Meet the 21st Century's First Dynasty of Letters

(at least, the first I know of...)

Last month, on my way to a meeting with my publisher, I had the pleasure of getting together for lunch with Keith and Masha Gessen. I'd been introduced to Keith by his former professor, Mary Karr, then saw him again a month or so later at an n+1 reading. By then, I'd gotten a copy of his older sister's book, Ester and Ruzya, a family history focusing on her two Russian grandmothers and their difficult paths through the twentieth-century Soviet Union, and I knew she'd surely be in town for her publicity efforts, so I suggested the three of us try to meet up.

So we did, and had I not been in the middle of book-writing hell, I would have had much more presence of mind to take notes and craft a decent story, but as it is, we just sort of chatted for an hour or so about how their parents brought them to the United States in the early '80s, where we grew up about ten miles from each other in various Boston suburbs, and how Masha decided to return to her homeland while young Kostya changed his name to Keith and became part of a fresh new crew of public intellectuals. (Well, okay, I'm being a little silly and hyperbolic there.) Also, Masha urged me to tell the world that Keith makes the best scrambled eggs in the entire world.

I bring this all up because in recent days, Joanna Smith Rakoff has profiled Masha for Newsday, while an NY Observer piece by Wesley Yang on the n+1 boys includes some quotes from Keith. Masha gets the easier ride from the media, though it should be noted that by Observer standards, Keith and crew come out less scathed than usual. Masha also cites Keith for providing her with a crucial motivation. Describing a letter she wrote to her sibling about their grandmothers, she tells Rakoff:

"I put their stories side by side, saying, 'This grandmother made this set of moral choices. And this grandmother made this set of moral choices.' And he wrote back saying, 'These are very interesting stories, but what [is your] point?'... That [question] had me thinking for a while... And then I realized that I needed to write a book about the answer, a book about the ways in which people make moral choices. About the kinds of moral choices that they make ... in a situation where there is no moral choice."

I'm still making my way through Ester and Ruzya whenever I can grab an hour or so of free time, but it's a very gripping story and I would definitely urge it upon you.