Status Updates From A Weak American in Russia &...

"dacha (a tiny, often dilapidated, summer cottage)"

a dacha is a secondary residence. it can be a tiny, dilapidated cottage, sure, but also a three story house with a jacuzzi and a private tennis court.
man, you really have no idea what you're talking about...

"Slavic women's unabashed addiction to mayonnaise [...]"

???????????????????????
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???????,?§/./?????!!
??

we do eat a lot of mayonnaise in salads and stuff. but "WOMEN's ADDICTION"??? Walter, were you smoking pot when you wrote this book? be honest.

"Anyone who finds ice cubes here should realize they are probably made with contaminated tap water."

well shit, I drank that "contaminated tap water" for fourteen years. at this point I'm probably pregnant with the alien or something.
no, seriously, where in Ukraine has this guy been spending his vacation exactly? Chernobyl?

how many times is he gonna repeat that Ukrainians and Russians live in small apartments?? we're very sorry we don't have two story houses with gardens and picket fences and shit. move on.

I really wanted to like this book.

It started off funny enough, and the mix between funny and serious worked. But as I read on, it became gloomy bordering on absurd. Someone compared it to Seinfeld, which might be one reason behind my growing aversion to the book.

I'll leave it for a while and return to it later - I don't think this is a book you should read cover to cover at once.

I really like the way Parchomenko goes from a serious subject to a funny anecdote - quite clever. There are some typos/errors, but so far the book hasn't suffered.

While some things in this book kind of makes me sad, it's a funny book so far.