The year is 1973. An Egyptian historian, Dr. Shukri, pursues a year
of non-degree graduate studies in Moscow, the presumed heart of the
socialist utopia. Through his eyes, the reader receives a guided
tour of the sordid stagnation of Brezhnev-era Soviet life:
intra-Soviet ethnic tensions; Russian retirees unable to afford a
tin of meat; a trio of drunks splitting a bottle of vodka on the
sidewalk; a Kirgiz roommate who brings his Russian girlfriend to
live in his four-person dormitory room; black-marketeering Arab
embassy officials; liberated but insecure Russian women; and Arab
students' debates about the geographically distant October 1973
War. Shukri records all this in the same numbly factual style
familiar to fans of Sonallah Ibrahim's That Smell, punctuating it
with the only redeeming sources of beauty available: classical
music LPs, newly acquired Russian vocabulary, achingly beautiful
women, and strong Georgian tea. Based on Ibrahim's own experience
studying at the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography in Moscow
from 1971 to 1973, Ice offers a powerful exploration of Arab
confusion, Soviet dysfunction, and the fragility of leftist
revolutionary ideals.
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