My english is very bad so i will be short. Dovlatov- real rude man. He talks about russia very precisely. But i think that american it will be very difficult to understand him. We too different.

GUITU- Glavnoye Upravlenie Ispravitelno Trudovimi Ucherezhdeniiami (Soviet Department of Corrections). Read the book, it is good and shows the other part of the prison life, never written about by Solzhenitsin.

One piece of advice before you sit down with a Dovlatov book: make sure you have enough time to finish it before you do anything else. "Chemodan," also known as The Suitcase in English translation, is a charming novel, masked as a short story collection... As the protagonist goes through the old suitcase, brought to America from the "old country," each item brings forth a story. The book is full of wit, absurd situations.. in other words, just the right amount of insanity to make one tackle everyday life better.

Have we met before? After the first two pages Sergej Dovlatov becomes your best friend, and it hurts to say good-bye at the end of the book... His books are witty (though, it IS black humour at times), intellegent and full of charm. But he`s dangerous: if you start reading the book you risk to neglect your daily business. Get this book, if you can, reading it is like talking to a good friend. And he`s so charming...

Brilliant satire at human aspects of life in the Soviet Union, some times interlaced with poignant notes of nostalgia. I haven't read the translation to English, the original however is fabulous!

Sergei Dovlatov is one of my top 3 writers. When you read one of his books, you feel as though you as conversing with Sergei. The text flows freely and easily. Dovlatov has the uncanny ability to capture life in the former Soviet Union, displaying not only it's absurdness, but the humor in that absurdness.

This book is a series of short stories. Each chapter is based an item in the suitcase he brought when he came to the US. The book is funny, as is all of his work, well written and poignant. I have read this book many times and on each occassion, I laugh and shake my head with amazement.

It is truly a shame that Dovlatov died so young (49).

An easy but thought provoking read, this book contains short stories of Sergei Dovlatov's true experiences with journalistic manipulation in the Soviet Union. This book will keep you laughing, and also make you wonder if newspapers are as accurate as you once believed.

Living as a Russian journalist in Soviet Estonia, Dovlatov captures the cynicism, emptiness, irony, isolation, careerism, and dissonance of late Soviet communism. It is a work of powerful literary force and profound human awareness.

This book is in Russian, with a glossary of all the more difficult words running down the side of the page in parallel with the accented Russian text. The story is amusing and well-written. I enjoyed reading it with three years of one-hour-per-week Russian lessons.

If you like Dovlatov you must read this. If you never read Dovlatov, read this and you will like Dovlatov. I've read it about a year ago and can't give you details right now, but the description of the Russian immigrant community, as well as all of the heroes of the book is amazing. Dovlatov's satire hits right on target, it will make you smile and angry at the same time. If you are an immigrant, you will see your neigbours in this story, or maybe you will see yourself. If not, try not to make stereotypes after reading this. But as far as stereotypes go, the ones here are some come to life and talk to you from the pages. Just read.

Sukhikh's study is said to be the first ever monograph on Sergei Dovlatov. It is worth looking into, as such, but do not expect any major insights. The abundance of cross-references is a bit confusing; already on page 20, one forgets the main argument. The bibliography, however, is quite helpful. The epitgraphs are a bit pretentious. A few of Dovlatov's essays are reprinted.