Partings

Borodin has taken a shopworn themeboy meets girl/boy loses girland uses it to launch a sweeping attack on the Muscovite intelligentsia. The novel begins with Gennadi, a bumbling hack writer, proposing to Tosya, the beautiful daughter of a Siberian priest. But there are complications. Gennadi must return to Moscow and settle his affairs, principally by breaking off with his longtime girlfriend, Irina, an unstable TV producer who turns out to be pregnant with his child. Which will Gennadi chooselove or duty? This is a fascinating portrayal of an intellectual class which has become parasites of the Soviet regime. Dissidence is limited to the token signing of petitions; intellectual debate to the mindless discussion of Marxist philosophy. Borodin, a Siberian, is a writer of exceptional talent and moral stature. (October)