AUTHOR: Sergei Dovlatov
READ: September
THOUGHTS: Picked this up out of nowhere and was blown away. Really, really loved this. I can't believe I haven't heard of this guy before. This is really more a collection of short stories than a novel, but what makes this work is Dovlatov's voice, which after only reading a few sentences was already incredibly engaging, hilarious, and unique. This book made me laugh out loud several times. I was also really impressed by his deft/economical sentence construction -- a very light touch! The voice reminded me a bit of a slightly more comical Bolano: the imposed self-irony, helplessness/fatalism-as-humor, seeming ambivalence re: being a 'writer,' etc. I even found his little anti-Communist remarks more endearing than 'political' or anything that would take itself too seriously. Would recommend this to everyone. Will probably be reading more of him in the near future.
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