ABSTRACT
When I lived in Hamilton, I befriended a man who had just emigrated from Russia, a talented translator, linguist, and science fiction writer. He and his family were staying with friends until they could get their lives in order. On the day I came to take his wife to buy oatmeal at our health food store, I found the man building a cabinet. “You do cabinetry, too?” I said. “Were you trained to do this in the Soviet Union, did you study woodworking?”
