Books 2003 #26 The Twelve Chairs

I’ve now guaranteed myself an average of one book every two weeks for the year with a few months to go. Not too shabby. Anyway, Just in case the Orwell, Harry Potter, Christopher Hitchens cycle wasn’t strange enough, I just finished The Twelve Chairs, a Russian comedy by the tag team of Ilya Ilf Fainzilberg and Evgeny Petrovich Kataev. Very enjoyable on about a million different levels. Between the insane characters, plot and the occasional wild swings in style (two writers will do that to you,) the book practically seethes with a sort of manic energy. Great stuff.