Return to Ukraine

Savage, a Ukrainian-born journalist, was invited in 1991 to teach a course on Western media at Kyiv State University, in the Ukrainian capital, and to serve as a guest editor for the Communist government-affiliated Ukraina's Society's English-language newspaper. Eager to see her birthplace again, Savage (who fled during WWII) returned to Ukraine with her mother (who was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's) and her aunt. As she recounts the emotional story of their travels, Savage writes of her ambivalent feelings about her country of birth. She writes of her trip to Babi Yar, where Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust; of her encounters with Ukrainian censorship and surveillance (Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union during her stay there); and of how years of Soviet oppression have left Ukrainians poorly housed, fed and educated. But she also recounts the warm welcome locals extended to her mother, her aunt and herself; the friendships she formed with several Ukrainians; and her affection for the suffering people and her hope for a better future for them after Communism. Part memoir and part history, this is a detailed and thoughtful look at a part of the world that until the 1990s was not easily accessible to Westerners. B&w photos. (Mar.)