Krzhizhanovsky's "Postmark: Moscow"

Though it's "all good" (I'll need to do a reread before I settle on a fave), I'm very much enjoying "Postmark: Moscow" (the last lap of the Corpse) because it's like time-traveling with Siggy as your guide.

From Letter Seven (just happens to be the one I'm on):

At the moment I'm very busy looking for Moscow on library shelves. I couldn't have done without the mysterious drawer of the extremely kind and learned Pyotr Nikolaevich Miller; this drawer is stuffed with little square cards: No matter which one you pull out, it is marked "Moscow." This is my third week sitting in the airy reading room on the top floor of the History Museum flicking the dust off old books about Moscow. You may ask: What did I find under the dust? Ashes.
     Yes, on forty layers of ashes we all abide, over forty layers of ashes we walk and ride.
      
 

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