Customer Reviews

Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers

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Apart from this book's obvious value as a humorous and intelligent look at 1935 America, it is most interesting for showing the many respects in which FDR's New Deal America was already fixed in many of the cultural and political ruts in which we still find the U.S. It can be so revealing because it observes the ordinary and the stupid as keenly as the elite and accomplished. (As a result, the book's occasional smugness will certainly grate on some American readers. The authors describe to us an incurious and unthinking people and are most dated by their certainty that the economic stagnation of 1935 is a loud and final trumpet-blast giving the final verdict on the American kind of capitalism. Maybe it was, in some ways, but in general this is facile in retrospect, especially in comparison with the Soviet trajectory. The point of this positive review is how much truth comes through despite this somewhat churlish--though always witty--attitude.)

The very premise of the book is that knowledge of the nation comes on a road trip, that the rhythm of stopping at gas stations and proceeding along endless highways is somehow definitive of America. Ilf and Petrov ponder the essential sameness of so many American towns. The book begins at once with New Yorkers' and Washingtonians' admonitions to the authors that the "real America" lies somewhere else, out on the roads sprawling westward. (The New Yorkers' children meanwhile, they observe, learn what a cow might be like by looking at the rhino in the Central Park Zoo.)

Some of what Ilf and Petrov hear in 1935 America is disgustingly familiar to us still: otherwise thriving families bankrupted by medical expenses; the ordinary man's belief that it's all right to soak the rich with progressive taxation so long as we leave them $5 million (around $75 million today) -- $4 million being perhaps not generous enough; Santa Fe overrun by millionaires; Los Angeles characterized by the peculiar ineradicability of exhaust in its air, and by a plenty of oranges that look better than they taste. (Americans, they observe, seem more interested in vitamins than taste.)

The authors' dark diagnosis of America is perhaps most fascinated by the role of advertising and idiot mass culture. They observe that an American might well graduate from a series of excellent schools, but that a few years of watching the dreck from Hollywood will stupefy them soon enough (and this was clear to them some years before the advent of commercial TV). They see that many of America's churches, schools, and journalistic organs serve, in effect, to reinforce this same effect of the movies, that "publicity" defines a wider theater of thought invasion than just the explicit ads. They are amused that Christmas is advertised in much the same way as Coca Cola, and for the same reasons. They understand how corporate branding really works--the irrelevant advertisement whose work is done just by making you pay attention to it.

They look at the business end of consumer culture, too, amazed at how much crap you don't need you will buy when everything at Woolworth's costs a nickel or a dime.

These are just some of the ideas that made an impression on me; I have omitted most of the book's topics, such as a notable report on how whites think (or, more accurately, do not think) of the blacks they keep down.

One note about what this book actually is: it is NOT an English translation of the authors' 1937 book Odnoetazhnaia Amerika (Single-Storey America). Not only does the introduction fail to clarify this, but the book's Library in Congress cataloging-in-publication is utterly erroneous in claiming this. The book SEEMS to be a (complete?) translation of the photo essays printed in the periodical Ogonek. The disadvantage of this is that you are missing the vast majority of the authors' writing about America (just at random, here are some chapters of Odoetazhnaia Amerika not represented here: The Electric Chair; Dearborn & Henry Ford; American football; A day in Mexico)--however, the entire book was immediately translated into English by Charles Malamuth and published in 1937 by Farrar & Rinehart under the title Little Golden America: Two Famous Soviet Humorists Survey These United States (not in print). But the huge advantage of this format is that it includes the photographs--which are half the fun of the whole thing (and whose omission from the 1937 book deprived it of much of its meaning, since many passages refer in detail to the subjects photographed). So I'd certainly recommend this volume as an introduction to Ilf and Petrov, and curious readers can hunt down "Little Golden America" afterwards.

