Added to my virtual bookshelf ... Colonel Stierlitz by Robin Wyatt Dunn

I needed to take a break after a few pages of Robin Wyatt Dunn's "Colonel Stierlitz" ... not due to any fault in the book itself, but to bring myself up-to-speed on the book's protagonist, the literary/television/film tradition from which Dunn drew the protagonist, and the original creator of that tradition.

I recommend those who want to read Dunn's novella do the same ... and I certainly DO recommend reading "Colonel Stierlitz."

Imagine a vodka-fueled, stream-of-SUB-consciousness journey through the heart and mind of a Soviet agent ... a journey that takes him around the planet (and even off the planet) ... as a man or as a horse, by himself or with an incredible array of companions, pursuing missions and activities that stretch credibility while fending-off antagonists that include Swedish agents, a reanimated Stalin, and Yulian Semyonov (that "original creator" I mentioned in my first paragraph).

Think of a cocaine-fueled Sherlock Holmes dating Irene Adler as he deals with Moriarty and Doyle, or a martini-fueled James Bond dating Miss Moneypenney as he deals with Blofeld and Fleming, and you have some idea of what to expect in "Colonel Stierlitz."

The novella is not for everyone ... if you wish an easy read, with a conclusion that ties-up all the ends nicely, I cannot recommend it. But if you would like to stretch yourself some, I VERY MUCH recommend it.

And really, 'stretching' can be a good thing for readers. I did it fifty years ago when I tackled Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49," and it was good for me. And while I do NOT place Dunn's work on the same level as Pynchon's, I certainly DO recommend "Colonel Stierlitz" to you as a stretching exercise, a glimpse into a bygone Russian literary tradition, and (most of all) a good read.
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NOTE: I received a free e-copy of this work through LibraryThing in exchange for a review.