{"product_id":"9781564788238","title":"A Hunt for Optimism","description":"Begun in 1929 under the title \"New Prose\" and drastically revised after Vladimir Mayakovsky's sudden death, \u003ci\u003eA Hunt for Optimism\u003c\/i\u003e (1931) circles obsessively around a single scene of interrogation in which a writer is subjected to a show trial for his unorthodoxy. Using multiple perspectives, fragments, and aphorisms, and bearing the vulnerability of both the Russian Jewry and the anti-Bolshevik intelligentsia—who had unwittingly become the \"enemies of the people\"\u003ci\u003eHunt\u003c\/i\u003e satirizes Soviet censorship and the ineptitude of Soviet leaders with acerbic panache. Despite criticism at the time that it lacked unity and was too \"variegated\" to be called a purely \"Shklovskian book,\" \u003ci\u003eHunt\u003c\/i\u003e is stylistically unpredictable, experimentally bold, and unapologetically ironic—making it one of the finest books in Shklovsky's body of work.","brand":"Deep Vellum Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182850818288,"sku":"9781564788238","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781564788238_p0.jpg?v=1763787918","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781564788238","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}