The Overcoat

ولكنه ضحك كالبكاء

A few spoilers below, if you haven't read this, or plan to read it, perhaps skip over this review.

The cover on this paperback edition is great, but I did read a free digital version, translation by Constance Garnett.
While I am inexperienced in Russian classics, I have had a go at a few short stories over the years, with mixed results. Typically I have no real grasp on the hidden political or cultural interpretations, and whether I enjoy them or not depends on the ability of the story to entertain on a basic level.

In this case I consider the story is a criticism of the Russian bureaucracy, a part of which most of the characters are; and demonstrating the hardship of a petty bureaucrats life. There is an absurdity to the story, and of course at the end there is the supernatural. A lot going on for a short story.

The connection of the narrator to the story remains unexplained, but commencing with mockery of the main character Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (obviously intended to be some sort of mocking or comedic name, which most reviews tell me means Harmless Son-of-Harmless). After Akaky's meeting with Petrovitch, the tailor, the narrator treats Akaky with more sympathy, and at the end even with perhaps, admiration.

While the story wraps up with some supernatural justice for the prominent person, and Akaky indeed ends up with an overcoat which meets his needs, I am not really convinced that Russian literature is my thing!

3 stars.