The Queue is a 1983 novel by Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin, first published in France in 1985 after being banned in the USSR, and in English by Readers International in 1988.

Instead it is filled with nothing but voices: snatches of conversation, rumors, jokes, howls of humor, roll calls, and sexy moans.

Finally after two days of waiting it appears that the end of the line is in sight, but suddenly it begins pouring and Vadim seeks shelter.

[3] The main character, Vadim, demonstrates the extreme length of time that large amounts of Russian citizens were willing to stand in line for an unknown, always changing items.

Lines were such a recognizable facet of the Russian experience during the Soviet Union, that the commercial newspaper Kommersant announced, were the "laws of our time".

The Queue is composed exclusively in dialogue, and the reader is limited to small exchanges that take place among the people waiting in line.

The Queue, Sorokin's first novel, was initially banned in the Soviet Union but was published by the émigré dissident Andrei Sinyavsky in France in 1985.

[citation needed] “More and more people in the Soviet Union have found that diligent and conscientious work for official goals is not rewarded as much as the abuse of their position in public sectors for their personal interests or their activity in the second economy and other spheres of illegal civil society, and it does not provide the rewards of devotion to family, friends, and loved ones.

It enshrined the social and psychological idea of consumption through state distribution...people stay in the queues for cars or apartments for years.

Even Ronald Reagan is mentioned in the discussion of American politics with the topic revolving around the debate of free speech, and whether it can truly be possible.