Quotation

Three Stations

An Arkady Renko Novel
The thing is, Russians are perfectionists. That’s our curse. It makes for great chess players and ballerinas and turns the rest of us into jealous inebriates. The question is not why don’t I drink less, it’s why don’t you drink more?” === At Three Stations the crippled, outcast and usually hidden members of society gathered like the Court of Miracles only without the miracles. === Workers’ trailers provided basic on-site accommodations: four bunk beds and a stove, but no toilet, shower or a/c. They baked in the summer and froze in the winter and from the outside the only concessions to human habitation was a sliding window and a door. === Russians were the actors, Tajiks the necessary but unseen stagehands who did the work too miserable or too dangerous for any local boy to consider. === Hash and heroin flowed through Three Stations and relations between the militia and railway police was a truce between thieves.