The Censor’s Notebook

This work of fiction reads more like non-fiction than a work of fiction, even though it could have and probably did occur. The people and events described in this memorizing book are fictional. During the Cold War, many Eastern European countries employed censors to read books and other works before they were published in an effort to make sure information did not leak out to the public about what life was really like inside the Soviet countries and not allow information about what life was like in Western countries in. This book does not feature a plot so much as a diary and notebook focused on the life of one censor who has had more than enough of her co-workers, superiors, and authors as she works methodically and too much through the changing landscape of the Cold War politics and literature. Each section is relativity short and often features endless meetings that serve no purpose, bumbling and baffling superiors who do not know what they are doing, annoying co-workers, with most of the author’s ire directed toward writers who are not very good.