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Envy
Envy | Yury Olesha
5 posts | 4 read | 3 to read
Andrei Babichev is a paragon of Soviet values, an innovative and practical man, Director of the Food Industry Trust, a man whose vision encompasses such future advances for mankind as the 35-kopeck sausage and the self-peeling potato. Out of kindness, he rescues from the gutter Nikolai Karalerov, violently tossed from a bar after a drunken and self-destructive tirade. But instead of gratitude, Babichev finds himself the subject of an endlessly malignant jealousy, as Kavaelrov sees in him a representative of the new breed of man who has prevented him from realizing his true greatness. A scathing social satire, Envy is a concise and incisive exploration of the paradigmatic conflicts of the early Soviet age: old versus new, imagination versus pragmatism, and the alienation of the romantic artist in the age of technology. Critics as far apart as Gleb Struve ( One of the most interesting and original works in the whole of Soviet literature ) and Pravda ( Olesha's style is masterful, his psychological analysis infinitely subtle, his portrayal of negative characters truly striking ) have praised the novel, and one of the signs of its universality is the fact that it has been claimed by nearly every school of critics and interpreted as everything from a submerged homosexual story to a 20th-century Notes from the Underground."
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Liz_M
Envy | Yuri Olesha
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Just a few books to finish July.

Tamra How is Testament of Youth? I recently stacked it. 8mo
Liz_M I read part one a week or so ago (life leading up to the war). It's a little meandering, but probably necessary to set up the coming tragedies. The writing is good though! 8mo
24 likes2 comments
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vivastory
Envy | Yuri Olesha
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Up next. Anyone a fan of Green Integer books? I have several of them in storage & I was reminded of them when I stumbled across this at HPB a couple of ago.

Leftcoastzen I‘ve got a few somewhere, maybe hunt them down this Sunday.😄 3y
vivastory @Leftcoastzen I'd love to see them!! I just googled them and it appears that they are still in business. 3y
LeahBergen I want to know about this “storage” of yours… do you have a secret vault? A rented shipping container? 😆😆 3y
vivastory @LeahBergen Nothing quite that exciting. Years ago when my ex & I were separating, I had to store my books somewhere as my living situation at the time didn't have enough space. So I rented an inside temperature controlled storage unit & stored them there. I need to move them out, but it's going to be a massive project so I keep delaying it. I hope to tackle it over the summer as I have new bookcases being delivered soon! 3y
LeahBergen Ooo, I can‘t wait to see the project photos! 👏 3y
66 likes5 comments
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ontheBL
Envy | Yury Olesha
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Pickpick

This is such an amazing book! It's even better in Russian.

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JulietteReadsALot
Envy | Yury Olesha
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Panpan

It's a short book, but it has been a slow read for me... I had difficulty entering the story, and following it. If it had been longer I would have certainly bailed. It was published in 1927, I read it for the #192019challenge.

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JulietteReadsALot
Envy | Yury Olesha
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#bookmail again! This book is scheduled to be read in 2017 ;)