Metro

By Alexander Kaletski

Book Overview

The Metro of the title of this brilliant and mordant social comedy refers to the Moscow underground--the sparkling subway system that enchants its young hero, seven-year-old Sasha, on his first visit... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670805114
• ISBN13: 9780670805112
• Release Date: May 1985
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Funniest books I've read for a while

Metro is a great book. It tells the story of Sasha, a struggling actor, in Moscow during the Chairmanship of Lenoid Brezhnez. Sasha's initial problem is finding work as an actor without his residency papers. Later his problems become more serious as he devises more and more desperate ways of fleeing the USSR. I was not too sure what to expect from this book. However it was a hilarious read with a very serious side. Kaletski's descriptions of life under Communist Party rule are some of the funniest stories I have come across in a while. The story about the (I assume fictional) decision of a local government organisation to initially protect the local moose population from wolves is a good example of the great stories in the book Despite all the humour, Kaletski also deals very insightfully with many serious issues which pervaded Russia at the time such as corruption, hopelessness and alcoholism. The book provides an excellent insight into how sick the Communist state in the USSR had become long before its ultimate collapse.

A novel for the Underground, and Above.

Kaletski has said that in many ways this novel is autobiographical. ( I have been lucky enough to interview him several times in the last couple of years. ) This autobiographical-ness may be why each word rings so true, even in the English translation. I wish I could read it in Russian...maybe one day. One goes on the adventure with Kaletski, from the five-year-old's love of the Metro, through his adventures as a grown man living in Moscow. Bittersweet and touching, it sometimes sounds more like Auschwitz, other times Paradis. It is always the conspiracy des'artistes. Such a serious young man is our main character and narrator, who is never sure of anything, and has a constant dialogue with himself-checking and rechecking his facts. He is very funny, too, and sometimes it's easy to miss. "For quite a while, there was no hot water in the shower. I stood under the chilly spurts while I pondered the silly question Lenin posed the morning after the Revolution, 'Now what?'" How can you not love that? Especially with current event is Russia, and the " election" in the Ukraine-this picture of a culture is very familiar again, I think. Get it, read it, and look at Kaletski's wonderful illustrations, too. You won't be disappointed.

subversion in the subway

Alexander Kaletski's dark comedy/docu-drama begins and ends in the Moscow subway system. On his seventh birthday, Sasha gets to ride the magnificent Metro, deservedly world-renowned marvel of Soviet artistry and engineering. Little Sasha also receives a mask, and his future is already clear: he will live in the big city and be an actor! In time, Kaletski leaves his home village of Tula to attend theatrical school in Moscow; and it is here that he falls in with the characters who populate the Underground of his novel. Sasha's bohemian buddies include Stas, a pill-popping homosexual prankster; and Toilik, a vodka-swilling dissident war Hero; Andrewlka, a womanizing black-marketeer and part-time KGB informant; and Youssef, a phallus-obsessed Black exchange-student of Sudanese royalty. And strong-willed Lena, starving actress, poet, musician, and soulmate to Sasha. A little band of subversives bonded together for survival, without propiska (coveted Moscow residency certificate), and often without work, food, or money. Gradually Kaletski rises in the theatrical field to become a popular television star, but the greater his success in Soviet Art, the more he loathes being a part of it. His first-person narrative, both funny and frightening, relates his numerous encounters with thuggish police, backstabbing directors, cold-blooded conscriptors, predatory "pumas", and disapproving Communist Party-poopers -- all seemingly conspiring to crush his creative spirit. Even while the ubiquitous banners assure him "In the USSR Life Gets Better and Better Every Day". When his theatrical troupe goes on closely-guarded tour to New York City, Sasha finds life-changing inspiration. He and Lena dream of defecting to America, where they will be free to express their artistic individuality. "Metro" is an engaging novel, at its best when depicting autobiographical realism of former Soviet life. The reader is wholly drawn into the adventure and struggle, Sasha's emigration scheme, and the antics and fates of his comrades. Then the novel rather suddenly and perplexingly self-detonates in a bizarre climax involving an arms-smuggler and a KGB shootout. The author has lived in New York since 1975, where he has had success exhibiting his artistic talent at leading galleries. He has published several books of his abstract works, including "Cardboard People" and "Dead Ancestors".