Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

Venedikt Erofeev,

David Tsintsadze (Translator)

4.05 · Rating details · 9,101 ratings · 425 reviews

„მოსკოვი-პეტუშკი“, შეიძლება ითქვას, ავტორის ერთადერთი ნაწარმოებია, რომელმაც ვენედიქტ ეროფეევი მეოცე საუკუნის რუსული ლიტერატურის ერთ-ერთ გამორჩეულ სახედ აქცია და მას, ევროპელი მკითხველისა და ლიტერატორების აზრით, გოგოლისა და ჩეხოვის გვერდით მიუჩინა ადგილი. ერთი რამ აშკარაა – საბჭოთა, უფრო კი რუსი ადამიანის ცხოვრების ბლუზს ასე მკაფიოდ სხვა ვერც ერთ წიგნში ვერ შეიგრძნობთ. მთელ „მოსკოვი-პეტუშკი“, შეიძლება ითქვას, ავტორის ერთადერთი ნაწარმოებია, რომელმაც ვენედიქტ ეროფეევი მეოცე საუკუნის რუსული ლიტერატურის ერთ-ერთ გამორჩეულ სახედ აქცია და მას, ევროპელი მკითხველისა და ლიტერატორების აზრით, გოგოლისა და ჩეხოვის გვერდით მიუჩინა ადგილი. ერთი რამ აშკარაა – საბჭოთა, უფრო კი რუსი ადამიანის ცხოვრების ბლუზს ასე მკაფიოდ სხვა ვერც ერთ წიგნში ვერ შეიგრძნობთ. მთელი თავისი ჟარგონებით, კალკებით, სახარებისეული ალუზიებითა და ფინალით (რომელიც დღესაც განსხვავებულ ინტერპრეტაციებს იწვევს ლიტერატურისმცოდნეებში), მატარებელის ბორბლების რიტმში მოგყვება ეს ბლუზი – მოსკოვიდან პეტუშკიმდე, და მის შემდეგაც.

„მოსკოვი-პეტუშკი“ გასული საუკუნის 60-იან წლებში დაიწერა და 80-იანი წლების ბოლომდე არ გამოცემულა რუსეთში. საბჭოთა სისტემისა და ზოგადად რუსული ყოფის სარკასტულად, იმ დროისათვის ზედმეტად მძაფრ, გროტესკულ ფერებში დახატვისა და ტექსტში ბიბლიური მოტივების უხვად გამოყენების გამო საბჭოთა ცენზურამ წიგნი აკრძალა. რომანი პირველად ისრაელში, 1973 წელს, ხოლო შემდგომ პარიზში, 1977 წელს გამოიცა. ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 157 pages

Published September 28th 2018 by ინტელექტი (first published 1969)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

ქვაბული / ჯანი / ჩევენგური by Andrei Platonov

გამომცემლობა ინტელექტის სერია "აკრძალული წიგნების თარო"

13 books — 3 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.05 ·

Rating details

· 9,101 ratings · 425 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

Nov 24, 2019 Vit Babenco rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Genre of drinking songs is known since the ancient times and by writing his drinking poem Venedikt Erofeev managed to widen boundaries of the genre significantly. Moscow to the End of the Line is written in a gloomy but frilly vers libre.
The protagonist awakens to a fine and crisp morning full of freshness…

Oh, that morning burned in the heart! Oh, the illusory nature of calamity. Oh, the irretrievable! What’s worse about this burden which no one has yet called by any name, what’s worse – paralys

...more

flag 79 likes · Like · see review

May 14, 2007 else fine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read2007, intranslation, favorites, lit

Imagine a drunken Dante on an epic railway journey to nowhere, pondering the merits of various cocktails made from furniture polishes and solvents, debating the meaning of life and the worth of his soul, hilarious and tragic by turns. That'll give you a rough idea of what it's like to fall into this book. A delight every time I reread it. ...more

flag 54 likes · Like · see review

Jan 30, 2012 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: russia-and-soviet-union, 20th-century, read-in-translation, eating-and-drinking

Maybe the best book about Brezhnev's Russia imaginable. If you are the kind of person who has ever got drunk with friends, stormed a police station and then declared war on Norway (view spoiler) then you will find much here that is familiar.

