The October, 2023 Reading List

 

Upon finishing The Twelve Chairs earlier this month, I decided to go back to reading mystery/detective novels with the work of Donna Leon. Counting the three I read this month, I've managed to read 10 of her 32 Guido Brunetti novels. Her 11th in the series,Willful Behaviour will be the first on my November book list. Leon's novels take place in Venice, and although I really enjoy her work, I was feeling a bit "water-logged" after #10 and decided to take a break and go back to Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series.

I read George's first novel, A Great Deliverance in February. I can't recall my reason for not reading more in her series then, but better late then never I suppose. I've managed to get back up to speed with the complicated lives of Lynley, Havers, St James (and wife) and Lady Helen Clyde.

I'll be sticking with Leon and George for the time being. I've only 39 novels to go.

The list for October, 2023 -

The Twelve Chairs     by Ilya Ilf & Yevgeny Petrov
Fatal Remedies      by Donna Leon
Friends In High Places    by Donna Leon
A Sea of Troubles      by Donna Leon
Payment In Blood     by Elizabeth George
Well-Schooled in Murder    by Elizabeth George
A Suitable Vengeance      by Elizabeth George

The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf & Yevgeny Petrov

Anyone familiar with this blog should know that I'm of a fan of the Commentary Magazine podcast. Two of the books on my Reading List for September 2023 were recommended at one time by one of the podcasters.

I've just finished reading The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf & Yevgeny Petrov, and while this novel was not recommended by the podcast, I would not have read this book had it not been for the podcast. The music at the beginning of each podcast episode comes from the 1970 film adaptation of the novel by Mel Brooks. Hearing the music five days a week, it was only a matter of time before I searched for and downloaded the book.

The novel has been adapted several times - there's even an unfinished operetta based on the novel by Dmitri Shostakovich. According to wikipedia, Brooks' version follows the novel more closely than most of the other adaptations, but even Brooks wanders from the original story. The book is humorous, although not nearly as slapstick as Brooks' film.

In both, the main character is Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, an impoverished aristocrat from the days of Tsarist Russia who now lives in the Soviet Union of 1927. At the death of his mother-in-law, Vorobyaninov learns that she had hidden a fortune in jewels in the seat cushion of one of the twelve chairs that made up a dining room set owned by her family prior to the Russian revolution. The book tells of Vorobyaninov's quest to find the chair that holds the jewels.

Another big difference in the book and Brooks' film is the ending. I'm not going to give spoilers, but I'll say that Ilf & Petrov's original ending would probably follow the Stalinist censors views better than Mel Brooks' ending.