Suitcase essay

Witty and satiric, though not without a strain of muted nostalgia, THE SUITCASE succeeds wonderfully well in its depiction of Soviet life and of its own self-deprecating but endlessly resourceful and resilient main character.

Originally published in Russian in 1986 and very able translated into English by Antonina W. Bouis, THE SUITCASE is more than a discovery; it is a work of comic genius tightly packed into 128 spare but unsparing, explosively funny pages. Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now.

Word Count: 306 Told that he can take only one piece of luggage when he departs the Soviet Union, THE SUITCASE’s autobiographical narrator and anti-hero, is furious until he goes to his flat, begins packing, and realizes just how little he owns that he either needs or wants to take with him.

“Hana’s Suitcase” is a true non-fiction story where the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Centre, Fumiko Ishioka, is struggling to inform the youth in Japan concerning the revulsion of the Holocaust.