It's a book rich in allusion starting from the title (Moscow to Petushki) and structure, which is reminiscent of Radishchev's Journey from St.Petersburg to Moscow,whose description of the country landed the author in a certai Maybe the best book about Brezhnev's Russia imaginable. If you are the kind of person who has ever got drunk with friends, stormed a police station and then declared war on Norway (view spoiler) then you will find much here that is familiar.

It's a book rich in allusion starting from the title (Moscow to Petushki) and structure, which is reminiscent of Radishchev's Journey from St.Petersburg to Moscow,whose description of the country landed the author in a certain secure facility at the pleasure of her Imperial Highness Catherine II - it doesn't pay always to be too truthful about the homeland, but also in cocktail recipes (all of which are firmly in the 'do not try at home' category). My father once working with a pair of alcoholics asked them how do you know when you've become an alcoholic and got past the probationary period of merely being a heavy drinker, said the first: when you find yourself straining metal polish. To which the second said: Nah, nah, you know that you're an alcoholic when you drink your metal polish neat (view spoiler). And the cocktail recipes are much of that kind, combining eye watering products such as Soviet medicated shampoos, the spiritual states that one finds ones self in after drinking are thoroughly detailed for the readers enlightenment.

It's a drunken, tragic, comic book with some beautiful graphs plotting the daily drinking of a small team of theoretical cable layers who due to the drinking never seem to reach the phase of practical application. These graphs cost the narrator his job. That's the kind of story this is. In other words it is a story about Breshnev's Russia in which opting out is achieved curtsey of our old friend intoxicating liquor. But in a sense I've started this review from the bottom of the wrong glass. The narrator is on a train to visit his sweetheart, guarded by angels, with a bottle or two of spirits in his case in the event of the angels not being quite up to the job. He once worked laying cables in the vicinity of the Kremlin - a building he tells us repeatedly that he's never seen. The work is reflective of Breshnev's Russia, they do a day's work in good weather, then rain obliges them to shelter in their rest hut with a bottle of the good stuff. Rain ruins cable, requiring them to relay cable in good weather. Repeat.

Anyway a degree of freedom is achieved through enslavement to the bottle. While journeying towards Petushki, the narrator meets, inevitably, other drinkers, and has a close encounter with the ticket inspector whose awful authority is warded off only through a Sherizhardian story touching upon the conviction and obsessive fascination that the Soviet people the author says have that foreigners are forever engaged in homosexual activity, and the coming of the end times when the femme fatal of the east will remove her final veil - a prospect that even in imagination proves too overwhelming for the unfortunate conductor - again I offer this up as no substitute for responsible professional advice, I personally have stuck to buying a ticket - not that I wish to suggest that British train conductors are adverse to good rambling story.

Any way our narrator has a rich cultural conversation with his fellow band of drinkers in which the author discusses, possibly even invents, the concept of vicarious drunkenness - so for example Goethe in Faust can remain a teetotaller, or a modest imbiber because he has sub-contracted his hedonism to his characters - just as in The Glass Bead Game through careful yoga and long meditation one can explore and experience lives one will never live so too writing for Erofeev allows authors vicarious vices. By analogy one notes that but for the lucky circumstance of a market for crime fiction its authors would be dangerous people to live near to. He has for me an unforgettable paragraph on the prim and proper and entirely sober Rimsky-Korsakov coming across Modest Mussorgsky , drunk and asleep in a ditch, prodding him with his walking stick and telling him to get back to work on his immortal opera Khovanshchina, only as soon as Rimsky-Korsakov's back is turned Mussorsky abandons the working desk for the bottle. And that's the kind of book this is. Mussorsky due to excessive drinking died with most of his musical projects unfinished, the orchestration generally done by other far more restrained hands including Rimsky-Korsakov's . And in a way the entire novel is an indictment or perhaps a statement of the way things are - after a hard day one reaches for a glass, in a hard society one reaches for a bottle, and being prodded with an elegant walking stick doesn't really rearrange the fundamental experience of life. ...more

flag 51 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2017 E. G. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, 4-star, russia-ukraine, own, fiction

From the Author

--Moscow to the End of the Line

flag 38 likes · Like · see review

May 02, 2013 Mike rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Mike by: Paul

