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One of the delights of Russian literature, a tour de force that has been compared to the best of Nabokov and Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha's novella Envybrings together cutting social satire, slapstick humour, and a wild visionary streak. Andrei is a model Soviet citizen, a swaggering, self-satisfied mogul of the food industry who intends to revolutionise modern life with mass-produced sausage. Nikolai is a loser. Finding him drunk in the gutter, Andrei gives him a bed for the night and a job as a gofer. Nikolai takes what he can, but that doesn't mean he's grateful. Griping, sulking, grovellingly abject, he despises everything Andrei believes in, even if he envies him his every breath. Producer and sponger, insider and outcast, master and man fight back and forth in the pages of Olesha's anarchic comedy. It is a contest of wills in which nothing is sure, except the incorrigible human heart.… (more)
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A masterpiece of Russian fiction that deserves to be listed among the major works of 20th century literature.
Unfortunately, something less than the sum of its parts.
Envy is set in 1920s Soviet Russia, with a drunken loser,
The language, aside from a few fantastic metaphors, is dull. The narrative is gormless, and largely exists to string together the better moments together. For a 'Modernist' work, it is not as metaphorical or colorful, like Petersburg. I'm not sure whether to ascribe it to undiscovered Soviet editorial mangling, or a subpar translation (the NYRB edition). A pity.