“Two young slackers are leaving for America to earn money under an international student program. This is a very charming essay... a normal youth diary. But the joy that shines on every page is, of course, ensured not only by the author’s youth and excess of hormones: the hero simply finds it very funny in America. The situations in which he and his friend find themselves are almost entirely traumatic, the people they meet are almost entirely unhappy, everyone has some kind of obsessions and frustrations, but everything is drowning in an atmosphere of good nature, which is completely impossible in today’s Russia. All they do is forgive each other for their oddities and stupidities. Sweet everyday American absurdity is based on an excess of mutual respect and compliance - the driver of the night bus laughs into the microphone, the owner of the cafe constantly makes fun of himself, fights are extinguished in the bud, grievances are dissolved. Whether America really is like that is not important (for itself, of course, it is not like that). But for a person who arrived here from the Russian atmosphere, it is truly a holiday - not financial or commodity, as it was before, but emotional.” Dmitry Bykov