COMMUNITY

MAGNUM OPUS

FIVE THINGS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE

Can Russian Lit Be the New Jewish Lit?

Nadia Kalman weaves Russian history and the Jewish
experience together for a compellingly modern read.

By Yoni Apap

The title of Nadia Kalman's promising debut
novel, The Cosmopolitans (Livingston Press,
2010), refers to an internationalist — even
global humanist — sensibility that her charac-
ters see as deeply Jewish and Russian. As one
member of an avant-garde cadre of young
Russian-Jewish writers, the author makes an
undeniable case for the vibrancy of this cosmo-
politan approach to literary expression.
Kalman traces the lives of a Russian
emigre family that has settled, finally, in the
dreary suburb of Stamford, Conn.: Father Osip
Molochnik, an engineer and lover of Jewish
Russian dissident poet Alexander Galich; his
wife, Stalina, who holds
deep, dark secrets and
ti
di)
training as a lab technician;
their eldest daughter, Milla,
an obedient child and ac-
countant whose marriage to
Malcolm Strauss masks her
own lesbian longings; stri-
dent middle daughter, Yana,
who strives to be a Marxist
and feminist in a world that
seems to truly value neither;
and the youngest, Katya,
who hides behind silence
because, when excited, she
N fi I) I 11
speaks in sound bites from
Leonid Brezhnev's public
speeches in a"strangely
mannish voice."
The book's plot ostensibly centers on the
marriages of the Molochnik sisters, each
unconventional in its own way. The language is
descriptive and fresh, eschewing the hack-
neyed Yiddishisms of earlier generations for
colorful Russian idioms — and the tortured
English of native Russian speakers.
That cultural sensibility extends to the story's
thematic overlay, adapted from a familiar Rus-
sian literary conceit, that suffering is a means of
redemption.
But the book is, at its core, a story about
what makes this proudly Russian family so
recognizably American. Some of this is the
result of the book's humor, a mash-up of Rus-
sian absurdist influence and a Jewish-American
magic realism.
Katya's disability provides consistent humor

and, later, pathos.
More funny, and recognizable, is Yana's
courtship by a Bangladeshi Muslim student.
The resulting wedding, a comedy of errors, is
drawn as a series of failed moments of cultural
detente between two ethnic communities —
whose intense awareness of their own "outsider
status" is not enough common ground to bring
them together.
The novel is structured as a series of vi-
gnettes from alternating points of view from
multiple characters. It works well because it
makes the book very readable, and the format
is perfect for satire and critique.
Kalman's withering portrait
of Strauss family members, like
6466* Milla's husband Malcolm, who is
portrayed as a selfish, Ivy League-
educated man-child who wants to
be a rock star, seems an indict-
ment of both East Coast privilege
and a previous generation of Jew-
ish immigrants who now proudly
boast their pedigrees, jostling to
announce their children's mar-
riages in the New York Times.
The alternating narrator-style
technique Kalman uses is not
without its weaknesses, however.
eaiN-
Some may be frustrated by the
book's episodic structure and
dearth of character development.
Certain players are left frustratingly mysterious,
especially Osip's older brother Lev, a dissident
who spun false family stories for Osip in order
to inspire and sustain the younger Molochnik
in Russia.
Lev's shifts into first-person narration are
gripping, but he seems too much a cipher
because our glimpses of him are few and far
between.
Perhaps this is precisely Kalman's point,
of course. Lev is a relic, a loner. And, while
perhaps Lev — and what he embodies — is the
philosophic soul of the novel, it is not its heart.
The Cosmopolitans is Kalman's literary
Declaration of Independence from needing to
address explicitly and exclusively"Russian" and
"dissident"themes: As asked pointedly by Lev
at the novel's midpoint,"What ... is the point of
immigration, if not new stories?"

The toys are back in town — and they've brought their ice skates!
Disney On Ice brings Disney Pixar's Toy Story 3 (plus memorable moments
from Toy Story 1 and 2) to the Palace of Auburn Hills Wednesday-Sunday,
March 9-13. See Buzz's galactic battle with Emperor Zurg and a hoedown
on the set of"Woody's Roundup" all while the whole gang tries to escape
the evil Lots-o'-Huggin Bear and the terrifying toddlers at Sunnyside Day-
care. To infinity and beyond! Tickets start at $15.
Palace of Auburn Hills, 6 Championship Drive, Auburn Hills. (800) 745-
3000; ticketmaster.com or palacenet.com .

fOSIAPOLITAIIS

PURIM SHPIEL AT DETROIT PUPPET THEATER

By Harry Kirsbaum

The Post-Date Post credo: It's either a good
date or a great story. All stories from Post-
Date Post published in Red Thread are done
with our promise that the author's name is withheld. Go to redthreadmagazine.com for past
columns as well as a link to the Post-Date Post website.

