A review by nick_latanick
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford

3.0

I really wanted to like this book better, and I think I might after a second read. The story is constructed in a series of vignettes, spanning the social strata of the USSR, as well as decades. I had trouble following the characters as they reemerged in later chapters, always at first unsure if this is someone new, or if we had met them before. Some of the most interesting characters and plots are left behind unfinished -barely even started- as the narrative arc ploughs ever onward to the next year, and the next plan cycle. Perhaps the book's structure is itself a metaphor for the indifferent churn of a planned economy, but it didn't enhance my enjoyment of reading the book.

That said, the vignettes themselves are each engaging and well written on their own, and now knowing more about how the book is constructed, and what the relationships are between the vignettes, which plots are throughlines and which are deadends, I think a second reading would be less confusing and easier to enjoy.