The Fur Hat

Yet another wonderful work by Voinovich... This is a quick, fun read. If you have read and enjoyed other Voinovich works you will certainly enjoy this one. Voiny cuts to the heart of Soviet greed, lust, waste, etc. while following the very personal struggle of one man's obsession with obtaining a fur hat and all that it represents. Add this one to your Voinovich collection today!

for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man. Schiller When one thinks of what may loosely be referred to as Soviet `dissident' literature there is a tendency to think of long, grim, dark stories. Heavyweight volumes on issues of life, death, and the oppressive nature of a totalitarian regime mark the works of Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, Grossman, and Rybakov. But Vladimir Voinovich will have none of that. Starting with is best-known work, "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin" and continuing through his latest book "Monumental Propaganda" Voinovich has used satire as a weapon aimed at the heart of the Soviet state - its bureaucracy. Voinovich has always drawn his pen at the cronyism, the arrogance, the preening sense of grasping materialism to acquire western clothes, food, and cigarettes and yes the blatant and latent anti-Semitism that has reared its ugly head at regular intervals in the last 100 years. The Soviet authorities no doubt lacked the sense of humor that Voinovich's readership had. He was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union in 1974 and send into exile, like Solzhenitsyn, in 1980. In a famous response to the statement of Leonid Brezhnev that Voinovich brought harm to the prestige of the Soviet government, Voinovich published a reply that said simply: "I have not undermined the prestige of the Soviet government. The Soviet government, thanks to the efforts of its leaders and your personal contributions, has no prestige. Therefore, in all fairness, you ought to revoke your own citizenship." Voinovich's The Fur Hat takes direct aim at the same Soviet Writers' Union that expelled him in 1974. The `hero' of this tale is Yefim Rakhlin. He considers himself a good writer because his eleven books, all about hardworking members of Soviet society who place the State above their individual wants and desires. According to the narrator (a thinly-veiled Voinovich), Rakhlin is a hack who writes uninspired prose about unbelievable characters. For all intents and purposes, Rakhlin is a true-believer. Rakhlin's world starts to unravel when he hears from his colleagues that the Writers' Union is giving out fur hats to all its members. It turns out that the quality of the hat (with reindeer fawn being top of the line) depends on each writer's status in the bureaucratic pecking order. Although he doesn't expect reindeer fawn he finds out that his hat ranks him about as low as one can get for status purposes: he is assigned a fur hat made out of "fluffy tomcat". This devastating blow to his ego sets Rakhlin on a quest for a better hat. As Rakhlin's emotions spiral out of control he finds himself dealing with an anti-Semitic neighbor (who also hears voices) who connects the disappearance of his house cat with Rakhlin's fluffy tomcat hat. His protest finds him threatening to publish his books in the west and he also ends up writing prose driven by despair and anger which, ironically, t

Welcome to "Animal Farm" as performed within the setting of the Soviet National Writers Union during the communist era. We all know the AF credo: "All men are born equal--some more so than others" could have been made to order for the bloated pompous Soviet bureaucracy of yore. Fur Hat was my first introduction to Vladimir Voinovich: after reading this delightful satire on corruption/cronyism/toadyism within Party machinations, I nominate Voinovich on a par with Vonnegut. Readers will meet lots of Party types in this story: typical system hacks (Pyotr Lukin), over-decorated pompous military types (Karetnikov) and blatant anti-Semites (nearly every character in the book). Even our hapless protagonist, Yefim R, is married to a devoted Party member, "...but underneath her bra she wore a cross..." All kinds of deceit and posturing go on on a daily basis..the politics and pecking order of the national Writers Union come front & center as smug leaders pass out fur hats to its members, according to their rank and file within the group. Of course, celebrated writers who've won (dubiously so, albeit) titles and accolades get the top fur hats like reindeer and rabbit. Our hero, Yefim, receives the lowest ranking hat: fluffy tomcat. Poor Yefim. He is not disrespected by the powers-that-be because of his mediocre talent, but because he "writes only of good men challenging earthly elements." Union officials don't approve of Yefim's "writing about decent people & pretending there's no such thing as the Soviet state, or district and regional committees." Yefim's determined efforts to get a higher-ranking hat for himself ("even rabbit would be better!!") unfold into sublime absurdity as he goes from one Party official to another, encountering toadyism/nepotism/bribery/euphemisms and underhanded tactics. "Even on an iceberg, a Soviet collective will have its careerists, stool pigeons and at least one KGB agent." An exiled scribbler from the Soviet Union himself (1980), Voinovich rips on the Russian mentality that delight in military over-decoration and its writers that write just to receive titles and headlines. And international headlines themselves does our Yefim make as he finally loses his temper with one especially dull Party hack. When the western media ggets hold of this incident, they blow it all out of proportion (as western media is wont to do). Then our hero gets blacklisted as rumors of his "treason" spread like wildfire (the perfect example how rampant paranoid delusions become in police states). The western media dubs Yefim a dissident and builds his literary reputation up far beyond even his own imaginings! You'll have to read the book to see how the 'fur hat debacle' turns out. DANGER: THIS BOOK IS AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY BASHER! ENJOY!

Propelled by the need for recognition, a Soviet writer loses all perspective in this saga of his craving for the "fur hat" which is awarded by his writers organization. When he finds his hat will be common "fluffy tomcat" he is unhinged and tries to manipulate all the channels possible to him to get a fox hat...or perhaps even wildcat? The pathos of Soviet life and the repression of art takes its toll on the writers and the artists involved here, and the making of a martyr is all wrapped up in the most gut-wrenching humor imaginable.

Vladimir Voinovich is the premier Russian wit of the 20th century. This novella is fresh and sharp, with a hint of the Soviet sarcasm that Voinovich is all too famous for. A good, quick read--and a rollicking good time!