benedettal 's review for:

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

3.5

---

This was a very entertaining read, i have to say i was hooked from the very first pages. Dead Souls is a wonderful absurdist satire of Russian decadence and society by the great (Ukranian) Gogol, whose keen eye and sharp pen draw the most clever criticism of that same society I’ve read so far amongst his contemporary (I seem to remember he was named in my previous read Uncle Vanya and influenced The Double). 

The narrator’s voice reminded me of that Thackeray, whom I love, and perfectly framed the sketches of the progressively more bizzarre characters that we encounter throughout the novel. Describing the greed, uselessness, arrogance, even poverty typical of the Russian land owners, he skilfully exposes the rot of the system without being preachy or boring. His masterpiece, however, is our protagonist Chichikov, who starts out as a mystery when he first proposes to buy dead souls, only to be exposed as a fraudster by mid-book. It’s actually funny, but also so sad. Such a great way to expose serfdom for the inhumane thing it was. And also such a perfect anticlimax, to find out that this whole thing is just a get rich quick scheme.

The only thing holding back the book is that it’s a bit monotone, partially due to the fact that it’s unfinished. Not that it’s impossible to guess where things would have ended up, but the whole tour of the Russian province from household to household pretty much goes nowhere, on purpose, but still. Even at the point in which serving justice is discussed, it doesn’t seem to me like Gogol would make a great scene of it and punish his protagonist, his point was just to ridicule him. So yeah, overall this is a good read, quite thought provoking, but while I wouldn’t call it boring at any point, it feels a little repetitive.