#7 False Cognate (2006)- Jeff Parker
Parker is an American author, new to me. I got this story out of the non-required
reading of 2006.
An American student finds himself in Russia but barely
speaks the language. He feels isolated and has little control over his
surroundings. His situation mirrors a
local drinking game called Submarine where people are left in a room for days,
sealed in with no view and no contact with the outside world. They have vodka and food and cant leave until
the game Captain lets them out. Having
little or no control over ones life seems to be the major theme here.
I won't spoil the end plot.
It is very well written.
It’s a nice easy paced narrative style that makes me want to read
something longer by the author. In fact
that’s the main feeling I get from this story, that it should be or could be
cut from a longer piece. Parker plants
seeds in some of the characters that can only bear fruit over time. That's not a completely satisfying feeling when
reading a short story.
Notable Passage: Not a passage but a nice element at the
start to illustrate the narrators cultural challenges; He cant figure out why
everyone at the school has judges him unsavory until he finds out that when on
his first day he asked where the “barber” was, they thought he said “baba” a
Russian word meaning “whore.” Thus, the
title for the story.
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