Shelves: failed-visionary-cults, appearance-by-satan, the-60s, russia, favorites

Recently, I drank beer with a friend whose native language is Arabic. As our bottles clinked, I asked him if there was anything we could say in Arabic that would be appropriate, such as "cheers", na zdorovya, etc. “No”, he laughed, “it is prohibited!” I then asked if there was an Arabic word for "hangover." No, he said. Not even some sort of impolite or forbidden word, I asked, or a word to describe people from other countries who’ve had too much alcohol, and what they experience when they wake
Recently, I drank beer with a friend whose native language is Arabic. As our bottles clinked, I asked him if there was anything we could say in Arabic that would be appropriate, such as "cheers", na zdorovya, etc. “No”, he laughed, “it is prohibited!” I then asked if there was an Arabic word for "hangover." No, he said. Not even some sort of impolite or forbidden word, I asked, or a word to describe people from other countries who’ve had too much alcohol, and what they experience when they wake up the next morning? No one who spoke Arabic ever observed such a thing and wanted to describe it? The closest thing, he told me, is a word that simply means "out of one’s mind", which, from the perspective of a native English speaker, isn’t very close at all.

Yesterday I thought of this book, and I got to wondering how many words Russian has for "hangover." I know of one, bodoon, but I get the impression there may be others. On the last page of my used copy of Moscow to the End of the Line, or Moskva-Petushki, there is written in pencil, under the questions “make a fig?” and “money to buy drinks?”, a “recipe” for a drink called “Tear of a Komsomol Girl”, a recipe that looks to me like it’s potentially fatal. When I asked my Russian teacher about it, she said that people really drank things like this during the Soviet Union. She also said the book is one of her favorites.

I think I can understand why. Along with A Confederacy of Dunces, it’s one of the few genuinely funny books I’ve read- and like that book, also very sad. A man, having recently been fired from his job, gets on a train in Moscow, intending to go to Petushki- the end of the line. He meets all sorts of characters on the train, real and imagined, including, inevitably, the devil, who demands that the man answer impossible and scatological riddles.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but as the book went along, and the man got closer to his destination, I got a clearer understanding of what Yerofeyev was trying to do- and the sense of tragedy, of a life passing by in a haze, and the large-scale tragedy of Communism, became more apparent. The book is a little like a night of drinking heavily; everything at first seems enjoyable and humorous, then you start to feel depressed and vaguely ill, and realize you shouldn’t be urinating off the edge of the roof…and if you’ve really drunk too much, maybe you drift into some awful realm of the spirit like the one depicted in the last 20 or so pages. Maybe there’s a word for that in Russian.

I don’t know much about Yerofeyev’s life, but I get the sense that he lived his book. I watched a small part of a documentary about him, and when he was interviewed he was lying on a couch in his apartment, barely able to move, speaking through a hole in his throat. I don’t know how old he was at the time, but the back cover of the book says that he lived only to 55. Moscow to the End of the Line and Walpurgis Night, or The Steps of the Commander (which I haven’t yet read) seem to be the only novels of his translated into English. The back cover mentions two other titles with intriguing names, Annunciation and Notes of a Psychopath, but I don’t know if they’ve been translated. ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2020 Caro the Helmet Lady rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: depression-mon-amie, 2020-reads, classics, russian-lit

A metaphysical seance of hard intellectual drinking.
And now I know where all these quotes come from.

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2009 Rodney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

If dialectical materialism were turned on its head, something like angels would probably fall out. If you got drunk enough to cross Moscow a thousand times without ever seeing the Kremlin, something like freedom would happen, despite the State. If poky old Petushki became Eden, just because you loved and it was there, materialism would be turned right side up again, but with the angels left in. That’s Erofeev, whose incredibly Russian cocktail of sadness & joy, shame, spirituality, and sensual s ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Nov 15, 2017 Lori rated it liked it · review of another edition

A fun and funny intoxicated ramble around Moscow. The man wrecked by affect disorders not fun.

I hoped the angels might help him, but they embarrassed and silent.

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

May 15, 2011 El rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-centurylit-late, russia, read-in-a-blink, library-borrow

Oh, crap, another Russian writer without a beard! It always makes me so sad. Like seeing a squirrel without a tail. It seems unnatural, unfair. Freakish.

I'm impressed by his attempt at a Clark Gable 'stache though.

