final exam

“All I can do is admire and applaud this real make-believe, Theater, and within it my sister, who stands on the rim of the proscenium—batting her photogenic eyes and curling her crimson mouth in a smile, her arms outstretched toward the audience—fully aware that she isn’t going to be sent to Pinsk to work in the local House of Culture because her final exam performance deserves nothing less than pyatorka, a perfect five.”

Simon & Schuster: A Mountain of Crumbs