The blog is also a Muppet stan

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Really a 3.5; I'm honestly still debating between 3 and 4. The story of Muppets in Moscow is a fascinating one: just after the fall of the Soviet Union, author Natasha Lance (Rogoff), with a background solely in documentary filmmaking, starts working to bring Sesame Street to the former USSR. There are a million problems and countless logistics to deal with, from finding someone to help fund it and getting a broadcast partner to the basics of scripts and actors and sets and studios. A lot of the issues in the book come down to getting buy-in from various players in Russia, but there are also things like potential partners (multiple) being assassinated.

Understandably, this is all incredibly frustrating for Natasha. She's worked in Russia/the USSR before and has contacts and friends there, many of whom help her in this quest. But there are so many dead ends, promising leads cut short.

And then there's trying to find staff to work on the project. Despite having spent years in the USSR and loving Russia and its people and culture (she writes, "Russians embrace life as they do because history has taught them how just one false step can plunge them into unimaginable misfortune; therefore, they live more passionately than most people living in free and open societies" [p. 151]), Natasha is incredibly caught off-guard by the hostility of stakeholders to the idea of bringing in Sesame Street, to airing a show that's not filled with violent puppets and has optimistic children ("One of our producers had recently told me, 'Happy is not a Russian concept'" [p. 232]), to anything, really, promoting capitalism.

What fascinated me about this book was that tension in these adults who've lived their lives in the USSR, under the strict rule of the Communist party there and how they push back at the incredibly rapid influx of everything after the breakup of the Soviet Union. It makes sense, of course, and I was right there with Natasha in her bewilderment at some of the attitudes--though I guess I would've expected more from Natasha. She's good at acknowledging when other people point thing out to her about the context for her collaborators.

But the reason I had a hard time with the book was that I consistently found myself frustrated by Natasha herself. Her portrayal of herself is how someone would describe themselves when they're dealing with imposter syndrome; she clearly has the expertise to get this project done but she's always doubting herself. Every now and then there are glimpses of her as others see her and I'm just bummed we spent a lot more time with her panicking over the latest developments (again, understandably) and a lot less time seeing what she did when not having high-level meetings. At the end of the book, there's a reference to the studio where the show was filmed and she mentioned having climbed a ladder countless times. She...did? Doing what? That's what I want to see. We see her sitting in on meetings as people work through things and occasionally tentatively providing an opinion; we do not see very much (or any) of her leading, which is something she clearly did.

I also got annoyed at her describing her relationship with her husband, Ken; they meet early in the project, and they both travel a lot for work, but throughout the book she has to deal with crises and panics and he calms her down and gives her perspective and it happens over and over again, occasionally with him clearly worried about her and how she's prioritizing her relationship and her job. (For the record, they are still married, which is nice!)

To wit, she gets pregnant and spends the entire pregnancy ignoring and/or denying that fact. As she's on the verge of giving birth, she reflects

Gradually I realize what's upsetting me: I'm entirely unprepared for motherhood. Even the most unmaternal of women would have given more thought to having a baby than I have. They'd probably have at least understood that during the ninth month, a baby would arrive. To his credit, Ken has tried many times to speak with me about the baby--about how the baby would change the way we live, what our priorities are, and how we spend our time--but I've refused to acknowledge this, continuing my denial that "the baby won't change anything." (p. 314)

This is sort of the essence of her portrayal of herself (harsh!) and her relationship. On the one hand, it's nice that she doesn't feel the need to show herself without any weakness. On the other hand, this takes up a lot of the book.

In the end, I definitely the dissenter in my book club for having those kind of negative opinions (though I see others in the Goodreads comments) and there is a lot to get out of this book. It's incredibly depressing to reflect on where Russia is today, and where the United States is today, abandoning things like USAID, which was key to get Ulitsa Sezam going, and, of course, PBS itself.