SOURCE: Jones, Tobin H. Review of Requiem pour l'Est, by Andreï Makine. French Review 75 (1 December 2001): 395-96.

In the following review, Jones discusses Requiem for the East as another of the author's works commenting on his feelings about his Russian experience.

[Requiem for the East] is Makine's sixth novel offering subjective reflections on Soviet Russia. For its Russian narrator awakening from illusion, it is a self-discovery and a confession, across time and distance, to his unnamed lover and co-agent in the service of Russian intelligence. It begins in response to her desire that some day the truth be told but becomes for him a recovery of self. Confronting the truth of his experiences, the narrator struggles with multiple identities imposed by the dissolute political ideology of the eroding Soviet Union. More than another indictment of Cold War politics, however, this narrative is also a compelling story of those caught...