I Was a Potato Oligarch
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Funny and perceptive, it gives a vivid and sympathetic picture of what Russians are really like, and how they manage to survive and enjoy themselves in their often chaotic country. --Rodric Braithwaite, British ambassador to Moscow 1988-1992, and author of Across the Moscow River and Moscow 1941
I Was a Potato Oligarch is the charming, witty and utterly hilarious telling of Mole's real-life experiences in a Russia still coming to terms with capitalism and competition...Mole is a bright, resourceful guy but his most valuable traits are his biting sense of humour and a willingness to take every setback in his stride. Bearing comparison easily with the likes of David Sedaris, Mole's story makes for a wonderful read. --Sunday Business Post, 25th May 2008
Very readable and very funny. --Clarissa Dickson Wright, author of Spilling the Beans
A behind the scenes insider's view of the 'new Russia' where anything is possible. This well written and highly entertaining book delves deep into the collective psyche of the Russian people, whilst exploring what it takes to make money in the newborn capitalism of this country that once stood as the icon for communism. The style is humorous and engaging, and a genuine fondness for Russia and its people shines throughout the book. --Adventure Travel Magazine, September 2008
Very readable and very funny. --Clarissa Dickson Wright, author of Spilling the Beans
I Was a Potato Oligarch is the charming, witty and utterly hilarious telling of Mole's real-life experiences in a Russia still coming to terms with capitalism and competition...Mole is a bright, resourceful guy but his most valuable traits are his biting sense of humour and a willingness to take every setback in his stride. Bearing comparison easily with the likes of David Sedaris, Mole's story makes for a wonderful read. --Sunday Business Post, 25th May 2008
Very readable and very funny. --Clarissa Dickson Wright, author of Spilling the Beans
A behind the scenes insider's view of the 'new Russia' where anything is possible. This well written and highly entertaining book delves deep into the collective psyche of the Russian people, whilst exploring what it takes to make money in the newborn capitalism of this country that once stood as the icon for communism. The style is humorous and engaging, and a genuine fondness for Russia and its people shines throughout the book. --Adventure Travel Magazine, September 2008
Very readable and very funny. --Clarissa Dickson Wright, author of Spilling the Beans
Product Description
From the bestselling author of It s All Greek to Me! and from a traveller who likes to get his hands as well as his boots dirty, this is an eye-wateringly funny true story of his travels and travails in the New Russia Sometimes sinister, often hilarious and always entertaining, I Was A Potato Oligarch is a Russian feast from caviar to samovar The Soviet Union has disappeared along with people s nationality, currency, jobs, salaries, pensions, politics. Oligarchs pillage the nation's wealth. It looks as if Russia might become a liberal democracy. It also looks as if it might plunge into chaos. These are fascinating times and John Mole wants to be part of this New Russia. But what can he do? An MBA, 15 years in international banking and a few novels, have left him with few useful skills. Inspiration strikes - British fast food! Nobody is doing baked potatoes and the secret is in the packaging. He gets to work with technical advice from Jackets of Brixton, money from the British taxpayer, and a partnership with the Russian Farmers' Union. And then, just as it takes off - the summons. Breakfast with the mafia... The potato business becomes a journey under the skin of the New Russia. Hired as a rabotnik, a worker, entitled to a week in a sanatorium every year, he tries to corner the market in business names and pizza cheese. He is taken for a corpse's son, a Red Square demonstrator and a vampire's victim. He tries to merge into his surroundings, too literally sometimes, but nothing that a hose-down and a change of clothes doesn't put right. While he is trying to sell British fast food to Russians, Russians try to sell things to him. Fireworks, seashells, tungsten, the scrapings of baby reindeer horn. And advanced biotechnology, using bacteria to purify the air in submarines. Spuds end in fiasco. Bugs come to the rescue.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an intelligent book, easy to read, laced with humour and very absorbing. It does essentially everything that the blurb on the back says it does, so there's little point describing the contents, except to point out that it stays just the right side of madcap (the "R" reflected as if a Russian "Ya", and the over-enthusiasm of the back cover text, did make me worry a bit until I got into the book). Mole is a serious businessman out to make money, not deliberately seeking out a comedo-journalistic dose of craziness. However, some of the situations he comes across - individuals with unusual or even astonishing personal histories (or at least claiming to - the author often sounds a wisely sceptical note, but, like Herodotus, repeats the story as he heard it), chaotic political events, and entire subcultures that could only have emerged in a period of great upheaval - are satisfyingly surreal. Although Mole can see the funny side of things, he also is acutely aware of the human cost of change, and underneath the humour, this is a portrait of Russia, especially its shadier economic underbelly, that is both humane and deeply disturbing.
