''Good Citizens Need Not Fear'' is a 2020 debut book of Canadian writer Maria Reva, a collection of her short stories.Dana Gee
"Maria Reva revisits old country in clever novel about survival in tough times"
''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'', March 26, 2020. Maria Reva and her family had emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1997. Her tragicomical stories, with overlapping storylines, are set in a fictional town of Kirovka in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

of the last days of the Soviet Union and are inspired by her and her family's experience before the emigration and during her trips back to the old home country, with additional information coming from other sources. The title of the book is a hint to the omnipresent surveillance by

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

, which "good citizens" should not fear.

Stories

The stories are grouped in two parts. *Part One. Before the Fall **"Novostroïka" *:The story is a fictionalization of Maria's parents experience: due to a clerical error their building did not enter the city's registry, and for the municipal services the building did not exist.Maria Reva
Writing from Curiosity, Not Rage
/ref> This is what exactly happens in the story to Daniil Petrovich Blinov living at 1933 Invansk St. The "non-existing" building is central to the collection, with all events happening in or in the vicinity of it. **"Little Rabbit" *:Maria Reva says that when she was writing the story "Miss USSR" and elaborating on the early life of its protagonist, a girl nicknamed Zaya, she realized that Zaya's life in an orphanage is a story by itself. She writes that this was an example how the linkage between the stories gradually formed.Isaac Yuen
Between Humor and Darkness: An Interview with Maria Reva
/ref> The girl got the nickname not because she was loved, but because she had the "hare's lip", Russian for "

cleft lip A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nasal cavi ...

". Reva wrote that initially it was difficult for her to strike a proper balance of dark humor because of the atrocity of the situation in the orphanage where children were written off to die. However she says she had found a proper tone: the story started from the perspective of the orphanage management trying to deliver the logic of why the orphans must be handled this way. **"Letter of Apology" *: Somebody ratted on a poet Konstantyn that he told a political joke. Mikhail Ivanovich from

tries to extort a letter of apology from Konstantyn saying that in the past he would have gotten 10 years of

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

, but in modern times he can get away much easier, because... "prisons could no longer accommodate every citizen who uttered a joke." **"Bone Music" *:The story is based on a real ''

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

'' practice of the Soviet Union: before the advent of

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

s the banned Western music was clandestinely recorded "on ribs" or "on bones", i.e., on old X-ray films. **"Miss USSR" *:The candidate for the pageant, a Ukrainian beauty Orynko was disliked by the bosses as "too political" ad removed. Konstantyn pulls Zaya out of the orphanage as a substitute, with bizarre consequences. *Part Two. After the Fall :In this part, the people of 1933 Invansk St. scramble to make for living in the emerged

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

economy. :*"Lucky Toss" ::Konstantyn charges pilgrims for visits to the mummy of a saint he keeps in an apartment next to his own. :*"Roach Brooch" ::"Lucky Toss" and "Roach Brooch" have a mystical,

Kafkaesque Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of real ...

feeling, which somewhat precipitates into "The Ermine Coat" story. ::"Roach Brooch" connects to that of the "Bone Music": an old man with ungrateful offspring refuses to remove

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, because he is entitled to monthly X-rays, which he turns into the "bone music".Allan Hepburn
Storeys of Stories Finding the sublime in the ridiculous
/ref> :*"The Ermine Coat" ::At some point in the life Maria's parents indeed had to make living by sewing together ermine

pelt A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an ...

s for coats. :*"Homecoming" ::Zaya returns to the orphanage to work for a business who recreates the experiences of

for wealthy " dark tourists".

Awards and nominations

''Good Citizens Need Not Fear'' was considered for several awards: *2020: A shortlisted finalist for the 2020

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers ...

. *2020: Shortlisted for the

Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers. ...

*2020: ''

Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it fall ...

'': "The Globe 100" book listThe Globe 100: Our favourite books of 2020
/ref> *2021: Shortlisted for Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize *2022: Recipient of the Kobzar Literary Award

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2020 short story collections Canadian short story collections Works set in the Soviet Union