A cut-up experiment in The Stranger brings to my attention The Galosh, a recent collection of Mikhail Zoshchenko’s stories. I loved the Zoshchenko collection Nervous People and Other Satires when I read it a couple of years ago, though I found some of the humor puzzling. I was never sure which jokes came out off key because of (what seemed to be) a sometimes awkward seeming translation and which were just posed in some higher level of irony that someone who never experienced Soviet Russia could know.

There’s a more sober review of The Galosh here. This is one that I’ll want to read unless I’m hit by a bus tomorrow.*

Found while digging for reviews of The Galosh: Elephant Walk, The Overlook Press weblog

* My attempt at a Zoshchenko ending