Since childhood, I’ve had a weakness for beautiful books. I might not even read them, but I’ll buy them just for their beauty (although lately, I’ve been buying more electronic ones).
That’s how Garik Korogodsky’s book first caught my attention — because of its design. I had no idea who this Korogodsky was, but the book sitting on my friends’ shelf simply demanded that I reach for it. And once I read the subtitle “and other stories of a Jewish boy,” its fate was sealed (I guess I have a genetic affinity for stories about Jewish boys). Interestingly, the book came to my friends from the previous owners of their apartments, and my friends hadn’t read it themselves.
First, a few words about the author. Garik Korogodsky, born Grigory Davidovich Korogodsky, has always been called Garik within his family. However, in the USSR, they didn’t want to put such a name on his birth certificate (I had a similar situation with my mom). Garik is a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, a dollar millionaire.
Judging by the photos on the internet, he enjoys dressing rather flamboyantly:
The book “How to Spend a Million” is the first of four written by Garik Korogodsky so far. He is also an active presence on social media, with about 200,000 followers (according to Wikipedia). So, at the very least, he is quite a remarkable personality.
As I mentioned earlier, the book’s description promised stories from the life of an ordinary Jewish boy from Soviet Kiev, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. And I enjoy reading about the lives of Jews during the Tsarist and Soviet eras.
Unfortunately, the book does not live up to expectations. Initially, it’s interesting, indeed recounting the life of a Jewish family in Kiev. But that’s only at the very beginning. In 1975, Garik finished school and left to study in Moscow, where a completely different life began.
From this point on, the book is filled with stories about squandering large amounts of money on a luxurious lifestyle, being deeply in debt without suffering from it, and buying almost everything one could buy (except, perhaps, love). And it provides countless ways to make money through speculation, theft, and connections. It’s clear why the author is such a fan of Ilf and Petrov’s books (which he frequently references). A schemer like Ostap Bender, or more accurately, an underground millionaire like Koreiko, seems to be the author’s alter ego.
Yes, it’s likely that future millionaires are born from such unprincipled, skilled individuals who are willing to take risks and aren’t obsessed with money. But at some point, I realized how much I disliked the author as a person. He is known as a philanthropist and seems to have done many truly admirable things. But how he started and the life he led in Moscow are far from my own principles (which might explain why I’m not a millionaire yet).
On the plus side, the book offers another perspective on the life of Jews in a country where anti-Semitism was supposedly non-existent but, in reality, not quite so. The author touches on this in the first part of the book. Although I found the stories from Moscow distasteful in essence, they do provide insight into life during those years — what was allowed, what wasn’t, and how the black market operated during the era of extreme shortages.
So, I can’t say the book is entirely bad. But I had to force myself to finish it, and I have no desire to read the author’s other books. However, the book is beautifully made, and it would make a fine gift.
My rating: 3/5
