Reviews

The Twelve Chairs by Evgeny Petrov, Ilya Ilf

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ilman002's review against another edition

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5.0

The funniest book ever written.

alreadyemily's review against another edition

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3.0

Darkly funny, and then just dark.

coys's review

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5.0

If I was Russian this would be my favorite book of all time, I think? Incredibly funny send-up of, uh, the 1927 Soviet Union in the midst of the New Economic Policy (a temporary swing toward a more market-oriented economics proposed by Lenin in 1921). This is not particularly relatable nor is it something I know a considerable amount about. (Shockingly.) I cannot fathom how much of the humor I missed out on by just not knowing a single thing about what is being referenced (certainly the first novel I've read with 50 pages of footnotes -- and believe it or not, if you're reading a footnote to get a joke, that is not the ideal humor delivery mechanism. Half of the footnotes are just explaining that this turn of phrase is a reference to a popular song of that era which, again, I absolutely have not heard of -- hilarious!). And yet! Hysterical. Had a great time reading this, genuinely wish I could appreciate it at full capacity but easy 5 stars regardless. Not hard to see why this is considered a classic in Russia (and not appreciated so much outside of Russia.) Of note: the Russian wikipedia article for this book is longer than the English wikipedia article for The Bible.

Anyway, I wish I could recommend this to anyone I know with confidence they would like it, but it's so esoteric, dense, and completely irrelevant to the society in which any of my friends or acquaintances are a part of. I loved it despite these "flaws", but I would not expect anyone else to!