The New Yorker: "The Train of Their Departure" by David Bezmozgis

Begrudgingly, I have to admit that this excerpt from Bezmozgis's novel in progress, The Free World, works pretty well as a short story. I think if he had conceived of it as a story he could have dispensed with a lot of the backstory concerning Polina and Maxim—the fact that she had an abortion and then they got married is pretty much all you need to know about that. The real story is about Polina and Alec.
That said, I like the character of Alec and the way he worms himself into Polina's bed a...