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A review by jobinsonlis
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev
4.0
Good: Pomerantsev certainly delivers on his promise to portray the surreal aspects of modern Russian (city) culture, with several stories that are so absurd and outrageous that they have to be true. Starting in Act II, Pomerantsev introduces a little mystery into his overview, featuring a few specific people and his journalistic investigation into what happened to them, which did liven up the book for me. I was especially invested in the young model who was lured into a cult and the CEO who was arrested as a casualty of a political game for selling what her company had always made. I was interested in Pomerantsev's quest to provide real human-interest stories within a media structure that only wanted positivity as well as his perspective as the British son of Russian immigrants.
Bad: Pomerantsev says the book is about modern Russian culture after the oil booms made so many people wealthy but he seemed to focus primarily on city life. At one point he visited a small town along with the mobster who ran it but that was the only part I can remember that involves rural life (and his perspective had to be colored based on who he saw it with since, please remember, he went with the mobster who was in charge). I'm not saying he had to cover everything but talking about an entire people based on the major cities is frustrating to read. Also the book started pretty slow for me, at least until Act II started up.
Recs: I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in modern Russia or people interested in a (non-American) Western perspective on Russia. I would strongly recommend the historical travelogues River of No Reprieve and Murderers in Mausoleums by Jeffrey Taylor for that rural and historical perspective that I wanted from Pomerantsev. And if, like me, you're just interested in reading books about those countries America is so often in conflict with, I would recommend Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, a fantastic look at modern China and its history from an American journalist that lived there, and Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, which is about North Korea and is the most heartbreaking (and best) political book you'll ever read.
Bad: Pomerantsev says the book is about modern Russian culture after the oil booms made so many people wealthy but he seemed to focus primarily on city life. At one point he visited a small town along with the mobster who ran it but that was the only part I can remember that involves rural life (and his perspective had to be colored based on who he saw it with since, please remember, he went with the mobster who was in charge). I'm not saying he had to cover everything but talking about an entire people based on the major cities is frustrating to read. Also the book started pretty slow for me, at least until Act II started up.
Recs: I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in modern Russia or people interested in a (non-American) Western perspective on Russia. I would strongly recommend the historical travelogues River of No Reprieve and Murderers in Mausoleums by Jeffrey Taylor for that rural and historical perspective that I wanted from Pomerantsev. And if, like me, you're just interested in reading books about those countries America is so often in conflict with, I would recommend Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, a fantastic look at modern China and its history from an American journalist that lived there, and Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, which is about North Korea and is the most heartbreaking (and best) political book you'll ever read.