Other reviews (particularly on the U.S. Amazon) are correct to point out that Mole himself tends to dominate this book - like many travelogues it is as much about the man as the place he's visiting. Mole's eye and ear for comedy are not as pitch-perfect as Bill Bryson, say, and his personality does risk becoming grating, but his openness and measured self-deprecation do help allay this. Without thrusting it in the reader's face, he creates the clear impression of being a highly cultured man, a Slavophile and an experienced, albeit surprisingly naive, businessperson - and on reflection this is more or less the perfect combination for an explorer of a chaotic, dynamic and highly diverse society with deep historic roots. Because Mole is a businessman he gets far more closely engaged in the system than a "just passing by" travel writer would do, and is therefore more revealing - particularly when his naivety or curiosity get the better of him. But he is also sensitive to far more than the financial prospects of the situation.
This book is about events in the couple of years directly after the collapse of the USSR so isn't really intended to be a guide to the "Modern Russia", but was written sufficiently later for there to be added retrospective insight. A good example of this is the not-quite-meeting with future-President Vladimir Putin, then a relatively minor politician in local government. (Although something of a non-event, this does show the murky environment where Putin cut his political teeth in - had this book been written closer to the events, Putin's significance would have gone totally unremarked!) The critical comment here about Kroshka Kartoshka seems to be based on the false assumption that this is a book about Russia in the 2000s - in fact in the book itself, Mole briefly describes how Kroshka Kartoshka has thrived where he failed.
Other reviews (particularly on the U.S. Amazon) are correct to point out that Mole himself tends to dominate this book - like many travelogues it is as much about the man as the place he's visiting. Mole's eye and ear for comedy are not as pitch-perfect as Bill Bryson, say, and his personality does risk becoming grating, but his openness and measured self-deprecation do help allay this. Without thrusting it in the reader's face, he creates the clear impression of being a highly cultured man, a Slavophile and an experienced, albeit surprisingly naive, businessperson - and on reflection this is more or less the perfect combination for an explorer of a chaotic, dynamic and highly diverse society with deep historic roots. Because Mole is a businessman he gets far more closely engaged in the system than a "just passing by" travel writer would do, and is therefore more revealing - particularly when his naivety or curiosity get the better of him. But he is also sensitive to far more than the financial prospects of the situation.
This book is about events in the couple of years directly after the collapse of the USSR so isn't really intended to be a guide to the "Modern Russia", but was written sufficiently later for there to be added retrospective insight. A good example of this is the not-quite-meeting with future-President Vladimir Putin, then a relatively minor politician in local government. (Although something of a non-event, this does show the murky environment where Putin cut his political teeth in - had this book been written closer to the events, Putin's significance would have gone totally unremarked!) The critical comment here about Kroshka Kartoshka seems to be based on the false assumption that this is a book about Russia in the 2000s - in fact in the book itself, Mole briefly describes how Kroshka Kartoshka has thrived where he failed.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a great read - I can't remember the last time that I was so absorbed by a book. At a time when the Great Bear is flexing its muscles again, this book provides a timely and amusing insight into some of the ordinary people caught up in Russia's post-perestroika transformation of the early 1990s, viewed through the prism of the author's efforts to bring fast-food potatoes to the masses. The characters are unforgettable, and beautifully observed, and the situations that the author finds himself in are often hilarious.
If you enjoy Bill Bryson's books, then I'm sure that you'll enjoy the combination of wry humour and shrewd observations in I Was a Potato Oligarch.
If you enjoy Bill Bryson's books, then I'm sure that you'll enjoy the combination of wry humour and shrewd observations in I Was a Potato Oligarch.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having thoroughly enjoyed John Mole's earlier novel "It's All Greek To Me", I was looking forward to reading "Oligarch". I have not been disappointed. It too is a great read and very entertaining.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
New for old - what changes?
The new Russia is just like the old Russia, except the money is going into different pockets. Well, some different pockets. Read more
Published 7 months ago by G. M. Sinstadt
You feel as if you are sharing a Russian adventure
A great adventure set in Russia that makes you feel as if you are side-by-side with the greater at every turn. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert Van Persie
Entertaining insight into post Soviet Russia
Against a backdrop of attempting to establish a Moscow based baked potato restaurant the author gives an entertaining and informative look at Russia as it comes to terms with... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Andrew
I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia
Thoroughly enjoyed reading 'I was a potato oligarch'. My Russian wife is pleased I've finished it as have been repeatedly requoting 'Dzhorn' to her. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2009 by Kazakh Stan
Potato Madness
I've read some other of John Mole's books and am always deeply impressed by and entertained by the schemes he finds himself involved in. Potato Oligarch is no exception. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2008 by Paris Hair
Russia revealed
What a great read and a real insight into the chaos of a burgeoning Russia intent on getting rich and Russians intent on getting some of it for themselves. Read more
Published on 28 May 2008 by Clare Gordon
A funny yet informative read
I am only half way through this book "I was a Potato Oligarch" and I love it! John Mole has captured a snapshot of the soul and character of the Russian people and weaved an... Read more
Published on 8 May 2008 by Gomersall
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