The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

The Zekameron by Maxim Znek tr. Jim & Ella Dingley (Scotland Street)

Glad to see this made it! Politically important but also something unique and different, and the droll tone really appealed to me.

On the droll tone... (for Shawshank Redemption fans)

88.Bloody Andy

Every stupid rule was inspired by a muse of its own. The internal regulations of the remand prison undoubtedly arose from escape attempts or something even a little worse. Nobody could recall the names of those held here who were the inspiration for new daft rules, but there was one name that virtually everyone could remember – that bloody Andy Dufresne!

The mind may well have been able to grasp the idea that problematic rules existed a hundred years before ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ was made, but all the same it was simpler to blame Andy. Why was it not permitted to stick Playboy photos of the playmate of the month on the walls or indeed stick anything at all on them? That bloody Andy ...
...
Spoons were handed out only at mealtimes. ... Heaven forbid that the inmates should be able to communicate with each other ...and absolutely no trips to the library!

I had mixed views on this one though.

The origin story here is impressive and important - this was written in prison in Belarus by a political prisoner and smuggled out.

But the tone - for those from the UK of a certain age - is likes episodes of Porridge (admittedly one of the greatest TV series of all time) - i.e. wry slices of prison life (without politics, sort of a 'how to survive in prison' manual) but also without any character development.

Last year I read Like A Prisoner by Fatos Lubonja, translated by John Hodgson, published by Istros, and I thought it did something similar but for me more effectively.

Definitely worth a longlist place but I would not see this on my shortlist.

Porridge was before my time but it does sound like something I'd enjoy.

Agree that this is one to fall away at the shortlist hurdle though.