Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana

Desperate to escape South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. So she headed to Russia looking for some excitement--commencing what would become a four-year, twelve-nation Communist bloc tour that shattered her preconceived notions of the "Evil Empire."

In Around the Bloc, Griest relates her experiences as a volunteer at a children's shelter in Moscow, a propaganda polisher at the office of the Chinese Communist Party's English-language mouthpiece in Beijing, and a belly dancer among the rumba queens of Havana. She falls in love with an ex-soldier who narrowly avoided radiation cleanup duties at Chernobyl, hangs out with Cuban hip-hop artists, and comes to difficult realizations about the meaning of democracy.

is the absorbing story of a young journalist driven by a desire to witness the effects of Communism. Along the way, she learns the Russian mathematical equation for buying dinner-party vodka (one bottle per guest, plus an extra), stumbles upon Beijing's underground gay scene, marches with 100,000 mothers demanding Eli n Gonz lez's return to Cuba, and gains a new appreciation for the Mexican culture she left behind.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Group
Published: 03/09/2004
ISBN: 9780812967609
Pages: 416
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2004 pg. 23
Publishers Weekly 01/05/2004 pg. 48
Poder Hispanic 03/01/2004 pg. 62
Library Journal 03/01/2004 pg. 96
Booklist 03/01/2004 pg. 1127