MOONLIGHT ENCORES: I checked out My Sergei, Ekaterina Gordeeva’s memoir of her brief, happy marriage to Sergei Grinkov, because I’d heard that it was a window on to life, marriage, and dating in the late days of the Soviet Union and especially the Soviet sports machine. The book is so focused and so simply, cleanly-written that it doesn’t actually illuminate the cultural context as much as I’d hoped, but it’s a limpid portrayal of true love and the journey toward adulthood.

It’s also quite candid. To take maybe the most obvious example, Gordeeva describes her plans to abort her child. Her mother and her priest basically talk/manipulate her out of it, and Daria becomes her most precious and lasting reminder of Sergei after his death. Ordinarily I would wonder what it must feel like to read that one’s mother seriously considered abortion, but Gordeeva’s love for her daughter (as a person in her own right, not solely a memento of lost love) shines through so clearly. The message, to the extent that there is one, is not only that children are a blessing but that it’s later than you think.

There are also really detailed, lovely descriptions of the emotions behind the programs of Gordeeva and Grinkov’s last year. I can’t wait to watch or re-watch them with the insight Gordeeva provided.