Book search I -

[verissimus]

Just wanted to make a thread seeing what advice or help I can get from you guys. It concerns looking for a particular book and books similar to it which you would recommend reading.

In the first case, I'm looking for a book whose author and title I can't remember but I believe I remember a few things about it.

1) It was written by a Soviet author whose name, as stated above, I don't recall though I know it certainly wasn't Solzhenitsyn. I want to think that his last name either began with a D or M and ended, in stereotypical Russian fashion, with a -ev or -ov;
2) I believe it was written or rather published sometime around the 70s or 80s so essentially when Brezhnev was around (not sure if the book was censored at the time or not);
3) The book ought to be relatively short probably somewhere between 200 to 300+ pages; and
4) I believe the book had to deal with the Soviet press in a satirical manner;

That's about all that comes to mind for that. If anyone has any idea which book this could be, I'd appreciate it.

The second thing I'm looking for are books that are similar to the one described, that is either satirical and/or Orwellian, books about a reporter/journalist working for a news agency preferably set say somewhere between the 20s up to 40s.

 

[nagant 1895]

Running through my mental filing cabinet here... can you recall if the author was Russian specifically or just Soviet generally?

 

[Maskull]

That's not enough for me to work with so I recommend the LoC ask-a-librarian form. It would surprise me if they are unable to help you. There are listservs that specialize in tracking down books based on scant detail too.

 

[verissimus]

Running through my mental filing cabinet here... can you recall if the author was Russian specifically or just Soviet generally?

I would venture Russian. I highly doubt he was say Polish, Georgian, Armenian, or from the central Asian countries apart of the Soviet Union. I'm not very familiar with non-Russian Soviet authors.

 

[nagant 1895]

my first thought is Zoshchenko... but he died in like the 50s... maybe some of his stuff was published in the 70s though.
Yulian Semyonov? mostly a journalist but he wrote a good bit of fiction, could be him?
Mikhail Zadornov?

 

[Marco Fucko]

I'd say 'We' but that's from the 20s. Also the protagonist is an engineer, not a journo.

 

[verissimus]

my first thought is Zoshchenko... but he died in like the 50s... maybe some of his stuff was published in the 70s though.
Yulian Semyonov? mostly a journalist but he wrote a good bit of fiction, could be him?
Mikhail Zadornov?

Very sure it's neither of them.

I think I'll just shoot an email to the professor in which the book was assigned reading (and yes, I know I probably should have done that to begin with even though I didn't remember his name either).

 

[nagant 1895]

Very sure it's neither of them.

I think I'll just shoot an email to the professor in which the book was assigned reading (and yes, I know I probably should have done that to begin with even though I didn't remember his name either).

Post what it turns out to be. This will gnaw at me until I know.

 

[YourMommasBackstory]

Bulgakov's Master and Margarita is a satire about critique of soviet regime and ideological writers. Thats the first book that came in mind when i've read OP.

 

[Safir]

@verissimus Dovlatov, The Compromise ?

 

[Oban Lazcano Kamz]

A Separate Peace by John Knowles