This is Not Civilization by Kyrgyzstan RPCV Robert Rosenberg
This is Not Civilization. Robert Rosenberg. Houghton Mifflin. 288 pages. $24. Out now.
Applaud summer's Best Opening Sentence: ''The idea of using porn films to encourage the dairy cows to breed was a poor one.'' But it's not just the first line of Robert Rosenberg's ambitious and enchanting debut novel that sings. Filled with knowing, deadpan humor and explicit understanding of what it's like to be pulled by and estranged from your homeland, This is Not Civilization is the story of four people whose lives intersect in Istanbul on the eve of a deadly earthquake: Jeff Hartig, a Peace Corps volunteer who keeps moving to avoid troubling thoughts of home; Anarbek Tashtanaliev of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, operator of a dying cheese collective battling the frightening specter of privatization; his daughter Nazira, almost too modern for her tiny, isolated village; and Adam Dale, an Apache basketball star with serious father issues. Rosenberg's insightful novel not only chronicles expatriate life but also adroitly explores the notion of one's responsibility to one's homeland: If things are bad, do you flee or stay and work toward change? In Rosenberg's generous, perceptive vision, any response is possible, maybe even noble.
