While Mikhail Zoshchenko is relatively unknown outside of Russian literature, within it he enjoys a reputation as one of its premier comic and satiric writers. His achievement rests primarily in crafting a special narrative language that drew from, mimicked, and parodied the linguistic chaos that followed the social, political, and demographic upheavals of the Bolshevik Revolution. As the author of hundreds of incisive and witty short stories in the 1920s and 1930s, he became one of the most popular writers of his time, with his audience extending from scholarly circles to the average reader. Zoshchenko's appeal bridged normally distinct readerships in large part because of the density and deliberate ambiguities in his work, which meant that it could be read and appreciated at different levels.

Often compared with Nikolai Vasil'evich Gogol, Zoshchenko showed in his work a similar trajectory from humor and absurdism to attempts to write highly...