IT'S JUST BUSINESS, SWEETIE

I'm out at a club and this Russian girl ap-
proaches me. She is hot, and drunk. We walk
back to her car and we're making out, and I
look in the backseat of her minivan and see a
child's seat. So I think, "Oh well," another mar-
ried one.
A few weeks later we start messing around
even more and it's totally great. She said she
wasn't interested in her husband, who married
her through a Russian bride website; she just
wanted to get to the United States.
It's going fine [and] I'm once again totally
enamored because I don't have to do much
of anything to be with her. But, my favorite
part was when she said we had to break up
because she started dating somebody else —
her divorce lawyer — because her aim was to
get the house.
She said, "I can't have sex with you anymore
because my lawyer told me I can only have sex
with him."Then she tried to set me up with her
cousin.

If it's March (or Adar I and II, if you want to get technical), then it's time
for some festive Megillah action at PuppetART Detroit Puppet Theater.
Their annual production of Purim Shpiel is based on the biblical Book of
Esther and tells the story of how a beautiful but poor Jewish girl marries
the wealthy King Ahasuerus and saves her people from certain death at
the hands of the wicked Haman. Kids love this holiday, which is known as
the Mardi Gras of the Hebrew calendar.
Located in the city's theater district, Detroit Puppet Theater offers Purim
shows every Saturday during March at 2 p.m. Performances are $5 for
children, $10 for adults.
25 E. Grand River Ave., one-half block east of Woodward, Detroit.
(313) 961-7777; puppetart.org .

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG

Dick Van Dyke may not excel at putting on an English accent, but he's
practically perfect in every other way in this film classic. Bring your kids
(and the grandparents) for this rare chance to see him on the big screen,
singing and dancing his way through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (based
on the children's book written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming) at the
historic Redford Theatre.
With a screenplay by Roald Dahl, and Oscar-winning songs by brothers
Richard and Robert Sherman (composers for the musical films Mary Pop-
pins and The Jungle Book), Chitty is a must-see classic. 8 p.m. Friday, March
25; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 26. All seats: $4.
Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Road, Redford. (313) 537-2560;
redfordtheatre.com .

WILD WINTER SAFARI SOCIAL

Single Men and the
Married Women they
know — Biblically!

I RED THREAD

TOY STORY 3 ON ICE

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

POST-DATE POST

6 March 2011

Winter Safari at the Zoo, A Movie
Musical and Puppets Galore

THAT'S A 'NO' ON THE WATER?

I [remember when] I met this girl who I was
absolutely in love with — maybe not love but
infatuated with her. And my friend Mark was at
the bar, and he liked her, too. We were definitely
competing for her, but I basically just got tired
and went home.
Several months later, she's at the [same] bar
again and basically [asks] me,"Why did you
leave? I so wanted to be with you And I'm like,
"O K!"
So we have a couple of dates, etc., etc., and
I'm really starting to fall for her — and we finally
have sex. She was good. We go for quite a long
time, and at the end I ask her,"Would you like
some water?" She says, "No, and by the way, I'm
married."
So, what do you say at that moment? I was
like,"That's a no on the water?"
I went out with her a few more times, and I
knew people who knew her husband. I met him
a few years later — and he knew all about it.
Yeah, it was awkward. gy

Celebrate the end of winter with the last event of Wild Winter Week-
ends at the Detroit Zoo. Take the kids on a winter safari scavenger hunt
(they can redeem their finds for a prize at the end) while experiencing the
animals in their natural winter habitat. Face painting, animal arts and crafts
and talks by the zoo's expert keepers are also on hand; hot cocoa and ice
cream will be available to purchase. All activities are free with zoo admis-
sion. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sarturday and Sunday, March 12-13.
Detroit Zoological Park, W. 10 Mile Road, Royal Oak.
(248) 541-5717; detroitzoo.org .

DRAGON FEATHERS

The Melikin family has been
touring the country with their
captivating and educational pup-
pet presentations since 1963. On
Sunday, March 20, it's the Detroit
Institute of Arts'turn to get a taste
of the Melikin Puppet Theatre's
magic when it presents Dragon
Feathers, a collection of legends,
fables and history — including
Ogden Nash's Custard the Dragon,
Kenneth Grahame's Reluctant
Dragon and Andrew Lang's Stan
Bolovan and the Dragon — all
hosted by the wizard Merlin, the world's foremost authority on dragons.
A lucky few members of the audience will be chosen to join the puppets
onstage for an authentic Chinese Dragon Dance. Dragon Feathers is at 2
p.m. in the DIA Lecture Hall
Stay after the performance for the DIA's other Family Sundays offer-
ings: Create a simple kite and learn basic kite-flying safety tips (noon-4
p.m.) and join Drawing in the Galleries (for ages 6 and older, noon-4 p.m.)
as artist-instructors lead participants in creating pencil drawings to take
home.
Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit.
(31 3) 833-7900; dia.org .
— By Lynne Konstantin

www.redthreadmagazine.com