The Commissar's Report

Hugh Oliver is Editor-in-Chief, OISE Press.

Whoever wrote the blurb on the back cover of this book—that this
“comic tale of latent capitalism seething beneath the surface of a
model communist agent is as current as a Fax from Gorbachev’s
Kremlin”—must be wishing he could write it again. These days there
is nothing less current than Gorbachev’s Kremlin. Although the stage
on which this zany novel is played exists no more, this scarcely
matters. For, as in Burke’s other novels, the fanciful plot serves
simply as a sort of A-Fish-Like-Wanda medium in which to bring to life
some wonderful characters. There is the first-person hero, Dimitri, who
operates out of New York’s Soviet embassy and who becomes a business
tycoon by default and in secrecy. There is his buxom wife, Katya, who
develops a lust for haute couture and high living that she is less
willing to keep secret. Throughout the book, Dimitri is haunted by an
avenging boyhood friend whose parents he was indirectly responsible for
getting shot. Then there are a host of other minor yet memorable
characters. The hero is caught between his mission to destroy “Enemy
Number One” (the United States) and his concern to save such a
colorful nation. But it is the characters who are believable, not the
story, and this of itself is a testament to the high level of
craftsmanship of Burke’s writing.