PositiveTimeHis encounters with the locals are mostly hilarious and vividly observed, threaded with the types of details that foreigners see as bizarre and Russians tend to ignore as routine. Less convincing are the detours into politics and the treatment of Vladimir Putin, whose regime sweeps into the story at various points like inclement weather. Still, at a time when so many Americans seem obsessed with Russia and Putin, the book is a blessing. It takes care to deflate the most typical Western clichés about Russia, its people and their government, and it shows Moscow as a place with plenty of heart, even if accessing it involves the discomfort of penetrating the city’s veneer of meanness.