The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (European Classics)

This was the selection of my book club. I was a little leery, because unless it's EXTREMELY well done, satire doesn't work for me - it's an all-or-nothing proposition. Anything less than Mark-Twain-level and I can't be bothered.Well, "Private Chonkin" was a pleasant surprise. I had the feeling that the writer and/or translator had a lot of fun with this one - I kept hearing a giggle off the page as I read. As is always the case with satire, it helps to be somewhat familiar with the reality that's being skewed, but in this case, it's not a requirement for enjoying the book.The premise is pretty good, and ripe for satire - hapless nudnik of a soldier is assigned to guard a downed plane in a remote village in the Soviet Union just before the beginning of WW II. His superiors forget about him as he settles into the life of the village, and when they finally remember him, all hell breaks loose as he proves to be a lot smarter than any of them. The author skewers everyone and everything, but none as savagely as the Party and the Army.The depictions of life in remote areas can be hair-raising; the villages, the people, and their lives are pretty primitive. I had the sense that this part of the world hadn't changed in centuries. And I also had the feeling that these were accurate descriptions, rooted in some pretty harsh realities. The only parts that I felt bordered on tedium were the lengthy descriptions of Private Chonkin's dreams; they played a role in the overall satire but otherwise didn't move the story forward.With translations, it's hard to tell what you're really appreciating: the art of the writer or that of the translator. Obviously, the translator has to have something to work with, but the nuances could be credited to either. That said, I found this book well-written and highly amusing, and I recommend it to anyone who appreciates this kind of writing.

This is a wonderful book and fairly quick read -- except when you have to stop to laugh. It is good to see the Soviets suffer the same type of organizational incompetence the US does. Reminds me of the time I was in Moscow a few days before the big May Day parade and during the practice the Red army troopers screwed around during practice as much as we did -- or perhaps I always had a bad attitude during parade practice. Anyway this follows the story of the good private and we see not only the Red Army at its finest but also the way the secret police reacts to friends ratting out their neighbors to get even or get ahead. Several standouts hit me such as his two rules 1) work slowly 2) delay your work since the higher ups might change their mind, as we did see when they ran off the crowd awaiting the WWII announcement and then rushed out to get them back. All in all this is a very good story and it is easy to see how the author was exiled and not invited back as the Soviet Union folded. This is well worth the time to read and even makes my reread list. I highly recommend the story. I guess the only complaint I have is it is only available in hard copy, no kindle version yet.

Year ago, I read this author's hilarious satire, Moscow 2042. When he passed away recently, the obituary mentioned thus book, and fortunately Amazon listed it. Even if you don't know a lot about the Soviet Union under Stalin, it's a very funny book, a comic opera of stupid coincidences and misunderstandings. But if you know about Stalin's repression and state terror, the satire comes through loud and clear. It's a wonder that Voinovich was merely kicked out of the Soviet Union in 1980 rather than being sent to prison, or worse. The setting is a Soviet collective farm somewhere in the middle of Russia. A Russian airfare plane has to make a forced landing due to a blown oil line, and a sad sack of a soldier is sent to guard it. His unit promptly forgets about him, and he beds down with local woman but continue to guard the airplane. It's June 1941, and the Germans invade Russia, at which point his unit sort of remembers him, and wild confusion ensues. If you've read any Gogol, you'll recognize the genre, but even if you don't know the literary or historical context, it's a great and very, very funny story.

This is a humorous book. You will be laughing at most situations. Dudnik and the communist horse were among my favorites. Ivan may have been the remaining character for the author to choose (if you read the book you'd understand this) to make his main character, but he blessed us by doing so.The book is about Private Ivan Chonkin, who is in the Russian army. After being sent to guard a downed plane in a small village, he is forgotten by his superiors. He starts to settle down with a local woman, but one day after being accused of treason, the army is sent after him.Unfortunately the book feels like one long introduction until we get to the part where Ivan must fight for his freedom. And the ending was sad. If I didn't know there was sequels, I'd think he. . . well can't spoil that. But I'd think where he ends up, he stays there forever and that does make it a sad ending, despite the horse.

It looks like someone just tried scanning each page of a book and hoped it would work on a Kindle (it doesn't). The orientation is wrong. The text is cut off to where you'll lose a sentence between pages. It is unreadable. Unfortunately, I took to long to look at it and lost my opportunity to return it.

This book served as my introduction to Vladimir Voinovich. It has to be one of greatest Soviet satires ever written.If you are going to read this book you MUST also read "Pretender to the Throne The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin". "Pretender to the Throne" is essentially part II of this book and, in my opinion, even better than part I. Voinovich masterfully unfolds the chaos of the Soviet Union through the simple life of Ivan Chonkin, a common Russian soldier. This book will leave you laughing outloud.I highly recommend this and other works by Voinovich. Voinovich should have a place in every Russian Literature library!

What’s amazing is that this was written during the Soviet era (post Stalin of course) and the author got away with poking fun at the communist system. This would have got him shot a couple of decades earlier.

All good.

Refunded because the quality was totally unacceptable. It was scanned as a graphic from a marked-up copy and the scanned text was not the same size on different pages. Worst of all, it was misaligned so that the block of text was on its side and thus almost unreadable. A completely incompetent effort at producing an e-book. Whoever did it, and whoever checked it, should be disciplined.