Upon first glance at the jacket copy for Lev Golinkin's debut memoir, one might be tempted to dismiss it as a knockoff of Gary Shteyngart's "Little Failure." Written by a Russian immigrant? Check. A ...

In the late ’80s — the last few years of the Soviet Union — a flood of Jews streamed across its boarders. Many had waited a decade or more to leave and suffered untold personal and professional ...