Preview of Gorky Park Summary:

Gorky Park is such an exciting and entertaining story that on a first reading one is seldom conscious of anything other than the events of its fastpaced narrative. But a more reflective consideration of the book reveals that it does possess a few abstract aspects which, although generally muted by the color and energy of their surrounding context, periodically indicate some of the author's broader concerns.

The primary social question in Gorky Park is the quality of life in the Soviet Union. Smith has structured the novel in a way that reveals ever-widening circles of corruption within the Soviet social and political systems, and the plot turns upon the efforts by members of the elite to frustrate, block and finally kill Arkady Renko, the police investigator charged with solving a bizarre triple murder. This emphasis upon the widespread rottenness of Soviet society as a...