VOSS

Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky—Voss, for short—has smuggled himself to America from Slobovia in a freight container full of Cheez Puffs and tells his story in a series of letters to his friend Meero. Chased by the Slobovian mob (for destroying a container of Cheez Puffs) and stalked by erstwhile fiancée Leena, Voss searches for the American dream, finding it in friendship with vapid heiress Tiffany McBloomingdale. When Voss’s beloved father falls ill, he discovers that the only clinic these illegal Slobovian immigrants dare visit is a vile medical lab preying on the helpless. Speaking in a thick, clownish Slavic-style accent (“the deefeecold thing about the Eenglish linguitch,” he writes), Voss brings immigrants and Americans together to fight evil. The moral—that all people, even illegal immigrants, are human beings—is weakened somewhat by the avalanche of stereotypes that covers Voss’s adventure: Slobovian women are built like fire hydrants; Americans never stop eating; Indians are cabdrivers. Still, this good-natured caricature is an improvement on predecessors such as Borat; Voss brings out the best in people, not the worst. (Fiction. 11-13)