I had recently come across a reference to Platonov as an interesting Russian writer from the period of the early revolution through to Stalinism. So I decided to seek him out.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy reading the book Soul all that much. It seems to be very much a novel of ideas, and fairly dry as far as stories go. It's hard for me to know how much of early 20th centure central asia is actually reflected in the story line and characters, as I don't have the background knowledge. I can also see how his writings might have created some scandal in that there seems to be some criticism of Soviet policy - centrality of the State, the concept of Nation, the role of the State as the great saviour. Again unfortunately I don't have the background to evaluate this. But, as a casual read, not too appealing, at least for me.
I am waiting for one more of his books, his best know one - Moscow. We'll see...
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