What does it mean to be Russian after the fall of communism? This is the
essential question Richards pursues in her long-gestating follow-up to Epics
of Everyday Life (1990). From 1992 to 2008, Richards made numerous forays into
the Russian hinterlands and now provides a fascinating glimpse into provincial
towns previously closed to foreigners. Sweeping political and societal change,
from the chaos of the Yeltsin years to the autocracy of the Putin regime, are
viewed through the eyes of the ordinary Russians Richards befriends in her
travels. There.s Anna, the idealistic journalist; restless Igor and mercurial
Natasha; Misha, the shrewd entrepreneur, and Tatiana, his beatific wife. While
Richards adroitly captures the despair and optimism of a people struggling to
define the meaning of freedom, as a guide she.s slightly scattershot, losing
sight of her primary subjects while flitting from one tangent (faith healers)
to another (fringe cults). She.s at her best when chronicling the progress and
setbacks of her friends, people once unknowable to Westerners but now shown to
share the same ever-present uncertainty about the future.

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