A review by vivamonty
Moscow - 2042 by Vladimir Voinovich

3.0

This is a novel built on a fascinating concept that doesn't quite stand up to the test of time. Our main character is a Russian writer exiled to Munich during the early 80's. He happens upon a deal from Lufthansa for a flight to Moscow in the year 2042. Throughout this bizarre journey, our writer bears witness to the outrageous society that has bloomed over the intermittent 60 years, as the Soviet Union has evolved into a dystopian cult of personality. Voinovich plays around with some fun meta-narrative tricks and some of his plot machinations are amusingly funny, but I felt like I missed out on a lot of what made the novel special when it was released in the mid-80s. Without that contextual experience, I was only able to see the surface of Voinovich's mocking satire on the Soviet system and of communism itself.