Little Golden America
Little Golden America: two famous Soviet humorists survey the United States by Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov
This is titled "One-Storied America" in Russian, because it is the tale of a road trip through all the parts of America where the buildings are one or two stories high -- skyscrapers being heavily concentrated in the big cities even more than now, because the road trip was taken in the 1930s.
The authors were in good standing with Soviet authorities, and published their accounts in official Soviet presses, so there is that to factor in. It's still interesting to read such details as their finding it funny enough to comment that Poughkeepsie is written with twelve characters. And make the sort of mistakes travelers do: they assume that all the towns and cities with Main Street and Broadway are aping New York without ever asking what is a natural name for a street that is the chief, most important, or main one in a town, or for a way that is particularly wide, or broad.
Still interesting to read, despite the obvious filtering. The description of the Grand Canyon and of sequoias are particularly dramatic. Also, their surprise at the Molokan community in San Francisco and how perfectly Russian it still is. Obvious bias found here and again but the big suspicion always has to be what is omitted. Certainly useful for what they thought.
This is titled "One-Storied America" in Russian, because it is the tale of a road trip through all the parts of America where the buildings are one or two stories high -- skyscrapers being heavily concentrated in the big cities even more than now, because the road trip was taken in the 1930s.
The authors were in good standing with Soviet authorities, and published their accounts in official Soviet presses, so there is that to factor in. It's still interesting to read such details as their finding it funny enough to comment that Poughkeepsie is written with twelve characters. And make the sort of mistakes travelers do: they assume that all the towns and cities with Main Street and Broadway are aping New York without ever asking what is a natural name for a street that is the chief, most important, or main one in a town, or for a way that is particularly wide, or broad.
Still interesting to read, despite the obvious filtering. The description of the Grand Canyon and of sequoias are particularly dramatic. Also, their surprise at the Molokan community in San Francisco and how perfectly Russian it still is. Obvious bias found here and again but the big suspicion always has to be what is omitted. Certainly useful for what they thought.