All sorts of stories about Eastern Europe circulated in the early 90s. One went that for a pair of Levi’s blue jeans you could buy a car. Another said that for a pack of Marlboros you could have anything smaller. The women were purportedly gorgeous and dangerous, capable of weaving especially wicked webs. A few years after arriving in 1992, the author married an Estonian woman. None of the warnings that circulated in the West turned out to apply. What they should have warned him about were the standard marital issues that apply in every culture. Like the fact that when you marry the wife, you inherit the family. *Inherit the Family, Marrying into Eastern Europe* is a hilarious account of West meets East in the post-Soviet era.
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If life had called on Vello Vikerkaar to be an executioner rather than the writer that he is, one could imagine him whispering funny observations from behind his hood into the ear of the condemned even as they mount the gallows: "Do you see that mole on the nose of that otherwise pretty girl who is here to watch you swing? What a shame about that, don't you think? Oh well, put your head in the noose. Nothing else to do." Because what pervades Vikerkaar's collection of essays Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe -- a Dave Barry meets Art Buchwald chatty hatchet job on the author's adopted Estonia -- is black humor. That Vikerkaar's collection exudes excellence of the highest order is never in dispute, indeed if the author had settled himself someplace less provincial, say China for example, we would easily be reading these essays in The New Yorker. But Estonia is not China, as the author knows and is happy to point out repeatedly, Estonia is one of those newly "Western" nations that define our idea of a "backwater," the Togo or Suriname of Europe, a place so small and so politically inconsequential and surrounded by similar countries so small and inconsequential, that even State Department officials are hard pressed to properly locate it on a map. And in a sense, that's the point of Vikerkaar's collection, a wry and running commentary that continuously tells us, "Look at this ridiculous place that I live, look at all its foibles." But what Vikerkaar also cannot help from saying, between the lines, and sometimes even in them, is, "How I love this place." --New Yorker writer and novelist Tony D'Souza reviews Vello's book in Peace Corps Worldwide, Jan. 19, 2010
About the Author
Vello Vikerkaar was born in Scarberia (sometimes called Scarborough), Canada, in 1965. He now lives in Tallinn, Estonia. He has been called the ”David Sedaris of Estonia,” though he admits Sedaris may be somewhat better looking.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The true joys of Estonian life,
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This review is from: Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe stories by Vello Vikerkaar (Paperback)
I'll get the one negative thing out of the way first - the cover's a bit nondescript and the title it bears is a bit misleading, if only because it might cause those unfamiliar with Vello's work to expect one of those godawful "aren't-they-amusing-and-rather-Ruritanian" travelogues written by people from the Sunday supplements who think patronising sarcasm extended for long enough eventually forms a kind of insight.In fact Vello's book is the exact opposite of such flimsy offerings from writers who define themselves as outside observers. He hasn't swanned into Estonia for a couple of weeks, he has committed to the place 24/7. He's an outsider trying to be an insider but only making small, slow, advances. The painful rate of progress periodically leads to massive frustration which explodes in a sort of impotent, absurd exasperation. There are plenty of comic situations that only real life could possibly throw up, including a memorable life or death struggle over a rabbit hutch and musings on the geo-economic factors that result in a covertly homosexual companion for Barbie being foisted on Eastern Europe. Vello also debunks a few myths. If this book actually gets into the hands of locals they may finally realise that the foreigners living among them are generally much less interesting and intelligent than they give them credit for, and that foreign journalists in particular are more likely to be hopeless hacks than secret service men. But best of all Vello exhibits the brevity and discpline in his writing that is a direct result of being a newspaper columnist rather than a mere blogger. Vello's columns are lean, funny and quick. The brevity of each self-contained chapter makes them perfect bathroom reading material. Saying they are the ideal accompaniment to a bowel movement may not be something Vello will appreciate overly, but honestly there is no greater endorsement I can give them as a large part of my literary education takes place on porcelain. Ultimately I think Vello protests a little too much about his inability to fit in with a varied set of dramatis personae which includes a whores' choir, numerous semi-comatose tradesmen and the genuinely surreal unexplained acts of assorted relatives. He's much more of a genuine Estonian than he likes to let on. Whereas Lithuanians go for slapstick and Latvians laugh at broad farce, the Estonians seem to have a dry irony that frequently manifests itself in self-deprecation and is actually rather sophisticated. And that's the attitude Vello captures so well. Inherit The Family also has one of the best opening lines I've read for a long time, so buy it for someone you know and make them laugh on the toilet. That way it doesn't even matter if they wet themselves.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read,
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This review is from: Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe stories by Vello Vikerkaar (Paperback)
Vello Vikerkaar is one of Estonia's most controversial columnists. His insights into Estonian life both arouse praise from readers who are captivated by his honesty and raw sense of humor, as well as criticism from some for whom his tales are a little too forthcoming as they reveal an uglier side of Estonia they'd prefer was kept private. No matter which side you are on, you have to admit the style is inspiring. It is lean, up front, and spiced with smart dialog. Nobody complains that Vello isn't fun to read; they just can't help but fight over what he says.A positive aspect of this book is that Vello moves pretty smoothly from a weekly column format to a book format. Although the columns here are largely reprinted as they first appeared, the appealing layout of the book, and perhaps even the way in which the columns, re-imagined as chapters, are ordered, made it easy for me as a reader to move from one topic to another. I easily finished half of the book in a few hours, and because this is not a novel, I could return the next day to where I had left off and not feel that I had lost any of the book's underlying rhythm. In summary, as a reader, I recommend this book to you. So many writers get lost in the details and you can feel that you are drowning in a swamp of entertaining but ultimately useless information because, surprise, writers like to write, maybe too much. Vello's book is not a swamp. It's like the Lincoln Tunnel on a Sunday morning, you can drive right through and always be a little amazed by the experience. My one criticism is that so many of Vello's characters are cashiers, government clerks, taxi drivers, bartenders, and other providers of services. While lackluster service in Estonia is a theme of the book, such characters commonly appear in works by other writers in the region. Do writers just not get out enough, or is society so atomized in northern Europe that most human interaction really does occur between rude waiters and hungry diners? I can't pretend I know the answer to this question. Maybe it's an idea for another scandalous Vello column.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inherit the Family,
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This review is from: Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe stories by Vello Vikerkaar (Paperback)
I was happy with how the book was described prior to my purchasing it. I gave it to my father to read to Mum who is 88 and came to NZ from Estonia after the war. She was not impressed by some of the stories but they delighted my father who is NZ born and not Estonian. Maybe we could see what Mum could not? An entertaining read and very close to home!
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