Commissariat Of Enlightenment - Softcover

Kalfus, Ken

3.64

214 ratings by Goodreads

9780743231152: Commissariat Of Enlightenment

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743231155 ISBN 13: 9780743231152

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2004

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Ken Kalfus's mesmerising first novel is about two events that become milestones in the history of the modern media: the death of Tolstoy and the murder of Lenin. One yound filmmaker was there. The story begins in 1910, as Leo Tolstoy lies dying in Astapovo, a railway station in provincial Russia. Members of the press from around the world have descended upon this sleepy hamlet to record his passing for a public suddenly ravenous for celebrity news. Cinema is the newcomer, and Nikolai Gribshin arrives to capture the extraordinary scene and learn how to wield his camera as a political tool. At this historic moment, he comes across two men - the scientist, Professor Vorobev, and the revolutionist, Joseph Stalin - who have radical, mysterious plans for the future. Soon they will accompany him on a long, cold march through an era of brutality and absurdity, as science struggles with superstition. Brimming with intellect, humour, and rich, inventive storytelling, THE COMMISSARIAT OF ENLIGHTENMENT is a novel of ideas that brilliantly evokes the tragi-comic world of revolutionary Russia as well as the birth of today's image-based society.

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Review:

'A clever and original debut' -- TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

'A stylish, stimulating debut novel about revolutionary Russia' -- Boyd Tonkin, INDEPENDENT

'Funny, hip...smart, technically innovative...wise, moving, and profound...Kalfus is all of these at once' -- DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

'Kalfus's book is absorbing, intelligent, witty and wry' -- Book of the Week, THE TIMES

'Wry, humane, precise and beautifully smitten with ideas' -- JONATHAN FRANZEN

About the Author:

Ken Kalfus has lived in Paris, Dublin, Belgrade and Moscow. He is the author of THIRST and PU-239 AND OTHER RUSSIAN FANTASIES. His fiction has appeared in HARPERS and THE VILLAGE VOICE Literary Supplement.

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