A classic and atmospheric novel, set during the Stalin era, filled with suspense, mystery and adventure.
Victor Serge (1890-1947) was born in Belgium of a Russian family. Affiliated from his early youth with the anarchist movement, he made his way to Russia, where he was an active participant in the Revolution from 1919 on. Because of his adamant opposition to Stalin, Serge was driven into exile in Mexico and France, during which he wrote his legendary Memoirs of a Revolutionist and a series of novels closely based on his own life. Susan Sontag has written novels, stories, essays and plays; written and directed films; and worked as a theatre director in the United States and Europe. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize. Among her recent books are the novel In America, which won the 2000 National Book Award for Fiction, and Regarding the Pain of Others.
One of the great 20th-Century Russian novels…there are
extraordinary passages of natural description, a beauty that defies
what takes place within it.
— Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
The brilliance of his novel utterly ineluctable as it sweeps across
1930’s Europe from the gulags to the Kremlin, to Paris and to
Barcelona.
— The Times (London)
The Case of Comrade Tulayev is gritty and rough, saturated in
the squalor of Moscow life; but it also pulses with lyrical flights
that take us up into the stars, which represent for Serge the
regenerative, transformative moments the History promises but has
yet to deliver. Tulayev is infused with mysticism; it is
a work of cosmic longing, as if Serge is turning to the eternity of
the universe itself to avoid the utter despair right in front of
his face.
— Matthew Price, Bookforum
It is a protest novel no less significant and no more dated than
Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. These
novels recreate the feel of daily existence years ago, animate the
history texts, and give readers an irreplaceable personal
perspective. Books like these ensure the past is not forgotten….The
quality of life depicted in The Case of Comrade
Tulayev showed why the Stalinist monolith could not
endure.
— Joe Auciello, Socialist Action
Given the standard of fortitude, and given the contempt Serge
always felt for Stalin’s collaborators, a remarkable feature
of The Case of Comrade Tulayev is its chiaroscuro….That
Serge intended no lenience here we may be sure, but we may likewise
be sure that he would never have swallowed the later euphemisms and
half-truths of Khrushchev, putting blame for all the enormities of
an epoch on the evil of a single individual.
— Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly
Serge can recognize the range of experience and responses that make
up the texture of life in even the most nightmarishly repressive
system.
— Scott McLemee
One of the great 20th-Century Russian novels...there are
extraordinary passages of natural description, a beauty that defies
what takes place within it.
- Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
The brilliance of his novel utterly ineluctable as it sweeps across
1930's Europe from the gulags to the Kremlin, to Paris and to
Barcelona.
- The Times (London)
The Case of Comrade Tulayev is gritty and rough, saturated
in the squalor of Moscow life; but it also pulses with lyrical
flights that take us up into the stars, which represent for Serge
the regenerative, transformative moments the History promises but
has yet to deliver. Tulayev is infused with mysticism; it is
a work of cosmic longing, as if Serge is turning to the eternity of
the universe itself to avoid the utter despair right in front of
his face.
- Matthew Price, Bookforum
It is a protest novel no less significant and no more dated than
Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. These
novels recreate the feel of daily existence years ago, animate the
history texts, and give readers an irreplaceable personal
perspective. Books like these ensure the past is not
forgotten....The quality of life depicted in The Case of Comrade
Tulayev showed why the Stalinist monolith could not endure.
- Joe Auciello, Socialist Action
Given the standard of fortitude, and given the contempt Serge
always felt for Stalin's collaborators, a remarkable feature of
The Case of Comrade Tulayev is its chiaroscuro....That Serge
intended no lenience here we may be sure, but we may likewise be
sure that he would never have swallowed the later euphemisms and
half-truths of Khrushchev, putting blame for all the enormities of
an epoch on the evil of a single individual.
- Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly
Serge can recognize the range of experience and responses that make
up the texture of life in even the most nightmarishly repressive
system.
- Scott McLemee
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