LENIN LIVES!

by Gregory O'Brien ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 1984

The title says it all--almost literally: there's only about 50 full pages' worth of print in this one-joke assemblage, which presents assorted reactions (newspaper stories, TV interviews, press releases, editorials) to the news that the corpse of V. I. Lenin has been brought back to life. Some of these clippings offer neat parodies of press inanities. In the Enquirer, Jeane Dixon reveals ""that she had predicted the Lenin story in a letter to a friend written in 1959."" The Reagan administration denounces the resurrected Lenin as a fake; the L.A. Times denounces Reagan's ""shrill taunts."" A press release from Beijing calls the Lenin return ""an inexcusable deviation from true Marxism."" US industrialist Armand Hammer is sure that ""he is who he says he is."" Dear Abby counsels a mother whose son has ""taken up with a girl who told him she worships Lenin."" There are excerpts from ""Nightline,"" radio call-in shows, Evans & Novak. And finally Lenin dies again--on his way to a UN world-peace address. Some knowing send-ups of assorted media--but more suited to a two-page humor piece in The New Yorker than an inflated ""novel.

Pub Date: April 18, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION