�There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life � impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncular�reminiscent of his neglected Jewish past.� In these two short stories, Updike�s brilliant observational acuity is matched by a light, comic touch. The writer Henry Bech travels to Europe on a hapless cultural exchange, first to Russia, where he struggles to spend his money when everything � from his meals to his bugged hotel room � is already paid for, and then to Rumania. This book includes Rich In Russia, Foreword, Bech in Rumania, Appendix A and Appendix B.
Description:
�There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life � impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncular�reminiscent of his neglected Jewish past.� In these two short stories, Updike�s brilliant observational acuity is matched by a light, comic touch. The writer Henry Bech travels to Europe on a hapless cultural exchange, first to Russia, where he struggles to spend his money when everything � from his meals to his bugged hotel room � is already paid for, and then to Rumania. This book includes Rich In Russia, Foreword, Bech in Rumania, Appendix A and Appendix B.