Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

In May we will be reading The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge for our State of the Nation category - who's in?

Me, obviously.
With power comes responsibility. 🐱👻
It helps that I've read half already.

I won't be home till the last of May, but if I were to run across this, I'd certainly grab it. I don't have much hope of that happening.

On a positive note, I did finish Waiting for the Barbarians the other day--about two months late

Have just read a synopsis and its sounds really good. So I’m in!

I’ve started this and am struggling to click with it. I think I thought it was going to be similar to Gorky Park from the blurb but instead it is a series of interconnected short stories about the Soviet Regime. I like the style and whizzed through the first couple but now I’m on the sixth one it just seems a bit “samey” and dense.
Looking forward to hearing what others think.

Fay wrote: "I’ve started this and am struggling to click with it. I think I thought it was going to be similar to Gorky Park from the blurb but instead it is a series of interconnected short stories about the ..."

I was kind of the other way round, Fay. I found it very dense at first and a bit hard to see where it was going, but once I started to see the connections between the ‘victims’, I was gripped. I can see what you mean about the episodes being “Samey” though.

I really liked it in the end, I thought Serge captured the feeling of the regime really well with the bleak combination of cynicism, blind loyalty and paranoia.