Travels with Dubinsky and Clive

This rollicking tale of rogues and adventurers begins with its hero Dubinsky, a Muscovite securely ensconced in a cushy job at the Russian State Department, receiving a nasty shock. Pizdo, the African backwater that is his area of speciality, has been taken over by Americans via the CIA, and he is now jobless. Deciding to emigrate, he seeks and miraculously receives an exit visa. He is followed by his mentor and partner Slava, a wheeler-dealer who departs with diamonds sewn in his armpits and letters of introduction stuffed in his pockets. Under Slava's sophisticated guidance they prosper, using the U.S. as their base while Dubinsky as messenger boy flies first-class all over the world, drinking enough free booze to plaster an entire Russian army division. But Pizdo, Dubinsky's nemesis, proves to be Slava's as well: the Pizdoan official with whom he's been rigging commodities prices is caught and tries to save his skin by exposing Slava, who is tossed into jail. Dubinsky ends up in Seattle with a woman he picks up in a bank, a pale finish to a brilliant spoof, which lampoons just about every sacred cow in an American idiom so impeccable that it's hard to believe its author emigrated from Central Russia little more than a decade ago. (July 7)