The debut novel by Andrei Astvatsaturov (a professional philologist, expert on Henry Miller, grandson of the famous Soviet literary critic V.M. Zhirmunsky) is reminiscent in its intonation of the best pages of Sergei Dovlatov, Woody Allen and Pavel Sanaev. The hero-narrator - a St. Petersburg "intellectual with glasses" - takes the reader through the places of his late Soviet childhood and university youth, maintaining keen observation, self-irony and a brilliant sense of humor throughout.