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Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana
 
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Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Paperback)

by Stephanie Elizond Griest (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
US List Price: $14.95
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Random House USA Inc; New title edition (7 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0812967607
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812967609
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 980,121 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #34 in  Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > Hispanic & Latino
    #48 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > Russia > Moscow
    #75 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > China > Beijing

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Product Description

Review
An innocent coming-of-age story from a young Latina journalist who recounts her stays in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, circa 1996 to 2000. There is little to nothing of late-breaking news in Griest's report from her foreign postings. Moscow still smells "of equal parts vodka and sausage, leather and tobacco, sweat and strife," and Beijing of "cigarette smoke, sweat, and soy sauce." You still need permits and papers in Russia, and the bureaucracy still creaks with inefficiency; democracy is a long way off, the revolution is dead, and war and corruption are in: same old same old. In Beijing, where she toils for the English-language propaganda sheet, journalism is all about not offending your friends (North Korea), not recognizing your enemies (Dalai Lama), and steering clear of the sensitive: AIDS, drugs, capital punishment. Cuba, too, gets a standard-issue treatment: "Revolutionaries might be genius military strategists, but they are crummy economists," conveniently forgetting the embargo. So the value of all this comes down to Griest getting off the beaten track, which she does often enough to keep the pages turning: working in a shelter for children in Moscow to taste the downside of vodka; learning to shrug off fiercely held convictions to get into the stomach of the Chinese via the food bond; and dancing (and dancing) in Cuba. The energy she puts into these pursuits opens her mind and drives her story past some hackneyed material (" 'Look at their faces,' Elena whispered in my ear. 'This is real Russia.' "). Here, she can avoid received opinion because she is creating her own, tossing aside "the anvil of history," and slipping on a new pair of cultural spectacles, letting her doubts and new-found notions rise to the surface. Griest at least gets out and about and drinks in some cultural relativism rather than assuming the omniscient cloak of the foreign correspondent. (Kirkus Reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars An American in the bloc, 26 Aug 2005
By A Customer
This is a very interesting account of the author's travels around socialist and post-socialist countries. It sensitively explores some of the major social problems associated with, for example, the transition from socialism to capitalism, minorities in Beijing and Moscow (and the gaffs foreigners make in countries they don't fully understand!).

Humourous and sensitive, I would recommend this book highly.

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