextualizes the Hudgins' experience in the bigger picture of Russia's recent history.
For anyone drawn to read about Russia from the point of view of a thoughtful American who lived and worked there, "The Other Side of Russia" is informative and enjoyable.
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