Promising first chapter of a novel by Keith Gessen in current New Yorker

Keith Gessen has a fine fiction entry in the current New Yorker (I cannot call it a short story as it obviously seems to be the first chapter of his forthcoming novel, A Terrible Country) that gives us some insight into a place most of us have never been: contemporary Russia as seen from the POV of a 30-something American, i.e., the narrator - who was Soviet-born, came to the U.S. at age 6 so feels fully American, unlike his sibling, an older brother who was 16 at emigration. At present the narrator is at a career deadlock, academic Ph.D. w/ no job prospects, and he gets a message from his brother asking if he can to the Moscow to take care of their only relative, their elderly grandmother. W/ nothing to keep him in the U.S., the narrator obliges. In essence this story/chapter introduces us to these two main characters and their tender if strained relationship; the grandmother has significant dementia, in fact cannot at times recall how she "knows" her grandson, though she recognizes her love for him (the awkward title of the piece in the NYer is a quote from the grandmother, that is powerful and sad in its context: How did we come to know you?). Through the chapter we get some insight into Russian medical care (the g-mother falls and hurts her head and goes to a neurology clinic, seedly looking place where families are expected to provide "gratuities" to the various staff members, though care is free) and a bit into the scary current state of Russian political an social life: the g-mother is in a desirable apartment, and there's a looming sense that elderly people in nice apartments find themselves unexpectedly injured or ill - perhaps not w/ nerve gas but it's possible g-m's fall on the steps involved a push? All told, this is a promising beginning, but Gessen will have to get a plot in motion soon; at this point there's no real central conflict or issue. The narrator (like the author?) is a journalist who took on this trip in hopes of writing a series of essays or articles - notably, the mysterious absence of the older brother who's supposedly in London cooking up a business deal (he's said to have made and lost a few fortunes since the collapse of the USSR).