Sometimes the lists of books assigned for you to read during the course of a semester for a class at an institution of higher (or middle) education can make you feel anything but excited or even a tiny bit thrilled. Usuallly the student asks himself (or herself) the following question (given that the class being taught revolves around a for the student interesting topic): “If I haven’t read it already then it must mean that it is bad or boring or… just not my kind of book.” This was pretty much exactly what was going on in my head when I found the novel «Зависть» [“Envy”] on a directory of recommended reading in preparation for the examaniation in Russian Literature at Gothenburg University’s Slavic Department. Up until a couple of months ago I knew practically nothing about 20th century Russian literature (although I can pride myself on knowing EVERYTHING about the classics that belong to the century prior) which is why I was not surprised to find it’s author Юрий Карлович Олеша [Yuri Karlovich Olesha] completely unknown to me. I am now ashamed of my previous ignorance. This book is a wonderful work of fiction, a truly enjoyable piece of art, both humorous and astonishing (especially in it’s plentiful and eccentric – because of its Soviet Union in 1927 setting – Biblical references) and very easy and fast to read. I finished it in two days, not very surprisingly though since it is no more than 130 pages long (in my copy that’s a cheap paperback edition from www.azbooka.ru).

It begins with the following line, a line that has probably been more discussed than the novel itself: «Он поёт по утрам в клозете» [He sings in the mornings in the toilet]. A novel in two parts, the first told from a first person narrative and the second from third person perspective, it takes place during the spring of 1927 in Moscow. The story is about a young man, Николай Кавалеров, who during a drunken night was pitied on by the successful and raucous Soviet Official Андрей Бабичев (he’s the one who likes to sing and take a crap at the same time), who is building a new dining hall – «Четвертак» – where every meal will cost 25 kopeck and this will free the women from the kitchen. The young man sleeps on the Soviet Official’s couch, and finds out that before him on this very couch slept a certain Володя Макаров and that this boy is a soccer player and a model for The New Man for The New Century, so he decides to split. Shortly after this he meets the brother of the Soviet Official Иван Бабичев, who’s out to destroy all the emotions of The Old World with his «Загавор чувств» [conspiracy of emotions]. Ivan has a daughter, Валя, and the Soviet Official wants Valya to marry Volodya, but the young man Nikolaj has also fallen in love with Valya and is firmly decided on preventing the Soviet Official from ‘stealing’ her.

In a letter upon ditching the Soviet Official’s apartment Nikolaj writes: «Я получу Валю – как приз – за всё: за унижение, за молодость, которую я не успел увидеть, за собачью мою жизнь». [“I will get Valya – as a prize – for everything: for the humilation, for the youth which I didn’t have the time to see, for my dog’s life”.]

During an interrogation with the ГПУ Ivan, who once turned the port vein of a wedding into water, explains his ‘emotional conspiracy’: «…целый ряд человеческих чувств кажется мне подлежащим уничтожению… жалости, нежности, гордости, ревности, любви – словом, почти все чувства, из которых состояла душа человека кончающейся эры. Эра социализма создаст взамен прежних чувствований новую серию состояний человеческой души». [A whole series of human emotions it seems to me are liable to elimination… pity, tenderness, pride, jealousy, love – in a word, almost all the emotions that made up the soul of the ending era’s human being. The era of socialism will create in exchange for the old feelings a new series of conditions of the human soul.]

Ivan also explains to ГПУ that he wants to gather a group of representatives of the emotions now belonging to a ‘lost world’. He is then asked: «И что же, вам удалось уже найти кого-либо?» [So then, have you already succeeded in finding anyone?] «Я долго звал, долго искал. Это очень трудно. Быть может, меня не понимают. Но одного я нашёл». [During a long time I called, during a long time I searched. It is very difficult. Maybe, they don’t understand me. But I have found one.] «Кого именно?» [Who exactly?] «Вас интересует чувство, носителем которого он является, или его имя?» [Are you interested in the feeling of which he is the carrier, or his name?] «И то и другое». [Both.] «Николай Кавалеров. Засистник». [Nikolaj Kavalerov. Envious person.]

Nikolaj and Ivan are shortly after this united in their mission against Ivan’s brother Andrej, the Soviet Official, to save Valya from marrying Volodya. And since I’m not a fan of spoilers myself, I will leave you with this and no more. Okay, so I can add as much as that the ending is brilliant – perhaps not from a moral point of view, but from a literary one. I was very pleased with the reading of this book and I hope I’ll be just as pleased with the next book on the recommended reading list: «Другая жизнь» [“Another Life”] by Юрий Валентинович Трифонов [Yury Valentinovich Trifonov].