So in the little bit of research I did on this book I found that it's considered a "postmodernist prose poem" which I didn't necessarily pick up on while I was reading it. (The "poem" bit, I mean - the "postmodernist" part was quite evident.) Now I'm not sure what to think. I feel like I should re-read it in light of the whole "prose poem" thing, but no - Proust is waiting for me patiently at the bedside table and there's that whole book I'm reading for my real-life Pretentious Bookclub, so there's just no time for a re-read of this. So let it be known that it's a "prose poem". Maybe that will help you going into your own reading of it and then you won't have your world turned upside down like mine was.

Even though Erofeev didn't sport the Russian-classic (ie, beard), he did write about an alcoholic, so he gets to keep his Russian literary citizenship for that at least. Supposedly pseudo-autobiographical it follows the story of Venichka who has just lost his job as a cable fitter for charting how much alcohol he and his coworkers drank. The majority of the story takes place on a train from Moscow to Petushki and involves the various discussions that take place between Venichka and his other travelers. Alcohol is consumed. Duh.

Petushki is where Venya's lover and child await him, it is his "salvation and joy"; unlike Moscow which obviously is meant to be all about restriction, destruction, and everything else bad about Russia in 1968 when Erofeev wrote the story. One thing I love about the Russians is their veiled references to their oppressive society - being a postmodern work it probably goes without saying that I missed more than I should have because I suck at reading postmodern works sometimes. I should be in therapy for this problem. But I am trying, so shove it.

I also want to give a shout-out to the fantastic cover art that was chosen, Self Portrait with Demons (James Ensor). Perfect fit.

...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

May 08, 2012 Caty rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the most *beautiful* books I've ever read, hands down. Through a haze of alcohol, Soviet repression, and the hypnotic rhythm of a subway journey, Erofeev turns his drunken slapstick into brilliant satire, his own maudlin self pity into the lyrically transcendent. ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 25, 2009 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, russia, recommended-novels

If an epic can be brief then this is one – Erofeev’s drunken journey to the end of the Moscow train line, stuffed with thoughts and ponderings true, tragic and hilarious. The first thing that strikes the reader is the overriding compulsion to make sense of the world – to catalog, categorize and assign values to things. It starts in on page one and pretty much follows on every page:

“One of my acquaintances says that Coriander vodka has an antihuman effect on a person; that is, it strengthens all If an epic can be brief then this is one – Erofeev’s drunken journey to the end of the Moscow train line, stuffed with thoughts and ponderings true, tragic and hilarious. The first thing that strikes the reader is the overriding compulsion to make sense of the world – to catalog, categorize and assign values to things. It starts in on page one and pretty much follows on every page:

“One of my acquaintances says that Coriander vodka has an antihuman effect on a person; that is, it strengthens all the physical members but weakens the soul. With me it happened the other way around for some reason; that is, my soul was strengthened in the highest degree while my members were weakened. But I agree that this too is antihuman. Therefore, at the same time, I added two mugs of Zhiguli beer and an Albe de dessert port straight from the bottle.”

If the narrator could have given up drinking, he would have made a great mathematician or IT guy or infographic designer because he couldn’t get enough of calculating and instructing and laying out (cocktail) recipes. For instance, he wants to know what is worse, paralyis or nausea? Nervous exhaustion or mortal sorrow? It doesn’t surprise you that he is fired from his job for making graphs that chart the drinking habits of his coworkers relative to their productivity. But against this scientific instinct he also seeks to take the wrong path, to get life wrong, to throw his head back “like a piano player” and drink:

“What sort of hallway was it? I haven’t the slight idea even now, and it ought to be that way. Everything should. Everything should take place slowly and incorrectly so that man doesn’t get a chance to start feeling proud, so that man is sad and perplexed.”

The book is of course also a social commentary on Soviet Russia, and starts with the narrator talking about how he couldn’t seem to find the Kremlin even if he tried, and ends with him finally in the Kremlin and not liking what he finds there.

Highly recommended.
...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2012 Valentina Chugunova rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars

I've read this book 'bout 1 000 times. It's ultimate answer to your pain, depress and even happiness. ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 Alexandra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: amazing

Amazing book :)))) For me it was hilarious and tragic, illuminating and devastating at the same time.

