Picture of author.

Vladimir Voinovich (1932–2018)

Autor(a) de The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

37+ Works 1,430 Membros 39 Críticas 6 Favorited

About the Author

Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich was born in Stalinabad, Soviet Union on September 26, 1932. He worked as a herdsman and trained as a locksmith before serving in the Soviet Army from 1951 to 1955. He began writing poetry while in the army and in the mid-1950s started publishing stories in the mostrar mais magazine Novy Mir. One story, I'd Be Honest if They'd Let Me, about a construction supervisor whose conscience is bothered by the shoddy structures he is ordered to build, was singled out as being dangerous. His novel, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, did not clear the Soviet censorship bar in 1969 but circulated underground and was published in Europe four years later. He was questioned repeatedly by the K.G.B. He left the country in 1980 and joined faculty of the Institute of Fine Arts in Munich. His Soviet citizenship was revoked in 1970 and he was unable to return for a decade. His other novels included Moscow 2042, The Fur Hat, Monumental Propaganda, and The Crimson Pelican. He died of a heart attack on July 27, 2018 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: Galina Zakhoder

Séries

Obras por Vladimir Voinovich

Moscow 2042 (1986) 287 exemplares
The Fur Hat (1989) 162 exemplares
The Ivankiad (1976) 123 exemplares
Monumental Propaganda (2002) 101 exemplares
The Anti-Soviet Soviet Union (1985) 51 exemplares
In Plain Russian (1979) 18 exemplares
De briefwisseling (1978) 10 exemplares
Voglio essere onesto (1964) 7 exemplares
Four Soviet Masterpieces (1965) — Contribuidor — 7 exemplares
Twee vrienden 4 exemplares

Associated Works

The Portable Twentieth Century Russian Reader (1985) — Contribuidor — 392 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

My oh my. I suspect that Mr. Voinovich was not popular with the authorities. A funny, funny book about a writer whose only goal is to get a better hat. The Writer’s Union is having hats made for its members and of course the more distinguished the writer, the more distinguished the fur to be used. Suffice to say, our hero finds that he is in line for a hat made of “fluffy tomcat.” The more he discovers what others are getting, the more incensed he becomes and the book is the story of his crusade to get something better. To say more would be telling. If you need a good laugh, read this.… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
Gypsy_Boy | 4 outras críticas | Aug 25, 2023 |
En vísperas del estallido de la segunda guerra mundial, un avión del Ejército Rojo realiza un aterrizaje forzoso en una remota aldea rusa. El soldado Iván Chonkin, un campesino desmañado e ingenuo pero dotado de un peculiar sentido común, es considerado el miembro más prescindible de su regimiento y es enviado allí con órdenes de custodiar el aparato. Olvidado rápidamente por sus superiores, Chonkin se integra en la peculiar vida del pueblo, donde protagoniza un sinfín de escenas hilarantes en compañía de sus estrafalarios vecinos. Pero ante la psicosis provocada por la invasión alemana, la policía política se entera de su existencia y envía un destacamento para arrestarlo por deserción.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Natt90 | 11 outras críticas | Mar 17, 2023 |
兔子,啊不,乖貓貓急了也咬人⋯⋯帽子的最終獲得手段倒是打了我個措手不及
 
Assinalado
puripuri | 4 outras críticas | Sep 9, 2021 |
I usually don't laugh at books that are supposed to be funny, especially ones that fall under the category of satire. I find a lot of allegedly funny writers try to be clever and end up being obnoxiously smarmy. There's no real humor in an author attempting to present him/herself as more intelligent than the book's characters. There is, however, plenty of humor in a guy finding out he just drank a glass of human shit.

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin is a very funny book as well as an impressive satirical depiction of the pre-WW2 USSR. Having previously read The Ivankiad, I was already aware of Vladimir Voinovich's ability to lampoon Soviet bureaucracy, but this is on another level. Voinovich has created a vibrant collective farm filled with citizens who, despite their exaggerated, comical personalities, struggle with many of the real problems faced by Russian peasants throughout the reign of Stalin.

Voinovich is at his funniest when writing about dreams. Ivan Chonkin and his neighbor Gladischev are ridiculous people who dream about even more ridiculous things based entirely on their inability to participate in normal human conversations. Their misunderstandings of how the world works and how the people around them think and feel lead to amazing nighttime hallucinations.

My only qualm with the book is the inconsistency of Chonkin's stupidity. He's in general a bumbling fool, but there are points where he's somehow stupid enough to ask a high-ranking Communist official about Stalin having two wives while at the same time smart enough to solve a food shortage crisis using a Soviet intelligence unit that he managed to singlehandedly capture. These wild swings in capability were a bit much to handle, and I felt intense sympathy for Nyura, a wonderful woman who just happened to pick the wrong man at the wrong time to be her partner.

Voinovich died this summer at the age of 85. While his most significant achievement may have been sneaking Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate out of the Soviet Union, it would be a shame to ignore his own literary output, much of which took the same bravery to write as Grossman's did. Voinovich was a significant voice as a Soviet dissident and one of the funniest writers in the USSR or anywhere else, so I highly recommend reading (and laughing at) all he created.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
bgramman | 11 outras críticas | May 9, 2020 |

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Associated Authors

Gheorghi Vladimov Contributor
Vasilii Aksenov Contributor
Yurii Kazakov Contributor
Richard Lourie Translator
Swetlana Geier Translator
Gerard Cruys Translator
Gerard Kruisman Translator
Marja Wiebes Translator

Estatísticas

Obras
37
Also by
1
Membros
1,430
Popularidade
#17,987
Avaliação
4.0
Críticas
39
ISBN
153
Línguas
16
Marcado como favorito
6

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