Rambling Raconteur’s Reviews > Memories of the Future > Status Update
Rambling Raconteur
is on page 133 of 228
The Thirteenth Category of Reason affirms Krzhizhanovsky as the twentieth century Gogol. In many ways, his satire remains more relevant than Gogol’s, and the swings from jaundiced irony to humor are abrupt, maintaining a reader’s attention. Last up, the titular story!
— Jun 02, 2025 08:20AM
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Rambling Raconteur
is on page 125 of 228
Red Snow continues to plumb a vein of horror. It’s clear why these stories could not be published when they were written in the 1920s, Krzhizhanovsky would have shared Isaac Babel’s fate.
— Jun 01, 2025 07:28AM
Rambling Raconteur
is on page 109 of 228
The Branch Line continues Krzhizhanovsky’s themes of subverting both capitalist and Soviet ideals. A grasping protagonist sees the failure of previous utopia in explicit form and then tries to literally climb over a casualty of the revolution and the previous order.
— May 31, 2025 08:03AM
Rambling Raconteur
is on page 87 of 228
The metafictional aspect to Someone Else’s Theme was developed quite well. Questions regarding who possesses a story: author or character were intriguing, and the ironic humor continues to shine throughout.
— May 30, 2025 08:25PM
Rambling Raconteur
is on page 53 of 228
The Bookmark reminds me of Barthelme and Cortázar in the best ways. Most writers would kill for a single story from any one of the fragments Krzhizhanovsky crams into these forty pages. The speed with which he moves from one absurd premise to the next is remarkable.
— May 29, 2025 04:35PM
Rambling Raconteur
is on page 15 of 228
The first story recalls Kafka and Gogol while suggesting the vein of dark ironies that Borges would explore. Looking forward to the rest of this collection.
— May 28, 2025 02:52PM
