Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing

Synopsis

Born In A Surreal Moscow Communal Apartment Where Eighteen Families Shared One Kitchen, The Author Grew Up Singing Odes To Lenin, Black-marketeering Juicy Fruit Gum At School, And Longing For A Taste Of The Mythical West. It Was A Life By Turns Absurd, Drab, Naively Joyous, Melancholy And, Finally, Intolerable. Prologue: Poisoned Madeleines -- Feasts, Famines, Fables: 1910s : The Last Days Of The Czars ; 1920s : Lenin's Cake -- Larisa: 1930s : Thank You, Comrade Stalin, For Our Happy Childhood ; 1940s : Of Bullets And Bread ; 1950s : Tasty And Healthy -- Anya: 1960s : Corn, Communism, Caviar ; 1970s : Mayonnaise Of My Homeland -- Returns: 1980s : Moscow Through The Shot Glass ; 1990s : Broken Banquets ; Twenty-first Century : Putin On The Ritz -- Mastering The Art Of Soviet Recipes. Anya Von Bremzen. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 333-338).