Scan barcode
wanderlustqueen's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting and humorous perspective on relatively recent events in Russia
tearainread's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.25
jpperelman's review against another edition
3.0
I don't remember how I got this book but it makes me crave reading some Gogol stories.
katiereadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This memoir of the former Russian GQ editor starts strong and really loses momentum 2/3 of the way through. There’s not much narrative thread aside from “I did this, then I did this, then this happened, so I did this...” etc. Names are dropped constantly with little explanation; sometimes they return and other times they don’t, so I barely understood who was who in a given moment. At the same time, Idov does offer some interesting perspectives on how Russian society, especially media, works. Wouldn’t recommend unless you have some background knowledge on Putin-era Russia.
sashagrons's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe like a 2.7, 2.8?
What worked: The most interesting thing I learned from this book is the way cynicism and apathy pervades certain segments of Russian society that *could* be mobilized to resist autocracy. This is how democracy fails (or fails to start): people don't care enough to protest, or think it's futile, or are content to take their material comforts and shut up.
What didn't work: For someone without much of a background on Russian politics, I was lost for much of the book. Name after name flew by without me having the context to understand who was who. It probably took until about 100 pages in that the story moved beyond background and into interesting parts of Idov's experience in Russia.
My greatest criticism of the book, though, was that I didn't take away any major point about Russia other than the author isn't sure how to feel about it, either. The author and his family move away from Russia but he feels...somewhat more Russian? Or at least less American? after the experience. I know that real-life narratives don't sum up neatly, but I wanted there to be a *point* to all of this, a truth about the world or about Russia that this book illuminated. But there was none. And so I am left disappointed.
What worked: The most interesting thing I learned from this book is the way cynicism and apathy pervades certain segments of Russian society that *could* be mobilized to resist autocracy. This is how democracy fails (or fails to start): people don't care enough to protest, or think it's futile, or are content to take their material comforts and shut up.
What didn't work: For someone without much of a background on Russian politics, I was lost for much of the book. Name after name flew by without me having the context to understand who was who. It probably took until about 100 pages in that the story moved beyond background and into interesting parts of Idov's experience in Russia.
My greatest criticism of the book, though, was that I didn't take away any major point about Russia other than the author isn't sure how to feel about it, either. The author and his family move away from Russia but he feels...somewhat more Russian? Or at least less American? after the experience. I know that real-life narratives don't sum up neatly, but I wanted there to be a *point* to all of this, a truth about the world or about Russia that this book illuminated. But there was none. And so I am left disappointed.
idogrocker's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
sjfurger's review against another edition
5.0
This book is brilliant. It's darkly comic and entertaining while also being informative. Idov's humor mirrors my own in a lot of ways, and I really enjoyed his book! The best part about this for me was seeing the events I followed on twitter and the news re-analyzed from a different perspective, put in chronological and/or logical (I know.) order. Loved this book and am looking forward to more work from M. Idov!
mey's review against another edition
4.0
Partly a memoir, partly a witness account on the political situation in Russia in 2012-14 and partly an introduction to contemporary Russian culture (mostly TV but also a bit on literature), Dressed Up for a Riot sometimes rings of self-justification, but the author is mostly endearingly self-deprecating. His whole situation seems so far away from a non-Russian's life that the whole book feels like a surreal dream.