Of Love and Russia

Poignantly relating the romance between a Russian translator (the author) and an American professor of Russian history (her husband and translator of this memoir), their marriage in the Soviet Union in 1974 and reunion in the U.S. after an 11-year separation, McClellan chronicles bouts of conjugal happiness, renewed and dashed hopes and the KGB's persecution and surveillance--which, she writes, helped revive a relationship deteriorating from years of forced estrangement. She recounts that she and her mother, a KGB employee, lost their jobs, while her friends were harassed and her daughter, shunned at school, developed ulcers. McClellan also provides insights into the often wretched conditions of Soviet housing, work, schools and hospitals. The author has settled in Virginia, where her husband teaches. Photos not seen by PW. (June)