y W. Morton
In "The Exchange," a story by the late Yuri Trifonov, a pop- ular Russian writer who often dealt with the stratagems of the Soviet urban middle class, a Moscow woman changes her offi- cial apartment registration and legally moves in with her hus- band's dying mother-whom she hates.
She makes the shift for one important reason: to prevent the old lady's precious single room from reverting, upon her death, to the state. The woman reckons that, through the bartering sys- tem...