The Overcoat II (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: T. Coraghessan Boyle
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Plot: Parody
- Time of Work: The 1980's
- Setting: Moscow
- Principal Characters: Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, Petrovich, Studniuk, Rodion Ivanovich Mishkin, Zharyenoye
- Genres: Short fiction, Satire, Political fiction, Parody
- Subjects: Corruption, Government, Loneliness, Satire, Russia or Russian people, Bureaucracy or bureaucrats, Propaganda
- Locales: Moscow, Russia
The Story
Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, an anonymous clerk in the Soviet bureaucracy, lives for his work, has no outside interests, has no time for anything but waiting in endless queues for items that may not even be available when his turn finally comes. Even though he shares a four-room apartment with fourteen others, the only dissatisfaction he finds with his life is the cheap, tattered overcoat that does nothing to protect him from Moscow's below-zero weather. Akaky bought the coat only because a Central Department Store clerk ridiculed the quality of Soviet-made products...
[The entire page is 1353 words long]
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