vranyo

I look at Kevin, who is staring at me with his dark Western eyes, waiting for an answer, and something tells me—a little sly voice—that in the official game of vranyo, it would be a legitimate move to take a walk with this boy, despite the fact that he is a capitalist, the worst kind of foreigner of all.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

I look at Kevin, who is staring at me with his dark Western eyes, waiting for an answer, and something tells me—a little sly voice—that in the official game of vranyo, it would be a legitimate move to take a walk with this boy, despite the fact that he is a capitalist, the worst kind of foreigner of all.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

The sink makes you think the washing device is really a faucet that drips water into a pipe instead of a stinky pail—another example of vranyo, which Aunt Polya taught me in nursery school.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

Like my mother, he comes from the first Soviet generation, from the time when vranyo was still fresh, still a little curly sprout.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

The sink makes you think the washing device is really a faucet that drips water into a pipe instead of a stinky pail—another example of vranyo, which Aunt Polya taught me in nursery school.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

Like my mother, he comes from the first Soviet generation, from the time when vranyo was still fresh, still a little curly sprout.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

With pitch-perfect lyricism, tremendous power of recall, and disarming wit, Gorokhova shows how the self-deception that went on inside individuals such as her mother was an extension of the system, summed up as the culture of vranyo or "make believe", a game that every child and adult knows: "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova Kapka Kassabova 2010

As far as I can see, this play is about the dangers of make-believe and thus about us and our vranyo game.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

As far as I can see, this play is about the dangers of make-believe and thus about us and our vranyo game.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010

“Exquisite,” I say to Kevin, who thinks I am sincere, who doesn’t know this is just a little instance of vranyo.

A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova 2010