From Publishers Weekly
Dovlatov, who fled the Soviet Union in 1978 and now lives in New York, is a worthy successor to the great Russian satirists whose tradition he enlarges. Through 13 captivating, sharp, funny vignettes of family members, he paints an ironic picture of life in the Soviet Union from the reign of Stalin to the present day. With an endless fund of anecdote, Dovlatov ( The Zone ; The Compromise ) tells hair-raising, hilarious stories, such as how he became a labor-camp guard assigned to watch over his own cousin, and the wildly improbable way he met his wife. He is, at times, very quotable. On himself in youth: "Masquerading as an unrecognized genius somehow made existence easier." On social classes: "Apparently, people at the bottom of the social ladder don't much care for others like themselves: they prefer to love the masters."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This autobiographical collection of character sketches provides an engaging glimpse of four generations of a Soviet family that suffered relatively little, even under Stalin, and enjoyed considerable upward mobility. While there are a few grim moments, the emphasis is on the absurdities of Soviet life and the manipulability of the system for those who, like the Dovlatovs, have the right connections. Though the names of many Soviet celebrities mentioned here will be known only to specialists, and there are a few lapses into hyperbole, this well-written and carefully translated book by a Russian emigre novelist is likely to come as a revelation to readers whose knowledge of modern Russian history derives from Solzhenitsyn and other memoirists who experienced the brutality of Stalin.
- Robert Decker, Harriman Inst., Columbia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Robert Decker, Harriman Inst., Columbia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
