LOVE LIKE WATER, LOVE LIKE FIRE is n "interesting" collection. I'm hard pressed to say whether these pieces are "stories" (fiction?) or simply personal essays. In any case, I suspect most of them are highly autobiographical, and sometimes very speculative, which is certainly the case with the title piece, the longest by far, at over sixty pages, in which whole lives flash through a young Soviet woman's (the author's grandmother) mind as she waits to see if her husband will be the next to be arrested and "disappeared" in the Stalin era of night time purges.

I was interested in reading Mikhail Iossell's book because my own childhood was overshadowed by the Cold War with the USSR. The Soviets, especially the Russians, were always "the bad guys" in this "war" of nearly fifty years. And as an adult, I spent my Army years keeping tabs on the Soviet military. So I wasn't surprised that in Iossell's childhood -

"It was important to hate America ... Every Soviet citizen was supposed to feel that way. It was one's basic patriotic duty."

There are a couple essays here about the writer's memories of the deaths of Brezhnev and Andropov, events which I remember too, but from "the other side." Indeed, my colleagues and I agreed with Iossel's aparent opinion that Brezhnev appeared to be dead for years before his actual demise.

The title story here gives a good sense of the fear and terror that was ubiquitous in the Stalin years, but I felt it was too long and redundant and I lost patience with it. The city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg, again) becomes an important character in many of these stories, with its Obvodny "Canal," actually an open sewer system, and its featureless cinder block housing developments added in the Khrushchev era.

Iossel's childhood is vividly portrayed in several stories. In one, he witnesses a parade honoring Fidel Castro. In another he surprises a naked couple having sex in th hallway of his new communal apartment.

Bottom line here: Iossel's stories provide a pretty descriptive look at what it was like to grow up Jewish in the old USSR. Highly recommended, especially for old spooks and spies from the Cold War era.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )

A few good stories--too few. There was too much repetition. Reading these childhood memories was rather like listening to someone else's relating their (boring) dreams. Yawn. The titular story was different. Here he tells of his grandmother (as a young wife during the Stalinist purges of 1939) spending a night of terror thinking they have come to "disappear" her husband. There is much here, the writing is richer than the childhood stories but it goes on too long --over fifty pages. I skimmed a lot. ( )

Upon reading about this story collection in THE NEW YORK TIMES (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/books/review/love-like-water-love-like-fire-mikhail-iossel.html), I was excited to read it, especially because of the passage quoted in the first paragraph of that review (“As long as there’s death, there’s hope. That’s something always to look forward to. Don’t lose heart — there’s tunnel at the end of the light.”).

Part of the problem is that as a leftist, I admire what the U.S.S.R. accomplished. Yes, there was the horror of the purges and the gulag, but America has 10% of the world population and 25% of world's prison population; plus, the average American has an unhealthy obsession with money.

One thing that irks me about Iossel is that he prostitutes his Soviet youth for fiction fame. He seems to play a part in the West's propaganda against Russia. I probably wouldn't be so critical if his non-communism stories weren't so forgettable.

Also, the title story runs at about 50 pages. It's so unbelievably overwritten. Should have been at least half the length.

Definitely donating this book the first chance I get. Don't won't it blemishing my bookcase much longer. ( )

Mikhail Iossel was born in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s and lived there until the late 80s. This was the era of the Cold War where both the citizens of the United States and of the Soviet Union were either terrified of or vilified the other. Mikhail gives slices of his life from the perspective of both an adult Soviet citizen and of a child growing up in that period.

The stories told from the perspective of a child were fascinating. His talent for telling a story from the point of view of a child was haunting. These were childhood stories that not only recounted the realities of Soviet material privation but articulated the intense emotions and outlook of a child.

Iossel’s mastery of time, place, and as a “teller of stories” is exceptional. These stories are unforgettable.

For the sake of full disclosure I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review, ( )

"Memory either confirms or refutes the very fact of our own existence."

Iossel portrays an often absurd and haunting life under Stalin’s rule. Having grown up as a Russian Jew in the Soviet Union, he pulls from his own life experience in this fictionalized autobiography. Ioseel uses the short story form to offer glimpses into various aspects of his life, but altogether it works as a novel.

I grew up during the United States "Duck and Cover" program when we greatly feared the Soviets. I had to laugh as an author of similar age was taught to fear and look down on what he believed would become Soviet America. Iossel seems to do this purposefully as a form of laugh-out-loud irony. Similarly, he illustrates the absurdities and fear of being a Soviet Jew. He does so magnificently with irony and sadness.

Iossel’s perspective is unique, somewhat funny and horrifying. If you liked Pamuk’s "Museum of Innocence" and the tension in Ravel’s "Bolero" (referring to Iossel's short story, Moscow Windows), you will enjoy this novel, as it is superbly written. ( )