Mikhailov’s Tea Coffee Cappuccino is seen as the third book in the series about Kharkov after Am Boden & Dämmerung published as a twin volume in 1996 and Case History, 1997. This is a very dark portrayal of post-Soviet life even after the horror of Case History, showing in June at MoMA. Signs of joyless commerce are seen ad nausea in billboards, shopping bags as well as broken men and women, alcoholics and the homeless as Mikhailov speculates in the introduction this is the “new time”, years marked by “doing business…a flux of cheap commodities has conquered ubiquitously, creating a colorful new plastic reality PHOTOGRAPHY pp.238 First Edition #0320
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