Visit to a Strange Planet

By Stuart Schoffman

AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN MOSCOW

by LEONA and JERROLD SCHECTER and EVELIND, STEVEN, KATE, DOVEEN and BARNET

410 pages. Little, Brown. $10.95.

In lesser hands, this seven-authored volume might have been no more than a polished family album. Instead, Leona and Jerrold Schecter and their children (who ranged in age from five to 13 when Schecter took over TIME's Moscow bureau in 1968) display insight and perceptions that lend their memory book a universal appeal.

The loosely chronological narrative--a series of signed excerpts contributed by each family member--recounts the Schecters' efforts to apprehend the peculiarities of Soviet society. For Correspondent Schecter, working in Moscow meant learning how to make the most of his mamka (KGB-planted Russian journalists assigned to "assist" foreign newsmen) while cultivating nonofficial sources and picking up dissident tracts at park-bench meetings. The children had to adjust to the strict and dogmatic school system: Second-Grader Kate, for example, was taught that the light bulb and locomotive had been invented by Russians. They also found themselves--and their chewing gum and felt-tipped pens--the objects of envy and curiosity. The most difficult task for the whole family was forming friendships; foreigners never know for sure whether a heart felt overture by a Russian is not a "provocation" in disguise.

Indelible Portrait. "We never got over the frustration of being outsiders looking in," writes Leona. Yet it is precisely the Schecters' visitors-to-a-strange-planet attitude that makes their book succeed. On virtually every page are anecdotes and vignettes that constitute a witty, indelible portrait of the Soviet Union. Sweat, garlic and tobacco are the "characteristic smell of Moscow." Shoppers use no checks or credit cards; only the privileged in this "classless society" use scrip to buy luxury groceries at bargain prices. Three bathers in Armenia show off portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin tattooed on their chests.

Lengthier dissertations by the Schecters range in subject matter from genetics to abstract art to the plight of Soviet Jews. Sometimes these digressions are too wide, the narrative too rambling. Despite the authors' obvious care to avoid repetition, the book could have used a slight pruning. But good writing is clearly a family trait, as are the zest, humor and sensitivity that make An American Family this young year's best-informed and most unusual travel book.

Stuart Schaffman

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.