This new translation (the last was in 1937) of this almost-lost work is a gem. And not just because it is by two of Soviet Russia's greatest writers and humorists. After all, it is always fascinating to hear how others see us, to see what photos they take, what impressions they bring away. Ilf and Petrov were trenchant observers of human nature, and this travelogue of their 1935 trip across America is simply a piece of classic journalism.

Of course, this is not the pair's funniest work. Hardly surprising, given that the system they lampooned with The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf (sadly, only the former is currently in print in English) was, by the time the pair turned up in America, engulfed in a paroxysm of self-mutilation. But the account of their journey is funny and at times biting, even taking into account Ilf and Petrov's need to toe the Party line (they were working for Pravda, after all).

Add in the candid and revealing photos of everyday Americans, and you have a true collector's item. In the end, reading this book is like leafing through an old family album full of vaguely familiar faces and places, with running commentary by a sarcastic, immigrant uncle. (Reviewed in Russian Life)

What a terrific job on the translation and reproduction of the documentation of this fascinating trip by the two Soviet journalists.
Highly recommend the book.

Ilf n Petrov Are teh most talented Russian Writers Even if the amount of their publications are small with only three books!
You cannot stop reading from the first page to the last. Their Humour Is Astonishing.
Much Respect. Doctor Dreez!

One of the greatest doculogues about the America of the 1930s, documenting with humor and poignant satire the culture and society of that tumultous period of depression, the great dust bowl migration, and the effect on the various people of the country as the journalists embark on a trip to find "the real america".
The translation loses some of the humor that the authors intended but having read the book in both english and russian I still find myself laughing out loud while reading certain passages. The description of the US is funny, touching and rings true even today. The culture of mass production, needless advertising [if you chew Wrigley's gum you'll be stronger, smarter, healthier, etc...], the sameness of all american towns [downtown, residential parts, a Main Street or State Street] sound very familiar and timeless.
To note, this is not the actual translation of the book that was published in russian "One Storied America". This a translation of the articles that Ilf and Petrov published in a Russian monthly periodical and is missing several chapters that were in the book. The only complete english translation of One Storied America as it was later published in Russian is the translation done in 1937 by Charles Malamuth that is as close to the original as you can get. I believe that book is now out of print and is hard to find but I managed to locate an online version of this gem at the below website:
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For those looking for a good laugh and a reality check, this book is a must read.

These two writers from the Soviet Union took a motor tour of the U. S. in the 1930s, taking photos along the way and sharing their informal observations with their comrades back home. Of course there's a bit of defensive propaganda imbedded in the comments (at least it would seem that way to most Americans), but it's very enlightening and thought-provoking to see ourselves and our country from a totally different perspective. The photos illustrate the authors' points and provide a a pleasant sense of nostalgia. Ilf and Petrov's light-hearted comments and their sense of humor add to the pleasure of reading the book, as well.

just want to make this clear as the amazon page wasn't specific enough on that. So this was a bit of disappointment.
Otherwise this was a fun book to go over.

wonderful report of the USA in time of the Great Depression days, by two acclaimed Soviet writers.
I learned about the very existence of the book from Amazon.com.

Two totalitarian Russian commies travel through America in the 1930's and have a jolly capitalist time (and a hard time concealing it). Quite funny, specially when one considers how much their anti-American comments must have been forced upon them, as expected from serfs of the Soviet regime. It's like Michael Moore criticizing capitalism while cashing in. The vivid pictures of the places and people they meet, as well as the conversations captured, are all beautifully expressed, in a very fluid and fresh prose. These two cowards, defendants of tyrants, are having the time of their life, New York to San Francisco and back, all expenses paid. Fittingly chosen photos accompany their trip. A beautiful and amusing travelogue.

A study of American society during Depression times, turned into a psychoanalysis of two soviet commies and their servile characters. The contrast, if you understand the circumstances of the times, are a real treat for the reader. Should be made into a road movie by Woody Allen.

A mildly entertaining read and a bit of history. Even so, it does get boring!