Gogol'

I've been thinking about dear Nikolai since my encounter with a Russian customer 10 days ago. I remember thinking at the time how difficult it is to explain his writing to a non-Russophile. Monty Python meets Dostoevskii with serious mental health issues is the only way I can work my way round it, but even that doesn't do him justice in the slightest. Fedor Mikhailovich held him in the highest regard, of course, stating that all the Russian writers of his era had come out from beneath Gogol''s overcoat. Anyway, if you haven't yet (and I think both of my readers have), rush to your nearest bookselling establishment and demand a copy of Gogol''s tales, or, if you are a Russian reader, head over to www.klassika.ru. You will not regret it. Although you may. In fact you may hate him. But try, at least once. 'Nose' is excellent. 'The Overcoat' is even better. Read him and see the prototype for the small, disillusioned men of later fiction. Or read him and laugh. Or delight in his evocation of St. Petersburg. Whatever. Just read him.