In this new collection of humorous stories, Nikolai Alexandrovich Leykin invites readers to look at the world through unexpected “heroes”—the most ordinary things. A corkscrew, a bottle of champagne, a small bill, food, and even a piano are at the center of events and seem to lead their own account of what is happening around them.
Each object, in its own way, reflects reality, adding to the narrative and lending it a symbolic tint, along with precise, entertaining details. Alongside the “object-based” stories, the author returns again to themes close to him: the mores and everyday life of merchants, strange fellow passengers, the dacha crowd and players, poverty and drunkenness.
Whatever scene unfolds before him, Leykin keenly notices details and knows how to play them for laughs—whether it’s attempts to determine the time of day by women’s activities or observing a lunar eclipse. As a result, we get witty, observant prose in which the funny springs from the very everyday.