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A review by kingarooski
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
5.0
The Soviet economy did not move on from coal and steel and cement to plastics and microelectronics and software design, except in a very few military applications...It continued to suck resources and human labour in vast quantities into a heavy-industrial sector which had once
been intended to exist as a springboard for something else, but which by now had become its own justification. Soviet industry in its last decades existed because it existed, an empire of inertia expanding ever more slowly...Every year it produced goods that less and less corresponded to human needs, and whatever it once started producing, it tended to go on producing ad infinitum...
Francis Spufford's book on life in Soviet Russia in the 50s and early 60s is an unusual mix of genres: part fiction, part historical account. I found this to be a fascinating read as each section of the book was prefaced by an accurate description of the economic and social situation at the time. This was followed by three to four short stories, fictional but based on things that did happen or could have happened. Most of the "characters" in the stories were historical figures in Soviet Russia. Some stories allow us to re-visit the character a few years down the line to find out how their life develops. This is a wonderful book and one I would love to read again in the future.
been intended to exist as a springboard for something else, but which by now had become its own justification. Soviet industry in its last decades existed because it existed, an empire of inertia expanding ever more slowly...Every year it produced goods that less and less corresponded to human needs, and whatever it once started producing, it tended to go on producing ad infinitum...
Francis Spufford's book on life in Soviet Russia in the 50s and early 60s is an unusual mix of genres: part fiction, part historical account. I found this to be a fascinating read as each section of the book was prefaced by an accurate description of the economic and social situation at the time. This was followed by three to four short stories, fictional but based on things that did happen or could have happened. Most of the "characters" in the stories were historical figures in Soviet Russia. Some stories allow us to re-visit the character a few years down the line to find out how their life develops. This is a wonderful book and one I would love to read again in the future.