A Commonweal magazine review of A Backpack, A Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka (Doubleday, 2014) by Boston College alumnus Lev Golinkin draws comparisons to another memoir about a Jewish family fleeing the Soviet Union —Waiting for America by Boston College Professor Maxim D. Shrayer. Called a “gripping account of a family’s flight from tyranny,” Golinkin’s memoir “delves into the experience of everyday life under totalitarianism, the effects of official and cultural anti-Semitism, and the difficulties of growing up as a refugee with a past you would rather forget.” Commonweal magazine review