Ninochka : a novel / Svetlana Boym.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boym, Svetlana, 1959-2015.

Series:

SUNY series, the margins of literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women detectives--France--Fiction.

Women detectives.

Americans--Russia (Federation)--Fiction.

Americans.

Russians.

Russia (Federation).

France.

Americans--France--Fiction.

Russians--France--Fiction.

Russian Americans--Fiction.

Russian Americans.

Women immigrants--Fiction.

Women immigrants.

Conspiracies--Fiction.

Conspiracies.

Russia (Federation)--Fiction.

Paris (France)--Fiction.

Paris (France).

Genre:

Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Physical Description:

viii, 303 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2003]

Summary:

A playful literary mystery set in the 1930s and 1990s, Ninochka tells the double tale of two women exiles who are both homesick and sick of home. Tanya, a Russian immigrant living in New York, travels to Paris in an attempt to reconstruct the secret life of Nina B., who was murdered there almost sixty years ago, on the eve of World War II. The murder was never solved, and in an attempt to crack the case, Tanya takes possession of Nina's handbag which contains her diaries, love letters, kits for embroidering Russian blouses, a mysterious treatise on Eurasian supremacy, and a review of Ninotchka, the film in which Greta Garbo played a KGB agent who finds romance in Paris.

Among the potential murder suspects are a charismatic professor and nationalist leader, an aspiring American songwriter, an aging Trotskyite, a Hungarian con artist, a heavy-drinking singer of nostalgic romance, and an athletic Comrade X of unknown origins who was rumored to have returned to the Soviet Union. As Tanya is drawn into this immigrant underworld of displaced people, double agents, and dreamers, she finds herself more and more implicated in the life of the murdered woman. Ultimately, she is forced to return to her native country, where she confronts her own homesickness in the changing post-Soviet world.

Contents:

Chapter 1 In which the murder takes place 1

Chapter 2 In which you catch a glimpse of my green card and sample immigrant crepes 11

Chapter 3 In which I try to examine Nina's diary but speak with the strangers instead 21

Chapter 4 In which we observe emigres on the beach and learn everything we need to know about potential murder suspects 28

Chapter 5 In which we revisit Nina's childhood and play hide-and-seek in the Summer Gardens 50

Chapter 6 In which the detective gets unexpected mail 56

Chapter 7 In which we finally learn about the men in Nina's life and meet "the Eurasian genius" 59

Chapter 8 In which we attend the Eurasian tea party and lose all respect for Attila the Hun 73

Chapter 9 Which might make you blush 83

Chapter 10 In which we learn about the "other woman" and read the Manifesto of the Kinopeople 88

Chapter 11 In which we all go to a Hungarian party and learn about Soviet missible launchers 95

Chapter 12 In which I finally see Ninotchka and wonder about the consequences 100

Chapter 13 In which I spend some time in the Bibliotheque Nationale and stumble upon a conspiracy theory ciphered in the script of Ninotchka 110

Chapter 14 A digression on common fears and on the importance of dusting, preferably with a wet rag 118

Chapter 15 In which the best part happens behind the scenes, so the anxious reader can just skip this chapter altogether 122

Chapter 15-A Hardly a chapter at all, a couple of loose pages from my computer diary 127

Chapter 16 Which tells you how to cure a common cold with roasted salt and potato steam and how to remove stains on your red Pioneer tie 129

Chapter 17 In which the detective misbehaves in the movie theater while watching a film with Gerard Depardieu 133

Chapter 18 In which we finally meet Nina's last lover Lionel, learn of his desire to become a great American writer and read his sketch about Russian roulette 144

Chapter 19 Which tells you what to do when you run into your lover's wife in the supermarket 151

Chapter 20 In which we learn how Ninotchka was conceived and what made Greta Garbo laugh 154

Chapter 21 In which a mysterious character from the third row packs his bags and makes a confession 155

Chapter 22 Up in the air 170

Chapter 23 In which we travel to Russia and watch a musical dedicated to the Soviet Constitution 174

Chapter 24 In which my beautiful grandmother takes her last stroll in Paris 185

Chapter 25 In which I invite you to come home with me but Tram No. 30 runs very slowly 187

Chapter 26 In which I bury my grandmother 193

Chapter 27 Which offers you seven elephants of happiness 197

Chapter 28 In which we dispel our sad thoughts and learn what Ninel Markovna really did in Paris 200

Chapter 29 In which you meet my English professor and drink the cheap wine of our youth 210

Chapter 30 In which we taste a fruit drink and cabbage pirogi at my Alma Mater and learn what happened to Boris Krestovsky in Russia 217

Chapter 31 In which we stop making Eurasian jokes and explore the double life of Yuri Poltavsky-Rizhsky 225

Chapter 32 In which you follow me to Moscow and have a pickle treat 236

Chapter 33 In which we eavesdrop on Comrade Kaganovich 242

Chapter 34 In which we watch The Lilac Sunset and listen to Kachalsky's songs 247

Chapter 35 In which I meet Cossacks and have a romantic escapade at the Pizza Hut 256

Chapter 36 In which the murderer makes a scene 263

Chapter 37 In which we get homesick in Gorky Park 280

Chapter 38 In which we leave Russia and bid farewell to Rabinovich and Anka the machine gunner 285

Chapter 39 Which tells you that there is no place like home 294

Chapter 40 Greta Garbo's Last Smile 298.

ISBN:

0791457737

0791457745

OCLC:

52134921