I really enjoyed Erofeev’s humor, which was based on paronomasia, or play on words. The grace, with which he interlaces words into most elegant and unobtrusive humor, was amazing and captivating. It is hard for me to judge, but I think that the novel in general and its humor in particular, might be hard to understand for people who is not closely familiar with everyday life of regular Russian peo ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2009 Pavel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-that-defined-my-personality, russian

"And since then I have not regained consciousness, and I never will"

Venichka Erofeev never regained his full literary power after he finished this small book. Everything he had in his delicate beautiful sensitive soul, he expressed in this "poem", although it's written as a prose.
His friends saw only allegiance in his drunkenness, he never cherished alcohol itself, but yet he created the greatest hymn to drinking as a way of life.
"Moscow to the End of the Line" is a very funny book, there's a ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2009 Jana rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

He's a drunken fucker with alcohol veins instead of blood. I like one of his disturbing recipes: medicine for a toothache. Find wild strawberries (whole plant with berries and roots) and one mole. Take the root of that strawberry and press it against the rotten tooth while you suffocate the mole with your other two fingers. This recipe goes in the same category as the joke I heard when I was little: what is the difference between the elephant's ears and a yoghurt? Yoghurt can be liquid. It’s bee ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Oct 17, 2012 David rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended-by-goodreads, goodreads-reviews, humor, interlibrary-loans, zzz-ru-author, translated, zzloc-russia, read-in-2012, my-reviews

I don't drink nearly enough to appreciate this book. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2012 Ellinor rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-books-2008-additions, in-80-büchern-um-die-welt

The book is a tragic-comic account of the narrator's (fictional?) trip from Moscow to Petuschki. The first half of the book isoften very funny. The narrator's biggest worry is how to get his next drink - in fact, I don't think I've ever read a book in which anyone ever had that many drinks. And the characters drink everything: they even mix their own cocktails adding for example petrol or nail polish!
The book also talks a lot about the drinking habits of several authors (mainly Russian ones). I ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2016 Adam Dalva rated it liked it · review of another edition

Occasionally very funny paean to alcohol, and, with its fun graphs and amusing diversions, is in the spirit of B.S. Johnson's great Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry. The first seventy pages are really excellent, as is a long analysis of writers' obsession with champagne, but as the book descends into stupor and madness once the lead boards the train, I found it increasingly frustrating to read. This might be a fault of translation (I suspect it is), because the novel has a good reputation in Ru ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 06, 2009 SheaN rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: some-faves

Stumbled on this one by accident at the library. Don't start it without a bottle of hard alcohol nearby. This book is a hallucination. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2013 Eadweard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read, russian

A recently fired alcoholic man rambles about stuff with passengers of a train while on his way somewhere. Funny book, had me smiling all the way through, and my liver hurtin' from so much booze talk. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2012 Jim Elkins added it · review of another edition

Shelves: russian

Example of the Old Russia, Long Gone

A drunken novel about a drunk who ends up being beaten to death. The back cover describes it as a "classic novel of Russian humor and social commentary."

"Russian humor" in this sense seems to mean: wildly associative and perversely dissociative; unpleasantly sarcastic; bitter to a fault, irreproachably, impeccably pessimistic; voluptuously black; giddy in its drunken embrace of hopelessness of all kinds. Any book that opens with this line: "The first edition o Example of the Old Russia, Long Gone

A drunken novel about a drunk who ends up being beaten to death. The back cover describes it as a "classic novel of Russian humor and social commentary."

"Russian humor" in this sense seems to mean: wildly associative and perversely dissociative; unpleasantly sarcastic; bitter to a fault, irreproachably, impeccably pessimistic; voluptuously black; giddy in its drunken embrace of hopelessness of all kinds. Any book that opens with this line: "The first edition of Moscow to the End of the Line was sold out quickly, thanks to its being an edition of one copy" and ends with this line (after the narrator has been beaten to death just for being a vagrant): "And since then I have not regained consciousness, and I never will" is not a book whose author will be likely to miss a joke or an opportunity to show what despondency really is.

"Social commentary" in this sense seems to mean that the government is corrupt and supports itself on crazy lies and misinformation. The people respond by living indolent lives as savage drunks and louts: but at the same time they are stupendously well-educated in the deep riches of Russian culture, and even when they are stuporously drunk they swim naturally in literary and historical anecdotes. People are romantic, funny, and talkative precisely because they know it is pointless to be romantic, funny, and talkative. From Erofeev's point of view someone like Beckett is probably a dried shell. But from the point of view of a reader brought up more on Beckett than Dostoevsky, the glitter and swill of sloshing, effervescent, pointless conversations about hope that people no longer have, romantic yearnings they hardly recognize, and culture that they despair of ever actually living, is all inappropriate. It's like someone dying on the street wearing a stage costume with feathers and baubles: it's maudlin and tiring to insist on frenetic empty celebration when emptiness itself is at hand.

