The Time: Night

Anna Andrianova is a trite poet and disastrous parent living at the margin of a disintegrating Soviet culture. Despite heading a household of females -- her mother; her daughter, Alyona; and Alyona's illegitimate children -- Anna stubbornly subscribes to the Russian myth of traditional motherhood. Challenging that myth is Alyona, a woman of appallingly bad judgment who both needs Anna and hates her. Anna's voyage into the Soviet utopia's underbelly is a testimony to the dire fate of the mother/martyr under Communist rule, yet the journey is undertaken with warped humor and sarcasm -- the expression of Anna's desperation and the source of her strength as well. Published in Russia in 1992, The Time: Night serves as a fascinating and hilarious counterbalance to the sanctimonious depictions of Soviet society in its final years.