Vulgar. Distasteful. Primitive. Ugly. These are just a few of the adjectives Russian speakers spat out in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn on August 12, the day after the premiere of Lifetime’s new reality show, “Russian Dolls.” But for all their feelings about the negative light in which the show cast them, some were…
Haley Tanner’s debut novel, “Vaclav & Lena” (Dial Press), is about love without questions, hesitation or limits. This love flourishes between two Russian-Jewish immigrant children in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn: Vaclav dreams of becoming a magician, like Houdini, and casting the fragile Lena as his assistant. Tragedy temporarily unhinges this plan, and when…
There is a plastic rooster and a frog to the left, and the hind legs of two brown horses to the right. It’s a spooky old merry-go-round, set against a yellow backdrop, and crowned with an appropriately morose title: “Sitting Shiva For Myself.” Welcome to Renee Blitz’s latest poetry collection (Regent Press), the underrated gem…
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