Ilf and Petrov's Single-Storey America: the 1935 Travelogue of 2 Writers

[Lily]

Currently reading this old book. Two Russian journalists drove across the country on a 10-week trip, recording their intelligent and humorous impressions of daily American life and of the Americans as taken by a Russian person.
 
I've heard that there is an English translation of it. Has anyone read it?
 
I think that this is a great illustration of differences in mentalities.

[Faux Pas]

I haven't read it but, it looks interesting

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568986009

[Sailor291]

I found it at my local public library. So it would seem it is not that hard to find.

[Lily]

I haven't read it but, it looks interesting

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568986009

This looks like a book about the book of Ilf & Petrov, doesn't it?
 
The journalists made some calculations and concluded, that to drive in the U.S. on large distances is less expensive than to use a train, taking into account the prices on gas. Is it the same today?

[Faux Pas]

This looks like a book about the book of Ilf & Petrov, doesn't it?
 
The journalists made some calculations and concluded, that to drive in the U.S. on large distances is less expensive than to use a train, taking into account the prices on gas. Is it the same today?

No it is the book but, it is currently unavailable

While gas was expensive in the 30's it IMHO wasn't as comparably expensive as it is today

[Ooooops]

No it is the book but, it is currently unavailable

You can download it for free here


http://www.homeenglish.ru/ilf_little.htm


Click on <<<Скачать>>>

[OlgaH]

You can read here

http://www.admit2.net/LGA01.HTM

[ghost of moon goddess]

The journalists made some calculations and concluded, that to drive in the U.S. on large distances is less expensive than to use a train, taking into account the prices on gas. Is it the same today?

Lily, I highly recommend you watch the "Single story America" documentary television series by Vladimir Pozner.  In 2006 he and Ivan Urgant took a trip to the US and traveled around the country, retracing the steps of Il'f and Petrov.

http://serialu.net/odnojetazhnaja-amerika/

[Lily]

Thank you, I have read that the similar movie by Pozner and Urgant is a bleak copy of the Ilf & Petrov's initial book.
 
In the meantime, I read a book by another Soviet journalists who visited the U.S. in about 1971. They also met the same old Mrs. Feshin who was featured in the 1935 book, which was interesting to read!

[ghost of moon goddess]

Don't trust critics !

[Ooooops]

Somewhat related I think -  great book by John Steinbeck about his and Robert Capa (famous Magnum photographer) travels in post war USSR.


http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Journal-Classic-20th-Century-Penguin/dp/0141180196

[SANDRO43]

great book by John Steinbeck

Which reminds me of the very first book in English I bought as a teenager:

I was expecting an adventurous seagoing novel, but it was:

a six-week (March 11 – April 20) marine specimen-collecting boat expedition he made in 1940 at various sites in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) with his friend, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts. It is regarded as one of Steinbeck's most important works of non-fiction chiefly because of the involvement of Ricketts, who shaped Steinbeck's thinking and provided the prototype for many of the pivotal characters in his fiction, and the insights it gives into the philosophies of the two men.

[PaulK]

I read the book a few months ago and enjoyed it greatly.

Another book worth reading by Ilf and Petrov is "The Twelve Chairs"  Mel Brooks made a movie about it.