Tom Lynch

Katherine Shonk's ticket into the book world comes in the form of "The Red Passport," a collection of eight short stories set in post-Communist Russia. Shonk uses both Russians and visiting American tourists as her protagonists, and the Evanston native never hides the fact that she feels compassion for her characters. She sympathizes with the lonely, like Tanya from "The Wooden Village of Kizhi," standing "in the hallway, wondering where her mother had gone, wondering if it was night or day."

"My Mother's Garden," about a woman trying to convince her mother that the town she lives in is completely toxic and harmful, juggles a mother-daughter relationship with the Chernobyl disaster as its backdrop. In "The Conversion," Shonk opens with a fantastic conversation about the "taste" of Jesus Christ, where it is eventually revealed that he tastes like a Snickers bar. "Snickers are out of style," is the response, an illustration of how Shonk's Americans can barely grasp the culture and history of the land in which they visit.

In "Kitchen Friends," an American journalist witnesses a trolley bombing and later forms a support group for the survivors. Though she has secret intentions of her own, she keeps her composure around the emotionally crushed victims, and the reader is thankful. Shonk recognizes the delicate nature of her characters and she protects them from unnecessary pain. Her subtleties become more and more vital to the subject matter as the stories pass. "The Red Passport" delivers what it promises--a micro-saga of life in Russia, from both Russian and American perspectives. As the memories and viewpoints of her characters collide, Shonk's work is at its best.

The Red Passport

By Katherine Shonk

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 207 pages, $22

(2003-11-19)

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