"Stalin invented Slonimsky! Then he must have also invented the genetic content of one-quarter of me, for Z. Y. Slonimsky, known to the world of Jewish scholarship as Chaim Selig Slonimsky, was my paternal grandfather. A swarm of childhood memories invaded my brain. Ever since I could remember, my mother used to tell me amazing tales about my grandfather, who was a genius, but an impractical one. "Don’t follow in his footsteps," she cautioned me."