To read this memoir is to be lulled by the soothing words of a
great storyteller: the sounds of the words are as important as the
tale itself. The book charts a year Hobson spent in provincial
Russia, in the closing days of the Soviet Union. It's a dark yet
passionate time, tinged with fear and uncertainty. Hobson reveals a
world of extreme sensitivity and gentleness, but one that is about
to change utterly. Most of us watched that time on television. We
can remember the big political events - tanks rumbling forward
through Red Square and the Wall coming down. We may have seen the
news, but we are ignorant of the detail - the true atmosphere of
the time. Black Earth City allows the reader to slip into the
hidden world of the Eastern bloc, and soak up an innocence that no
longer exists. Charlotte Hobson's book centres around the sombre
black-earthed town of Voronezh. The themes are friendship, youth
and a passionate liaison with a young local man, called Mitya. The
society is reminiscent in many ways of post-war Britain.
Traditional values abound, as do heavy family-orientated meals,
long floral-print dresses, stolen kisses and filterless cigarettes.
But whereas a first date in the '40s might have included a foxtrot,
Mitya sweeps Charlotte off her feet, taking her to a reading by
Garkusha, 'a punk poet, dancer and something of a cult figure for
young Russians'. The real delight here is not what happens, but the
words with which the story is told. Hobson's language is carefully
selected, poetic in itself. It sucks you in and lulls you with its
music. At the last word on the last page, I found myself flicking
back to the beginning to start all over again. Tahir Shah is the
author of In Search of King Solomon's Mines. (Kirkus UK)
Charlotte Hobson spent her gap year as a student in Voronezh, in
deepest provincial Russia. Her arrival coincided with the collapse
of this society, as initial optimism about the fall of communism
gave way to disillusionment and uncertainy. These feelings are
mirrored in the doomed love affair she has with the vodka-swilling
Mitya. They too started out in a mood of wild optimism, and felt
that anything was possible. Until in the spring the snow thawed,
and revealed the black earth beneath.
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