A man is not a flea: Stories

by Mikhail Zoshchenko

English (translation)
Original Russian

140 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Mikhail Zoshchenko (Russian: Михаил Зощенко) was born in Poltava, Ukraine, on 29th July, 1895. He studied law at the University of Petersburg, but did not graduate.
During the First World War Zoshchenko served in the Russian Army. A supporter of the October Revolution, Zoshchenko joined the Red Army and fought against the Whites in the Civil War.
In 1922 Zoshchenko joined the literary group, the Serapion Brothers. Inspired by the work of Yevgeni Zamyatin, the group took their name from the story by Ernst T. Hoffmann, the Serapion Brothers, about an individualist who vows to devote himself to a free, imaginative and non-conformist art. Other members included Nickolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Slonimski, Victor Shklovsky, Vsevolod Ivanov and Konstantin Fedin. Russia's most important writer of the period, Maxim Gorky, also sympathized with the group's views.
Zoshchenko's early stories dealt with his experiences in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. He gradually developed a new style that relied heavily on humour. This was reflected in his stories that appeared in Tales (1923), Esteemed Citizens (1926), What the Nightingale Sang (1927) and Nervous People (1927).
Zoshchenko satires were popular with the Russian people and he was one of the country's most widely read writers in the 1920s. Although Zoshchenko never directly attacked the Soviet system, he was not afraid to highlight the problems of bureaucracy, corruption, poor housing and food shortages.
In the 1930s Zoshchenko came under increasing pressure to conform to the idea of socialist realism. As a satirist, Zoshchenko found this difficult, and attempts such as the Story of one Life were not successful.
Zoshchenko increasing got into trouble with the Soviet authorities. His autobiographical, Before Sunrise, was banned in 1943 and three years later his literary career was brought to an end when he was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union after the publication of The Adventures of a Monkey in the literary magazine, Zvezda.
Mikhail Zoshchenko died in Leningrad on 22nd July, 1958.

(source: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing collection of absurdist stories from the 1920s and 30s. Zoshchenko's style is simultaneously deadpan and frantic, his wit combines slapstick with subtle subversion. He is yet another example of a great Russian writer who managed to survive a repressive regime while taking potshots at it.

[C.C. Yager · Rating 3 out of 5]

These short stories, some no longer than a page, satirize the new Soviet regime by relating comical situations from daily life of the common person at the time -- 1920's. There had been a civil war before the Bolsheviks were able to establish themselves as the victors and begin consolidating their power. The common person suffered greatly from shortages of everything. Zoshchenko writes about finding an apartment, fixing a stove, taking a bath in a public bathhouse (that one was hysterical), falling in love. His narrator is a character separate from Zoshchenko -- it's like he's writing down what the narrator is telling him about the lives of people he meets. The voice is tough guy at times, frustrated, nonchalant, or down-to-earth. This narrator has seen a lot and is wise to the ways of the Soviet life he's seen.

While Zoshchenko provides a glimpse of what life was really like at the time he wrote these stories, the humor is probably beyond most Americans. It is about the absurdity of everyday situations Russians encountered and their powerlessness to change it. His satire became a powerful coping weapon. The Soviet authorities could not do anything against him, though, because of his literary choice of narrator. They didn't catch up to him until 1946 when he was expelled from the Writers Union. He apparently wrote nothing more and died 12 years later in dire poverty.

I enjoyed this stories, but I don't believe they are for everyone. I'd recommend them to readers interested in Russian literature, Soviet literature, and Russian history.

[mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lesson in hilarity and every day life in 19th century Soviet society. Having me giggling at every story, Zoschenko is a master at short, quippy, yet expressive stories. A shame that this collection isn't more easily accessible!

[Vincent Saint-Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Humans Self-Identifying as Male or Female,

This is a translation of Zoshchenko done by a man who grew up in Yugoslavia. On the whole, he has a knack for understanding Russian idioms, but his interpretation suffers from his desire to over-colloquialize Zoshchenko in English. Often times as you read this you will think to yourself, "Zoshchenko would never have said that." All the same, read it you should.

Ergo,

Vincent

[Andre Wiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everytime I read Mikhail I start with laughter and end with tears. he is a master of eliciting emotions of these sorts and you can truly feel the oppression he went through when he writes.