Long before Alex Garland wrote "The Beach" Alexander Kaletski came up with this little piece of modest art. Kaletski's book is all about life with all it's glory, misery, pain, absurdity, weirdness, destiny, love, fun and happiness. As no other he describes these themes is a simple, human language without beating around the bush. It's no James Joyce or Umberto Eco, but as Garland he wrote a page turner that gives you the urge to continue reading but at the same time overwhelms you with the fear of the moment that you'll have to close the book knowing that there is no good enough alternative after this one to please your literal mind... I'm all about saving the rain forest and stop tearing down a lot of trees for the junk on paper that you get in your mailbox or see in bookshops regularly, but getting this one printed again is no waste of trees.

Alexander Kaletski's dark comedy/docu-drama begins and ends in the Moscow subway system. On his seventh birthday, Sasha gets to ride the magnificent Metro, deservedly world-renowned marvel of Soviet artistry and engineering. Little Sasha also receives a mask, and his future is already clear: he will live in the big city and be an actor! In time, Kaletski leaves his home village of Tula to attend theatrical school in Moscow; and it is here that he falls in with the characters who populate the Underground of his novel. Sasha's bohemian buddies include Stas, a pill-popping homosexual prankster; and Toilik, a vodka-swilling dissident war Hero; Andrewlka, a womanizing black-marketeer and part-time KGB informant; and Youssef, a phallus-obsessed Black exchange-student of Sudanese royalty. And strong-willed Lena, starving actress, poet, musician, and soulmate to Sasha. A little band of subversives bonded together for survival, without propiska (coveted Moscow residency certificate), and often without work, food, or money. Gradually Kaletski rises in the theatrical field to become a popular television star, but the greater his success in Soviet Art, the more he loathes being a part of it. His first-person narrative, both funny and frightening, relates his numerous encounters with thuggish police, backstabbing directors, cold-blooded conscriptors, predatory "pumas", and disapproving Communist Party-poopers -- all seemingly conspiring to crush his creative spirit. Even while the ubiquitous banners assure him "In the USSR Life Gets Better and Better Every Day". When his theatrical troupe goes on closely-guarded tour to New York City, Sasha finds life-changing inspiration. He and Lena dream of defecting to America, where they will be free to express their artistic individuality. "Metro" is an engaging novel, at its best when depicting autobiographical realism of former Soviet life. The reader is wholly drawn into the adventure and struggle, Sasha's emigration scheme, and the antics and fates of his comrades. Then the novel rather suddenly and perplexingly self-detonates in a bizarre climax involving an arms-smuggler and a KGB shootout. The author has lived in New York since 1975, where he has had success exhibiting his artistic talent at leading galleries. He has published several books of his abstract works, including "Cardboard People" and "Dead Ancestors".