Moscow Racetrack: A Novel of Espionage at the Track

by Anatoly Gladilin

Moscow Racetrack is the story of the disillusioned Teacher, a habitué of the track, who one day lucks into big winnings. The KGB, who already had their eye on the Teacher because of his anti-Soviet essays on Russian history that are circulating in samizdat, sends the lucky winner and his pal to Paris, so they can test their skills on foreign turf and earn some hard currency for the impoverished Soviet government.

Genres: Fiction, Russia

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Anatoly Tikhonovich Gladilin (Russian: Анато́лий Ти́хонович Глади́лин; born August 21, 1935) is a Russian writer who defected from the Soviet Union in 1976 and has since lived in Paris.

In the 1960s, he was one of the most famous and promising young Russian authors, along with Vasily Aksyonov. In Paris, Gladilin worked for the Radio Liberty and the Deutsche Welle. Among his published works in the West was a novel, FSSR: The French Soviet Socialist Republic - a tale of a Communist coup in France.

Reviews

[Jack Berthiaume · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book didn’t work for me, and by that I mean it sucked. Firstly, the description on the back of the book describes part 2, which begins after the halfway point. This section was fine. The preceding section (again, half the book) lacked any narrative. I suppose you could call it a character study of characters I grew to hate. There is a focus on the minutia of horse racing and betting that if someone forced on you at a party would have you eyeing an exit in 30 seconds flat. Instead, you spend well over a hundred pages on information only interesting to race enthusiasts with completely unlikeable and forgettable characters. The protagonist couldn’t lack more charm. To that end- I’m not saying the author hates women, but I also can’t say why you’d write the book the way he did if he didn’t. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone except maybe racetrack enthusiasts or people really into Soviet history, and even then, do yourself a favor- skip straight to part 2.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book might have been more interesting to me if I liked horse racing. I didn't feel like there was much of a plot or any real character development.