Young Heroes of the Soviet Union

November 11, 2019
Russian-American journalist Halberstadt (Lonely Avenue) travels to Russia to better understand his family’s complicated legacy in this illuminating but dense memoir. The author vividly describes his travels to far-flung corners of the former Soviet Union, most evocatively his trip to Vinnytsia, Ukraine, to track down his grandfather Vassily, who tells him how he worked as a bodyguard to Joseph Stalin and recounts standing guard at government banquets as well as witnessing mass rape during the deportation of the ethnic Tatars in 1944. Halberstadt’s fishing trip along the Volga River with his estranged father is another emotional highlight, and in detailing the life of his mother—a Lithuanian Jew—he gives an enlightening primer on the genocide in Lithuania, though the history of his extended family becomes bogged down in detail. In the final chapters, the author shares stories from his childhood as an immigrant in 1980s Queens, showing how he navigated prejudice while becoming at ease with his homosexuality. Halberstadt is at his best when writing about his own youth, and his interviews with family members are affecting. Readers who can stick with this when it gets into the genealogical weeds will find much to appreciate in this insightful and moving narrative.