A review by fil
The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov

2.0

Here, Gazdanov gives us a great premise, truly wonderful! ... and then reality sets in. Some guy shoots another guy and leaves him, so he thinks, for dead. He reads about it in a book, from the dead guy's perspective and... well, and nothing of note happens afterward. He does hook up with a mysterious, strange for the sake of strange, vacuous woman. Then, just for the heck of it, a crappy gangster movie plot is added but is irrelevant (unless it is to demonstrate how life can be unpredictable but, really, who the fuck cares?) and the predictable ending one guessed, since the beginning, unfolds as predicted, hazaa!

Get it? The predictable/unpredictable vicissitudes of life? If the author did this on purpose in order to show how one should savour life, should live life, than I am underwhelmed. If not, this is mostly just a guy having a big boner on his new girlfriend - yeah, one of those.