AustLit

'There were not many phones or televisions in Krasny Pereulok (the Red Alley), one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Odessa, lined with houses built prior to the revolution. Instead of wires, laundry ropes connected us one to another and to the wider world. Long and resilient, they stretched between opposing windows like invitations. Our neighbour Dusya had a hairy chin and a special passion for laundry. She spent hours hanging her underpants, endless like sailcloth, as long as someone listened to her commentary on the dresses of Brezhnev's wife (which Dusya claimed were imported from Hungary, or worse, from England), and on her hairstyle that, God forbid, was reminiscent of that Americanskaya actress. When she spoke, her moist lips swelled like balloons.' (Publication abstract)