The sad detective

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The sad detective (in the original: Печальный детектив ) is a satirical novel by the Russian author Viktor Petrovich Astafjew , which was published in German in 1988 .

action

After an unsuccessful hunt for a criminal, the former militia officer Soschnin lives as an early disabled and occasionally private investigator in early retirement. Now he looks at his surroundings with different, more critical eyes than during his active time. His personal review of the panopticon of a Russian provincial town is full of bizarre types: all-too normal citizens, limited functionaries , cunning crooks , dumb hooligans and desperate to stoic alcoholics .

classification

The Sad Detective is a socially critical satire about the everyday life of the common people and those on the fringes of society in the times of the decline of the Soviet Union .

expenditure

  • Viktor Astafjew: The sad detective . Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1988, 196 pages, ISBN 978-3760970172

literature

  • Holger Gemba: "The sad detective": Notes on the Russian thriller of the 80s ". In: Porta Slavica. Contributions to Slavic linguistics and literary studies. Wilma Woesler on his 65th birthday. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999. pp. 107–119. (= Studies of the Research Center East Central Europe at the University of Dortmund, Volume 25)
  • Erich Fetter: Questions that worry us. "The sad detective", novel by Viktor Astafjew; in: National-Zeitung of August 15, 1988, p. 7.