Born in Moscow twenty-six years ago, Ekaterina Jung was raised in the
Russian capital until 1980, when she immigrated to the United States
with her family. Now an American citizen but with her Soviet childhood
still fresh in her memory, Cathy Young provides a unique personal
account of what it is like to grow up in Russia today
Determined to be a writer from earliest childhood, Katya began to learn
English at age seven. As a teenager, she seized knowledge wherever she
could find it, using a false ID to sneak into the library, memorizing
the lyrics to a precious borrowed recording of Jesus Christ Superstar,
devouring works by forbidden writers like Solzhenitsyn, as well as Rex
Stout mysteries, Catcher in the Rye, and Kurt Vonnegut novels. She was
also a model member of the Young Pioneers —: for although her parents
encouraged free speech at home, at school Katya was compelled to toe the
Party line with vigor. With tremendous wit, intelligence, and fierce
independence of mind, Cathy Young traces the development of her own
political consciousness. At the same time, she gives us a rare firsthand
glimpse of daily life in the Soviet Union.
A 1988 graduate of Rutgers University, Cathy Young lives with her
parents in New Jersey. She has written numerous essays and articles for
a variety of national publications and regularly contributes book
reviews and opinion pieces to the Detroit News. Her essays have
been included in several textbook anthologies. |
