Please join the Harriman Institute for a book talk by Emil Draitser. Moderated by Mark Lipovetsky.
All immigrants of the world coming to America expect it to be like their home country—only better. What they rarely consider is that, like that of any other nation, America’s DNA differs from that of their country. It may take a lifetime to adjust to the unfamiliar country’s culture, mentality, and way of doing many things differently from the way they have known. It is especially true when immigrants come to America from a country based on different principles, in this case, collectivist Russia versus individualist America, with opposing political systems—the democratic American one and the totalitarian Soviet. A sequel to the author’s autobiographical trilogy—Shush! Growing up Jewish under Stalin, In the Jaws of the Crocodile, and Farewell, Mama Odessa—this book is part memoir and part cultural study about the challenges of immigration and American acculturation. With self-deprecating humor, the author, a former Soviet satirist who was punished for trespassing the boundaries of public criticism, recollects his growing pains as he overcame his indoctrinated upbringing in a totalitarian society to embrace America’s defining values.
