Evgeny Petrov and Ilya Ilf
American Road Trip
Two totalitarian Russian communists -self-called correspondents- come to visit America during the Depression era to make their satirical report on American society to their fellow slaves of Soviet Russia. They travel America East through West, and have a jolly capitalist ride in the meantime. Quite funny, specially when one considers how much their anti-American comments must have been forced out of them, as expected from serfs of the Soviet regime. It's like Michael Moore criticizing capitalism while cashing in from self-willing fools. The vivid pictures of the places and people they meet, as well as the conversations captured, are all beautifully expressed, in a very fluid and fresh prose. These two cowards are having the time of their life, New York to San Francisco and back, all expenses paid. Fittingly chosen photos accompany their trip. A beautiful and amusing travelogue.
A study of American society during Depression times, that turned into a good psychoanalysis of two soviet communists in America (someting like Ninotchka, Lubitsch's old film with Greta Garbo). The contrast (being paid for telling exactly the opposite of what they were getting) is a real treat for the reader of the 21st century, many years after the collapse of the Communist empire. Fit for a road movie written by Woody Allen.