Contents
The end of winter, even as unusually warm as the current one, is not the easiest time. To survive it, you need an effort, a breakthrough, resources for which are not always enough. A few evenings with an interesting book will help to fill them.
Bibe
“On the Body of the Soul” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya
After the semi-biographical book Jacob’s Ladder, Lyudmila Ulitskaya announced that she would no longer take up major prose. And indeed, she did not release a novel, but a collection of 11 new short stories. This is great news: Ulitskaya’s stories, with their tightly compressed spring of private history, remain in the soul for a long time. Few people are able to reveal the essence of human nature in a laconic plot so accurately, to show fate in a few strokes.
Here is the story “Serpentine” (with a personal dedication to Ekaterina Genieva) – about a talented woman, philologist, bibliographer, who gradually begins to forget words and their meaning. Can you imagine what a word means to a librarian? Ulitskaya surprisingly metaphorically, but at the same time almost tangibly describes how the heroine moves step by step along the serpentine of her elusive memories into the fog of oblivion flickering ahead. The writer manages to draw contour maps of human consciousness with words, and this makes a very strong impression.
Or, for example, “Dragon and Phoenix” written after a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh, where instead of an insoluble conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, there is the devoted and grateful love of two friends.
It takes a certain courage to dare to look beyond the horizon, and a great talent for writing to describe what he saw.
In the story “Blessed are those who…”, the elderly sisters, sorting through the manuscripts of their departed linguist mother, finally start talking about what they have kept in themselves all their lives. Loss turns into comfort and gain, because it allows you to shake off resentment and pride and see How long all three needed each other. A short story about late love, Alice Buys Death, is the story of a long-lived lonely woman who, by the will of fate, has a little granddaughter.
Touching upon the issues of intimacy, kinship of souls, friendship, Lyudmila Ulitskaya inevitably touches on the topic of separation, completion, departure. A materialist and biologist, on the one hand, and a writer who believes at least in talent and inspiration, on the other, she explores that boundary space where the body partes with the soul: the older you get, the more it attracts, says Ulitskaya. It takes a certain courage to dare to look beyond the horizon, and a great talent for writing to describe what he saw.
Death, which sets boundaries, and love, which abolishes them, are two eternal motifs that the writer has found a new frame for. It turned out to be a very deep and at the same time bright collection of secret, passed through oneself stories that one wants to reread.
Ludmila Ulitskaya, “On the body of the soul.” Edited by Elena Shubina, 416 p.
portrait
“Serotonin” by Michel Houellebecq
Why does this gloomy Frenchman so captivate readers, over and over again describing the fading of the personality of his middle-aged intellectual hero against the backdrop of the decline of Europe? Boldness of speech? A far-sighted assessment of the political situation? The skill of a stylist or the bitterness of a weary intelligent person that pervades all his books?
Fame came to Houellebecq at the age of 42 with the novel Elementary Particles (1998). By that time, a graduate of the agronomic institute managed to get a divorce, sit without a job and become disillusioned with Western civilization and life in general. In any case, Welbeck plays the theme of hopelessness in every book, including Submission (2015), where he describes the transformation of France into an Islamic country, and the novel Serotonin.
Previously emotional life turns into a sequence of mechanical actions against the background of serotonin anesthesia
His hero, Florent-Claude, irritated to the whole world, receives an antidepressant from a doctor with the hormone of happiness – serotonin, and sets off on a journey to the places of youth. He remembers his mistresses and even dreams of new ones, but “the white oval-shaped tablet… does not create or modify anything; she interprets. Everything final makes it pass, the inevitable – accidental … “
A previously emotionally saturated life turns into a sequence of mechanical actions against the backdrop of serotonin anesthesia. Florent-Claude, like other spineless Europeans, according to Houellebecq, is only able to speak beautifully and regret the lost. He pities both the hero and the reader: there is nothing to help them, except to speak out and realize what is happening. And Welbeck undeniably achieves this goal.
Michel Welbeck. “Serotonin”. Translated from French by Maria Zonina. AST, Corpus, 320 p.
Berxwedan
“Us Against You” by Fredrik Backman
The story of the confrontation between the hockey teams of two Swedish towns is a sequel to the novel “Bear Corner” (2018), and fans will meet familiar characters: young Maya, her father Peter, who once broke into the NHL, a hockey player from the god Benya … The junior team, the main hope of the town Bjornstad, almost in full force, moved to neighboring Hed, but life goes on.
It is interesting to follow the development of events regardless of whether you like hockey and are aware of the plot of the previous book. Buckman uses sports to talk about our insecurities and fears, resilience and motivation. The fact that it is almost impossible to achieve something alone, you can only not let yourself be broken. And then you have to unite again in order to achieve a result.
Translation from Swedish by Elena Teplyashina. Sinbad, 544 p.
dostî
“The Air You Breathe” by Francis de Pontis Peebles
A bewitchingly musical novel by American Brazilian Peebles about female friendship and the cursed gift of great talent. Dorish, 95, reminisces about her impoverished childhood on a sugar plantation in the 20s and about her master’s daughter Grace. Ambitious Graça and stubborn Dorish complemented each other – one had a divine voice, the other had a sense of word and rhythm; one knew how to bewitch the audience, the other – to prolong the effect, but each desperately wanted the recognition of the other.
Rivalry, admiration, dependence – these feelings will create a Brazilian legend out of the provincial girls: Graça will become a great performer, and Dorish will write the best songs for her, living again and again their unequal friendship, betrayal and redemption.
Translation from English by Elena Teplyashina, Phantom Press, 512 p.