Study painting in a flooded basement
Have a baby
Get a makeover by the Kupid's Korner Bridal Agency
Go on a date to an all-meat buffet
Learn English
Struggle with the art of housecleaning
Fall in love
Run away
Come home
with Sasha Goldberg!
Sasha Goldberg (Figure 1) is a biracial,
Jewish, socially maladjusted "child of the intelligentsia" from the
Siberian town Asbestos 2. Sasha's father takes
off for the U.S., leaving Sasha to navigate adolescence under the shadow
of her overbearing mother. At fourteen, Sasha
falls in love with an art school dropout who lives in a concrete
half-pipe in the town's dump. When following her heart gets her into
trouble at home, Sasha leaves Russia as a mail-order bride and, with the
help of the Kupid's Korner Agency, lands in suburban
Arizona. Soon, she escapes her Red Lobster- loving fiance and embarks on
a misadventure-filled journey across America in search of her father.
PETROPOLIS is a
satire and a love story. It's also about racism, academic art training,
cross-cultural confusion, religion (and lack thereof), sex, class
conflict, overweening charity, and three different kinds of mothers.