Monumental Propaganda

Praise

Praise for Monumental Propaganda

“If Frank Capra had been an acerbic Russian novelist and not a sunny American filmmaker, he might have written novels like Vladimir Voinovich's: funny, antic works that pit the little man against the system, ordinary folks against bureaucratic institutions and corrupt authorities. Mr. Voinovich's novels . . . unfold into philosophical meditations on the venality, hubris and folly of the human condition.”--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times


“Often touching . . . Monumental Propaganda is a novel that slashes and rips . . . In his translation, Andrew Bromfield deftly shifts his tone and tools as required, remaining true to Voinovich’s Vonnegut-like playfulness and appreciation of the absurb.” --Ken Kalfus, The New York Times Book Review


“Belly-busting comic genius . . . There are enough hilarious one-liners in Monumental Propaganda to make up for seven decades of Soviet earnestness.” --Boris Fishman, The Nation

“Monumental Propaganda, the latest novel by Vladimir Voinovich, one of the best-known and best-loved Soviet emigré writers, differs from other satires of Soviet life in that it takes that irrelevance -- of ideas, of philosophies, of people, of morality -- as its theme . . . Voinovich caricatures the cowardly toadies whose views changed along with the politics of the times, poking fun at their provincial manners and pompous declarations.”--Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post 


“Very earthy humor . . . Voinovich is wonderfully deft at balancing the grotesque and the realistic . . . a fine study of the peculiar buffoonery of Soviet life, with its fearful conformities, petty dissidents and its decadent final decades.” --Publishers Weekly