Calling Ukraine

Lichtman’s sophomore novel (after Such Good Work) follows the suddenly aimless John, who impulsively moves from the United States to Ukraine after an offer comes through from an old college buddy. His job is to manage a small call center for his friend’s thriving homestay start-up, and his primary directive is to train the customer-service representatives in the nuances of U.S. small talk. From this premise, Lichtman crafts a slyly cerebral work that initially has the makings of a lighthearted workplace farce but then moves into darker comedy and headier observation. John is hyperconscious of the worst perceptions of U.S. citizens living abroad and endeavors to avoid such clichés, but as cultural nuances are further abstracted and the 2022 Russian war in Ukraine approaches, the blurriness of ethics and relationships only builds. Through it all, Licthman returns to the novel’s locus: an exploration of language, how our limits of expression—linguistically and emotionally—likewise limit our ability to fully know others, and the tragic ways we constantly talk past each other. As he balances these myriad thematic threads with a complete mastery of tone, Lichtman never gives into messages of either misery or contentment, instead asserting their ever-presence in our lives and particular symbiosis.