A weak American in Russia and Ukraine

[erikmagenta]

This is a new book available at Amazon.com, but so far apparently only on Kindle as a download.  I prefer paperback books, so I eagerly await when it will be printed.  It is by a Ukrainian American man whose parents had been taken to Germany during WWII to be slave laborers.  Unlike so many others, they were not forced back to the FSU, bet immigrated to America.  He has a special chapter for "American men having a mid-life crisis who think they want a young Slavic bride".  Overall it appears to be a hillarious look into life for real Russian and Ukrainians, as he does not live and work in the 5 star places which American embassy workers live, but amongst real people suffering the real life there--and he has been going for 20 years.

[erikmagenta]

Biography
Walter Parchomenko, a distinguished college professor and civil servant in Washington, D.C. for more than 25 years, was born in a German refugee camp. He is the son of Ukrainian peasants, World War II refugees deported from their war-torn Ukrainian village to forced labor in Germany. After a grueling crossing of the Atlantic in the storage of an ocean liner packed with Slavic refugees, he entered the US (just 12 months old at the time) through Ellis Island's newly reopened reception center. Parchomenko grew up in snowy Rochester, New York and eventually fled his Slavic mother's strict regime, KGB-like Gulag to simultaneously work and attend graduate school in Washington. He directed a U.S. government, graduate school program in Russian and Eurasian Studies in Washington for 16 years. Over the past 20 years, he has spent a great deal of time living and working among the natives in Russia and Ukraine. Parchomenko's writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The Kyiv Post, and numerous other publications. A Georgetown University Ph.D., and Fulbright Scholar, he currently divides his time between Washington, D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine, where he works as a consultant and advocate for disabled rights groups.

[Gator]

Erik,
 
Sounds like an interesting read.  Please let us know when published. 
 
Midlife crises and Russian women!    No sane man would combine those two, would he?   

[Ranetka]

... suffering the real life there.

WTF?
 
Life there is not a suffer, you have been misinformed.

[Boethius]

The surname suggest they were from Western Ukraine.  Western Ukrainains could, and often did, claim they were pre war citizens of Poland, and therefore, were not subject to the Yalta Treaty on repatriation.

[erikmagenta]

WTF?
 
Life there is not a suffer, you have been misinformed.

Not for a person born there, no.  But for an American accustomed to Western standards??  Yes.  I remember how shocked I was when learning the water only flowed once a day.

[I/O]

Midlife crises and Russian women!    No sane man would combine those two, would he? 

So exactly waddaya sayin' 'bout you and I?

[Daveman]

Not for a person born there, no.  But for an American accustomed to Western standards??  Yes.  I remember how shocked I was when learning the water only flowed once a day.

Geez, where was THAT? 


...and here I thought it was wacky enough just to shut off the water at 10pm.

[Anotherkiwi]

So exactly waddaya sayin' 'bout you and I?

Gator's a lot older than you - his midlife crisis was many years ago!

[Gator]

Gator's a lot older than you - his midlife crisis was started many years ago!

Who says I overcame it?   

[Slumba]

Who says I overcame it?

What's the saying... "it's never too late, to have a happy childhood!"

 

[erikmagenta]

WTF?
 
Life there is not a suffer, you have been misinformed.

Suffering is the key to happiness.
Fyodor Dostoevsky