Word: goldene
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...they deftly use their cast of criminals to get away with it. The instant satisfaction of the characters’ crimes and the rapid dissolution of the rewards therein stand as an allegorical base for the Bolsheviks, who took power only six years before “The Golden Calf” was written. Through the use of undesirables and thieves, the authors are free to digress about their dream of capitalism’s return. The introduction of cremation to the USSR during this time allowed people to laugh about death, making it tangible and giving death a strange...
...Golden Calf” alternates points of view among a wide array of people—artists, office clerks, riddlers, poets, madmen, accountants, Catholic priests, authors and photographers—while concentrating its plot on the work of a band of thieves. The story focuses on four of these thieves; they are conspiring to rob and bring to ruin their associate, the malevolent Korieko, who, it just so happens, is a secret millionaire—an “underground Rockefeller...
...Petrov wear their erudition on their sleeves in “The Golden Calf.” The novel is filled with cues from high and low culture—colorful and referential insults, classical literature, and cosmopolitan knowhow. One pretend madman, exercising freedom of speech as his alter ego declares, “Et tu, Brute, sold out the Bolsheviks!” The novel also takes particular interest in allusions to “The Brothers Karamazov,” and at one point Ostap conflates the story of Jason’s Golden Fleece with the titular...
...Golden Calf” succeeds with well-placed humor that’s constantly in dialogue with (and occasionally mocking of) its high intellectual standard. The facetious nature of the hero will have readers laughing out loud more than once: “The angels want to come down to earth now. It’s nice down here: we have municipal services, the planetarium. You can watch the stars and listen to an anti-religious lecture all at once,” Ostap says...
While deconstructing the dynamics of the Soviet foundation, “The Golden Calf,” tacitly advocates the life of capitalism. At one point, Ostap even says of a parcel, “Inside, there’s everything: palms, girls, the Blue Express, the azure ocean, a white ship, a barely used tuxedo, a Japanese butler, your own pool table, platinum teeth, socks with no holes, dinners cooked with real butter, but most importantly, my little friends, the power and fame that come with money.” Their scheme is the key to something that sounds...