PositiveThe Times (UK)This is a well-researched, droll journey around the lives of Russia’s \'big beast\' 19th-century writers ... This is no borscht-tinted, and-then-the-vodka-toasts-began travel memoir ... Wheeler’s book is also a journey into language. She valiantly plods the endless steppe of Russian grammar with the resignation and humor of anyone in their early fifties who has started a hard language. The funny scenes with her teacher in London, the \'gnome-like\' and permanently exasperated Edward, are among the most enlightening as the lessons stray from Chekhov short stories to the Siege of Leningrad and oligarchs ... her writing blooms cliché-free ... Just as the literary romp in the footsteps of the writers—which does not skimp on detail or seriousness—threatens to take over, Wheeler deftly brings the landscapes around her up to date ... Wheeler wears her literary research lightly and adds her own cheerful touch ... Sometimes, though, the minute biographical detail threatens to derail this well-researched book.
