I love the opening to Adventures of a True Believer, Gary Shteyngart’s review of Vladimir Voinovich’s Monumental Propaganda:
If Russia weren’t governed by fools and reprobates, if the roads were smooth and wide and free of bandits, if Russia were suddenly a modern European country as far removed from Stalin’s legacy as today’s Germany is from Hitler’s, three groups of citizens would suffer the most: corrupt traffic cops, oligarchs, and satirists.
(Hat tip to Arts & Letters Daily.)