Barbara's Reviews > Learning to Swear in America

As the end of the world as we know it looms, seventeen-year-old Yuri Strelnikov joins a NASA team whose sole mission is to stop an enormous asteroid racing toward the planet. The Russian physics genius already has his doctorate, and he's convinced that his work on anti-matter presents the only way to save the Earth. But his youth and inexperience mean that most of those around him, especially the head of the project, dismiss his projections. As Yuri calculates and recalculates his projections, he becomes increasingly concerned that the scientists will only get one chance at thwarting the asteroid, and he takes a risk that no scientist would ever take. Woven into this central story are other narrative threads concerning his worries about his mentor back home and Laskov, another young scientist back home with political connections who he worries will take credit for his ideas and publish them under his name. Additionally, he comes to suspect that the team officials have no intention of letting him return to Russia. After a series of chance meetings with Dovie, an artistically talented teen girl, the socially-awkward boy begins a rapid induction into American culture. Since he's being watched all the time, he must go to great lengths to see Dovie and to hang out with her family, including her physically disabled brother Lennon. Although it would be hoped that the California school authorities would be less clueless than the ones Yuri encounters, his brief visit to Dovie's classes causes quite a stir as does his attendance at her prom. As Yuri works hard to save the world from destruction, his two new friends concoct a plan for his escape to Canada. Although I could see the ending coming and knew that Yuri had learned enough from his brief stint at playing God with the asteroid, I still loved it and literally cheered as Dovie, Lennon, and he were bouncing through traffic and while he was racing to freedom on the Ambassador Bridge leading from Detroit to Canada and freedom. I loved everything about this novel, including its sly cover and the frequent times in which Yuri misunderstood or misunderstood English language idioms or cultural practices. The book's pages are filled with humor and insight into human behavior. I don't know how a physics geek could steal his way into my heart, but this one did. As the novel comes to a close, not only has Yuri learned to swear in America, but he has also learned how to open his heart and mind to whatever may come next.