i spent most of this book trying to figure out when exactly it was set via googling different clues given in the text. which makes me think that i was just not the intended audience, which is ok. 

it made me think about some of the modern Ukrainian books i enjoyed--would a foreign reader be able to parse them? there are many details in those books that feel so significant and eerily close to my heart because i lived through those events. maybe that's how this book makes Venezuelans feel? alas, not me