{"product_id":"waiting-for-america-maxim-d-shrayer-9780815609971","title":"Waiting for America: A Story of Emigration","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1987 a young Jewish man, the central figure in this captivating book, leaves Moscow for good with his parents. They celebrate their freedom in opulent Vienna and spend two months in Rome and the coastal resort of Ladispoli. While waiting in Europe for a U.S. refugee visa, the book's twenty-year-old poet quenches his thirst for sexual and cultural discovery. Through his colorful Austrian and Italian misadventures, he experiences the shock, thrill, and anonymity of encountering Western democracies, running into European roadblocks while shedding Soviet social taboos. As he anticipates entering a new life in America, he movingly describes the baggage that exiles bring with them, from the inescapable family traps and ties to the sweet cargo of memory. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn emigration story, \u003ci\u003eWaiting for America\u003c\/i\u003e explores the rapid expansion of identity at the cusp of a new, American life. Told in a revelatory first-person narrative, Waiting for America is also a vibrant love story in which the romantic main character is torn between Russian and Western women. Filled with poignant humor and reinforced by hope and idealism, the author's confessional voice carries the reader in the same way one is carried through literary memoirs like Tolstoy's\u003ci\u003e Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, \u003c\/i\u003eHemingway's \u003ci\u003eA Moveable Feast, \u003c\/i\u003e or Nabokov's \u003ci\u003eSpeak, Memory.\u003c\/i\u003e Babel, Sebald, and Singer--all transcultural masters of identity writing--are the coordinates that help to locate Waiting for America on the greater map of literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Maxim D. Shrayer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0815609973\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780815609971\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Syracuse University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/30\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.71lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.03h x 5.44w x 0.55d","brand":"Maxim D. Shrayer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43980609487103,"sku":"9780815609971","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bd9de999-f70a-4a8c-9dda-9dc94f5932db.jpg?v=1683250886","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/waiting-for-america-maxim-d-shrayer-9780815609971","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}