Lyudi Nashevo Tsarya
Ludmila Ulitskaya
EKSMO, 2005
Ludmila Ulitskaya is a well-known author both within Russia and without. Several of her books have been translated into English: Funeral Party, Medea and her Children and Sonechka. Winner of the 2001 Russian Booker Prize, as well as other prestigious literary awards, in 2004, at the 17th International Book Fair in Moscow, she was labeled “the Author of the Year,” due to the unequaled popularity of her work.
This is a remarkable achievement, since Ulitskaya does not write pulp fiction, detective novels or other “mass audience” titles. Indeed, some may be surprised to find that such sophisticated, subtle and precise prose sells so well.
But Ulitskaya’s secret is really quite simple. Well aware of complicated, post-modern ways, Ulitskaya relies firmly upon the basic, eternal urge of readers to find out “What happened next?” She tells stories. Stories about family love and family hatred, about the mysteries of parenthood, about lies, death and loyalty.
Her new book, published by EKSMO, is a collection of short stories only very loosely connected by one character, the author’s alter ego Zhenya. The title Lyudi Nashevo Tsarya could be translated as The People of Our King or The People of Our Tsar, depending on what the translator is more willing to sacrifice: local flavor or biblical associations.
The stories, as usual, are about people’s everyday lives, and could have been melodramatic, if not for the shrewd, ironic and intelligent voice of the author. And of course Ulitskaya traps us with her plots, trivial or extraordinary as they may be, which persuaded us to turn page after page, eager to find out what happens next.
– Alexandra Borisenko
Moura: The Dangerous Life of Baroness Budberg
Nina Berberova
New York Review Books, 2005, $24.95
Life, it is often said, is always more interesting than fiction. I can certainly think of dozens of exceptions to this, but the life of Baroness Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg is not one of them. The very length of her name, rich as it is with the historical names Zakrevskaya and Benckendorff, is clue enough to this.
This is the first appearance in English of novelist Nina Berberova’s wonderful retelling of the life of her friend, whom she calls simply Moura. And not only is it a fascinating portrait of a secretive, flirtatious, iron-willed, intelligent woman; it is also an amazingly rich portrait of life in Russia before and after the Revolution. For Moura was one of those rare people who seemed to have crossed paths with all the important historical personages of her age.
Moura was intimately involved in the mysterious Lockhart affair, a conspiracy that almost brought down the young Soviet state, and was mistress to both Maxim Gorky and H.G. Wells. Her acquaintances met frequently with top Soviet leaders – including Lenin and Trotsky – which makes this story thick with the detail of their bizarre thinking and evil designs.
But, more than anything, it is a vivid portrait of an age:
The year 1919 was frightful. For many the very symmetry of the two nines remained forever an ominous symbol of death by starvation, typhus, Spanish flu, subzero temperatures in houses that were falling apart and being dismantled (the parquet floors were burned as fuel), and death by decree of the all-powerful Cheka.... Gorky’s apartment was near the zoo, which was now deserted. The lions and tigers had died of starvation long ago, and the deer and camels had been eaten. Only Professor Pavlov, who had recently discovered the conditioned reflex, managed (thanks to Lenin’s special order) to get enough food to feed his laboratory dogs.
This volume from Berberova is a rich and wonderful gift.
– Paul E. Richardson
In the Wake of the Jomon
Jon Turk
McGraw Hill, 2005, $24.95
It is quite common in Vermont during the summer to see a Subaru or SUV drive by with a kayak (or two) strapped to its roof, its owner on their way to or from an afternoon paddle on a lake. After reading this new book by adventure traveler Jon Turk, I have had the urge to shout out, a la Crocodile Dundee, “You call that kayaking? Now Jon Turk, that’s a kayaker!”
Turk set himself the objective of retracing the migratory steps of Stone Age mariners – the Jomon – from Japan to Alaska. It is a 3,000 mile voyage that took him two years to complete, even with modern outerwear, GPS receivers and sea-ready kayaks.
If I could share the seas, the storms, and the surf with these Stone Age mariners, I could better understand the consequences of their choice, the magnitude of their voyage, and the demands it must have made on their primitive technologies and their maritime and survival skills.
Sure, those sorts of big questions are fascinating, but they are not what makes this book a great read. Instead, it is Turk’s wonderful descriptive powers, his tough, matter-of-fact approach to the myriad problems that confront him (from stonewalling visa agents to Kalashnikov toting border guards to blundering bears, to say nothing of 12-foot ocean swells), and his unsinkable faith that he and his different erstwhile companions – a clueless Russian named Zhenya, a mathematician named Franz, his wife Chris (whose article on Kamchatka was published in Russian Life), and a determined kayaking novice named Misha – can make the crossing.
There is plenty of humor – of the “What a fool am I and what the hell am I doing here?” variety – in this tale, and more than a fair helping of gripping, edge-of-your-seat narrative, which, in the end, offers a revealing, close-up view of one of the world’s remotest regions. But there are also, woven into that narrative, wonderful historical vignettes: Krashennikov’s explorations of Kamchatka; speculations on the nature of the Jomon; more recent Soviet history; archeological background.
All in all, this is an exciting and compelling travel essay book, and certainly the best one on Russia in years. Don’t miss it!
Iosseliani on DVD
Four works of the acclaimed Georgian filmmaker Otar Iosseliani (see Russian Life, January/February 2004) are available for the first time on DVD in the U.S. The films include April, Falling Leaves, There Once Was a Singing Blackbird and Pastoral. Before his self-imposed exile to France, Iosseliani frequently saw his work shelved and banned by Soviet authorities. His filming style is poetically casual and shrewdly whimsical, relying on natural interactions between real people. His stories are fables of modern life and reflect a universe of joyous pessimism. The films are on a two-disc set offered for $59.95 by Facets (facets.org or 800-331-6197). Total runtime is 305 minutes, in Georgian, with English subtitles. Available September 27.
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
