{"product_id":"9780231183796","title":"Sentimental Tales","description":"\u003cp\u003eMikhail Zoshchenko’s \u003ci\u003eSentimental Tales\u003c\/i\u003e are satirical portraits of small-town characters on the fringes of Soviet society in the first decade of Bolshevik rule. The tales are narrated by one Kolenkorov, who is anything but a model Soviet author: not only is he still attached to the era of the old regime, he is also, quite simply, not a very good writer. Shaped by Zoshchenko’s masterful hands—he takes credit for editing the tales in a series of comic prefaces—Kolenkorov’s prose is beautifully mangled, full of stylistic infelicities, overloaded flights of metaphor, tortured cliché, and misused bureaucratese, in the tradition of Gogol.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet beneath Kolenkorov’s intrusive narration and sublime blathering, the stories are genuinely moving. They tell tales of unrequited love and amorous misadventures among down-on-their-luck musicians, provincial damsels, aspiring poets, and liberal aristocrats hopelessly out of place in the new Russia, against a backdrop of overcrowded apartments, scheming, and daydreaming. Zoshchenko’s deadpan style and sly ventriloquy mask a biting critique of Soviet life—and perhaps life in general\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eAn original perspective on Soviet society in the 1920s and simply uproariously funny, \u003ci\u003eSentimental Tales\u003c\/i\u003e at last shows Anglophone readers why Zoshchenko is considered among the greatest humorists of the Soviet era\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47023217082608,"sku":"9780231183796","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780231183796_p0.jpg?v=1763677920","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780231183796","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}