Read L'ultima Favola Russa (2007)

Online Book

Author

Francis Spufford

Genre

History & Biography

Rating

4.06 of 5 Votes: 4

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ISBN

8833923762 (ISBN13: 9788833923765)

Language

English

Publisher

Bollati Boringhieri

Shops

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

Free Online

L'ultima Favola Russa (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

One of the oddest books I've ever read. It's either a historical novel (well, fixup) with more endnotes than even George MacDonald Fraser, or a science fiction book than just happens to have no important counterfactual elements. If you're interested in the calculation problems of central planning (I am), and wonder if the Soviet Union could have succeeded if they had just gotten hold of a supercomputer to solve the 100x100 input/output matrices, then this is your book. Otherwise, read this and Tim Powers' "Declare" in short order; meditate on how the SU was our mirror image for so long. This book was extremely unstructured and had little in the way of continuity from chapter to chapter, but was a fascinating and unique insight into Soviet era Russia and the communist mindset. The way it was written as a work of fiction allowed you to get into the minds of the people involved, and understand where they were coming from. It gave me an increased fascination with communism and the remarkable sociological experiment it was/is, but also appreciation that I was never a part of it!