Every toilet needs a good home.
Written: Dec 13 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Autobiographical satire—the hardest kind. Short. Glimpse of politicking in the USSR’s Writers’ Union.
Cons: Not as entertaining a treatment of the soviet writing community as his later Fur Hat.
The Bottom Line: A struggle of classical proportions against bureaucrats willing to abuse their positions and call in all their favors.
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| panguitch's Full Review: The Ivankiad Books |
Premise
Members of a housing coop, one an underdog, the other a bigwig with connections, fight over an available apartment. Doesn’t sound riveting? Happens every day in any major city? Perhaps you’ve experienced it yourself.
But this is no everyman’s tale. This is Brezhnev’s USSR, early 1970s. And the housing coop is that of the Moscow branch of the soviet Writer’s Union. The underdog, Vladimir Voinovich, a minor figure already suspected as anti-soviet. The bigwig, Sergei Ivanko, an important publisher with political ties. Underscoring the injustice, Ivanko already has three rooms, Voinovich only one (with a pregnant wife). But Ivanko desperately needs this apartment for his imported American toilet! Most coop members support Voinovich privately, but will they stand for him publicly? And if they do, will Ivanko’s connections overrule the will of the coop?
Characters
The book is an expose of the true character of Ivanko &co. It reports their words and deeds, during board and assembly meetings, and in letters and hallways. Ivanko and his primary ally, Chairman of the coop’s executive board Turganov, scrupulously abuse their positions. Ivanko is shocked anyone would resist him. He pulls out all stops in seeking a room for his toilet: slating new editions of his allies’ work for publication and calling in favors from VIPs.
Voinovich begins earnestly, seeking the space his family needs. But realizes the situation’s absurdity and decides to push it as far as he can out of curiosity. He is stubborn in the fight, relentlessly holding to principle and proper procedure.
Style
Unfortunately, two common problems in autobiographical satires leak in. Voinovich’s bitterness at times clouds the humor, and certain episodes lack the extreme absurdity of his other work. The story is too believable, and too personal.
Recommendation
However, it’s a good read. Quick, at 132 pages. And a fascinating view of politicking inside the soviet Writer’s Union. Voinovich asserts he cannot be faulted if the story is anti-soviet; he merely relates it. His opponents wrote it, and if soviet glory is tarnished, credit is theirs. Voinovich is one of the most important Russian writers of the late Twentieth Century and a superb satirist. I sooner recommend his Fur Hat which addresses similar themes more successfully, though not a ‘true’ story.
- Panguitch
Recommended:
Yes
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