And so despite all the acid wit, all this is old -- old Russian humor and social criticism, which never worked, which might not even have produced much solace, and whose pyrotechnics only became harsher, not more beautiful, after Dostoevsky and Gorky. There's a line about how Western eyes "buy and sell" and are "deeply hidden, secretive, predatory, and frightened," while Russian eyes are "constantly bulging but with no tension of any kind in them." (p. 28) All that has changed now. the book is a dead end, as far gone as Philip Roth's America (despite what the "Library of America" still hopes), or the Russia that Erofeev loved and hated. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2009 Janet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: russia

This was a fascinating book, published 'samizdat' in the 1970s. All over the place, the drunken tumbling thoughts of a complete alcoholic, trying to get from Moscow to Petushi at the end of the metropolitan train line.... the recipes for drinks alone worth the price of the book. Here's one:
"Labor's crown is it's own supreme reward," as the poet said. In any event, I present to you the cocktail "Bitches Brew," a beverage which overshadows all others. This is more than a beverage--it is the music ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2007 lisa_emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Russophiles, aspiring alcoholics

Shelves: fantastically-intoxicated, russian-lit

Funny & sad at the same time-people drink because life becomes too unbearable. Strangely it is the drink that keeps the narrator going. Caution: leave the drinking to professionals, especially if the drink calls for shoe polish.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2015 Ekaterina Egorova rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Okay, I've finally read it. Happy? Now I just need to erase it from my brain ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2017 Ana-Maria Bujor rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is a very strange little book, presenting the ramblings of a drunk man who drinks some more while traveling by train from Moscow. It all gets a bit surreal very fast and funny stories get mixed with existential drama, criticism of the political regime and hopelessness. And a lot of alcohol. It's definitely one of a kind. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2013 Ilgvars rated it liked it · review of another edition

I had heard good references about the book. I heard that it is a peculiar test of intelligence and humor. Could I miss the opportunity to join the circles of people with unconventional thinking, peculiar humor and refined taste?
No, no, I couldn’t.
And the book had been waiting on my Kindle for a while, the soul was sad and journey long. So on my bus from Liepāja to Rīga, I let Venichka share the path. But what a shame, what a disaster. I think I didn’t get the book. Even more, I don’t remember ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 06, 2016 Darren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: need-to-reread, world, favorites, one-off

Astounding. Not much like anything else I've ever read. Echoes of Kafka and Bulgakov, but mainly reminded me of one of my fave movies - (view spoiler) - a surreal journey through... where exactly? to... where exactly? and populated by weird/wonderful minor characters with their own "business". Delving into the world of alcoholics' bewildering/bewildered dialogue was both very well done in itself and also served perfectly for the fractured narrative.
No-Qu ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2020 Peter Landau rated it really liked it · review of another edition

How much is lost in translation? It doesn’t help that my knowledge of the late 1960s Soviet Union is limited to Ricky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Yet this satirical travelogue is a hoot, wild monologues, copious alcohol and a crack in the Iron Curtain that brings the house down.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2010 Andrew Alper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Venedikt Erofeev wrote two books, of which Moscow to the End of the Line was first. The second book was misplaced before it could be published, or even distributed via samizdat network.

"Moscow-Petushki," the original title, chronicals the travels, both psychological and psychological, of Venya, a 30 year old "Kid" who has recently lost his job as the supervisor of a cable fitting crew who spent all of their labors laying a single section of pipe over and over again. They worked so slowly that t Venedikt Erofeev wrote two books, of which Moscow to the End of the Line was first. The second book was misplaced before it could be published, or even distributed via samizdat network.

"Moscow-Petushki," the original title, chronicals the travels, both psychological and psychological, of Venya, a 30 year old "Kid" who has recently lost his job as the supervisor of a cable fitting crew who spent all of their labors laying a single section of pipe over and over again. They worked so slowly that the sections of pipe would become water-logged and have to be replaced the following week. He wasn't fired over performance, but when, instead of sending in the usual report of the team's "progress," he submited a study of how much alcohol, and of what type, each member of the team drank over the period of the work week. Some of the workers on his crew began the week drinking wine and the typical vodka, but resorted to drinking paint thinner and cleaning solutions with varying degrees of success and no regard for personal safety. Erofeev describes a distopian soviet-run communism, where the abject proletariat escape into drunkeness with abandon, as vestigial workers confined within a workless and absurd beurocracy.

