Envy Book

Soviet writer Yury Olesha really pulled something off with Envy (1927): he published a scathing satire of the pomposity and limited intellectual vision of a typical Soviet official, a satire which was favorably'and enthusiastically'reviewed by Pravda. How did he accomplish such a feat? By satirizing even more viciously the reactionary opponents of that official, demonstrating how a romantic self-conception may distort a person's vision of achievement, until he is filled with nothing but a poisonous, corrosive envy.

The plot is simple. The layabout, drunken Kavalerov is befriended by Andrei Babichev, the manager of a meat factory who, because of this kindness, earns Kavalerov's endying loathing. Bibichev's goal is to open an affordable restaurant, the centerpiece of which will be his holy grail: a substantial, high quality, inexpensive sausage. Kavalerov soon joins forces with Andrei's envious brother Ivan, and together they set out to smash Andrei Babichev's dream.

Although the book bored me and puzzled me at times, I get the feeling some of this due to the translation, and some of it to my own inadequate knowledge of the culture of the early days of the Stalin's Soviet Union. Still, the novel has much to recommend it: biting satire, raucous humor, odd surrealist details, unsettling narrative shifts, and'above all'unusual metaphors and colorful language.

To give you an idea of the metaphors and language, I offer this passage this description the closing of the town market (heralded by its own metaphorical a sunset): The afternoon was rolling up its stalls. A gypsy in a dark blue vest with painted cheeks and a beard hoisted a clean coper bowl on his shoulder. The bowl's disk was bright and blind. The gypsy was walking slowly, the bowl was rocking gently, and the afternoon was spinning in its disk.

The fellow travelers watched it go.

And the disk set, like the sun. The day was done.