Dead Souls

While most people may remember Nikolai Gogol for his surreal short stories, this novel by him is just as laugh out loud funny as those stories.  Our hero, Chichikov (as the author often refers to him) is a stranger in town and on a mission to purchase dead muzhiks from Russian land owners.  They are of little use to the owners and only a tax liability, while he will be considered a rich man until the next census, as wealth in this time of Russia's history is based on number of acres and number of souls owned.

Gogol has an amazing writing ability, telling as much in one sentence as some authors need entire books to explain.  He often interrupts his own narration to compliment the reader, or apologize to his characters, in a very unintrusive way.

The award winning translating team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky permit the reader to believe they are enjoying what the author intended and not what they would have written instead of Gogol.  Sadly, Gogol did not complete the second part of this book.   The translators explain that Gogol burned two different endings and the manuscript they used for this translation has illegible words, made up words and complete chapters and pages missing. Because of this, the second part tends to jump around and while easy to follow and catch up in the life of our hero, it left this reader sometimes confused and looking for explanations - and the completion to the very last sentence!

If you are a fan of 19th century Russian literature written with humor and bite, add this book to your pile.  You won't be disappointed.

Nausea rating:  None!  Just wonderful!