The story opens in the wee hours on a Moscow street where Venya is desperately trying to stave off sleep and sobriety and has begun to hear voices. He is attended to by singing angels who suggest all-night spots around Moscow, where he may find brandy. As the sun comes up, he packs a suitcase full of alcohol and decides to take the train back to his childhood home of Petushki, a town which begins to takes on mythic qualities as the book, and the train ride continue.

Erofeev also experiments with many literary forms in the book, including the heroic poem, the beurocratic papers he must complete as supervisor, as well as the blurred lines of memoir and fiction, . In so doing, he alludes to many of literary forefathers, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and even Nabokov, all handled with a glib detachment that may cause the casual reader to dismiss this effort as merely a work of humor.

I love this book because it consistantly and exponentially defies expectation with an adept structure that begs to be deconstructed, analyzed and re-analyzed, not as a taoist mystery, but as a whole and complex empathic portrait of creativity, addiction, politics and society. It is both historically vital, as a soviet mirror to the social struggles of the sixties, and deeply personal. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2016 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: russia, how-to, ussr, humor, russian-lit, fiction, philosophy

Trippy, drunken, twisty-turny day in the life of Venedikt Erofeev. Mostly monologue, mostly on a train, totally sauced. Pretty deep philosophy expressed through lol allusion (I couldn't catch or connect all of it). He puts a premium on imagination and the future. The eponymous protag (who has never seen the Kremlin despite living in Moscow -- hahaha) remains as likeable as he is disgusting. It takes a lot to get me repulsed by a drink. Erofeev is up to the task! A bit grossed out here in sunny, ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: Moscow Stations by Venedikt Erofeev	2	14	Jan 08, 2020 02:00PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Cultural > Russia

240 users

Fiction

217 users

Literature > Russian Literature

111 users

Classics

59 users

Literature

33 users

Humor

24 users

Literature > 20th Century

22 users

Philosophy

18 users

Novels

16 users

Poetry

15 users

See top shelves…

About Venedikt Erofeev

Venedikt Erofeev

71 followers

Venedikt Vasilyevich Erofeev (Венеди́кт Васи́льевич Ерофе́ев), was a Russian writer.

He managed to enter the philology department of the Moscow State University but was expelled from the University after a year and a half because he did not attend compulsory military training.

Later he studied in several more institutes in different towns including Kolomna and Vladimir but he has never managed to g ...more

Books by Venedikt Erofeev

More…

News & Interviews

36 of the Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021

Twists, turns, red herrings, the usual suspects: These books have it all...and more. If you love mysteries and thrillers, get ready for dozens...

Trivia About Moscow to the End...

3 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

“Everything should take place slowly and incorrectly so that man doesn't get a chance to start feeling proud, so that man is sad and perplexed.” — 21 likes

“I've always been in two minds about women, really. On the one hand, I always liked the fact they had waists, and we hadn't. That aroused in me a feeling of - how shall I put it? - well, pleasure. Yes, pleasurable feelings. Still, on the other hand, they did stab Marat with a penknife, and Marat was Incorruptible, so they shouldn't have stabbed him. That fairly killed off the pleasure. Then again, like Karl Marx, I've always loved women for their little weaknesses - i.e. they've got to sit down to pee, and I've always liked that - that's always filled me with - well, what the hell - a sort of warm feeling. Yes, pleasurable warmth. But then again they did shoot at Lenin, with a revolver no less! And that put a damper on the pleasure as well. I mean, fair enough, sitting down to pee, but shooting at Lenin? That's a sick joke, talking about pleasure after that.

However, I digress.” — 12 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი by Venedikt Erofeev

მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Venedikt Erofeev

Books by Venedikt Erofeev

News & Interviews

Trivia About Moscow to the End...

Quotes from მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

See a Problem?

Preview — მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი by Venedikt Erofeev

მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Venedikt Erofeev

Books by Venedikt Erofeev

News & Interviews

Trivia About Moscow to the End...

Quotes from მოსკოვი - პეტუშკი

new topic
Discuss This Book