Humorous excerpt about Soviet Estonia and journalism back then. Unfortunately, it was not my type of humour at all.

— Генрих Францевич, что касается снимков… Учтите, новорожденные бывают так себе…
— Выберите лучшего. Подождите, время есть.
— Месяца четыре ждать придется. Раньше он вряд ли на человека будет похож. А кому и пятидесяти лет мало…

So what do you do if you were a newspaper man in Tallin Estonia and have now immigrated to White Plaines N.Y? You gather up all your old clippings and write the actual story behind what you wrote for the "Soviet Estonia" in the 70's. That's "The Compromise" a behind the scenes look at what actually happened to Dovlatov while he wrote for the paper. Many of the stories are funny, even to us westerners. Stories such as the funeral he attended where he gave part of the eulogy to a T.V. producer. A funeral where the people in charge had Dovlatov get the body from the morgue, be a pall bearer, give part of the eulogy, and write the story of the funeral for the morning edition. Oh by the way, Dovlatov's photographer, who was also drafted to be a pallbearer, recognizes that the guy in the coffin at the cemetery is not the T.V. producer but some one else. Or the horse fixing deal Dovlatov was involved in, until his jockey was arrested. Or the trip to a farm where a milk maid had milked an unholy amount of milk from her cows etc. The whole book will have you smiling and at the same time give you a window into how news is made and reported in a oppressive regime. An interesting window in our current age.

Первая аудиокнига, которую я прослушала и в озвучке Хабенского это произведение прекрасно. Пропитанное абсурдностью происходящего вокруг, каким-то чувством смиренности с этим состоянием вещей и осознанием невозможности существовать в текущей парадигме вещей. И тем не менее, жизнь продолжается и герои Довлатова, как и сам Довлатов продолжают выживать, пытаться быть счастливыми, ну а если не счастливыми, то хотя бы пьяными.