Twenty years in the making, this saga alludes to the romantic work of Lermontov while also doing a great reprise of the jazz scene in Tbilisi. Compelling notes of Keith Gessen, Gary Shteyngart, and Jonathan Safran Foer will resonate for readers keeping up with Soviet absurdities in ex-USSR states.
As a Western, there are a few notable missteps here: errors about horse coat coloring, a much-too-long description of cooking gnocchi, and not enough time devoted to actual cow punching or horse breaking. This is best for readers interested in a visceral take on a cowboy reinventing himself.