The contemporary characters are sketched with the barest indications of “damage” - perfunctory sentencies about Zhenia’s self-destructive tendencies, Paul’s lapse back into alcoholism. The contrast with the detalles description of events, with dismissive emotional commentary, by Irina is very Russian as the Red Scare girls would say. I think also the formal idea of ghostly narration is quite good and combines with this dual perspective quite usefully. Perhaps Zhenia does change with motherhood, but I feel that the last part, with the dénouement of Irina’s story doesn’t quite come off, although I’m not sure exactly what is required.