We struck up a friendship and exchanged e-mail addresses. The majority of the American population lives in small towns of three thousand, maybe five, nine, or fifteen thousand inhabitants.Several years ago, I took a trip to Ukraine and, along the way, met a young veterinarian, Misha. The title comes from the following description.Īmerica is primarily a one-and two-story country. Notably, Ilf and Petrov were not afraid to praise many aspects of the American lifestyle in these works. Both the photo essay and the book document their adventures with their characteristic humor and playfulness. The first edition of the book did not include Ilf's photographs. Shortly after that they published the book Одноэтажная Америка (literally: 'One-storied America'), translated as Little Golden America (an allusion to The Little Golden Calf). Ilf took many pictures throughout the journey, and the authors produced a photo essay entitled 'American Photographs', published in Ogonyok magazine. The two writers also traveled across the Great Depression-era United States. twenty movies, in the USSR (by Leonid Gaidai and by Mark Zakharov), in the US (in particular by Mel Brooks), and in other countries. These are among the most widely read and quoted books in Russian culture. It also gives the authors a convenient platform from which to look at this society and to make fun of its less attractive and less Socialist aspects. Their position outside the organized, goal-driven, productive Soviet society is emphasized. The main characters generally avoid contact with the apparently lax law enforcement.

They were written and are set in the relatively liberal era in Soviet history, the New Economic Policy of the 1920s. Both books follow exploits of Bender and his associates looking for treasure amidst the contemporary Soviet reality. The two texts are connected by their main character, Ostap Bender, a con man in pursuit of elusive riches. Ilf and Petrov became extremely popular for their two satirical novels: The Twelve Chairs and its sequel, The Little Golden Calf. Together they published two popular comedy novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931), as well as a satirical book One-storied America (often translated as Little Golden America) that documented their journey through the United States between 19. Their duo was known simply as Ilf and Petrov. Ilya Ilf, pseudonym of Iehiel-Leyb (Ilya) Arnoldovich Faynzilberg was a popular Soviet journalist and writer of Jewish origin who usually worked in collaboration with Yevgeni Petrov during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf