1. Appreciate skill. 2. Solve the parable. 3. Understand yourself.
1. Rate skill. It seems as if Makanin holds a chisel in his hand and cuts wood — deeply, clearly, unmistakably. Without making a single unnecessary movement, rhyming situations, motives, characters. 1990s. Two sisters: 30-year-old Olga, the owner of a studio with reproductions of Kandinsky, and Inna, a “languishing nature”, discussing her stormy romances with Olya. The hero of the first, a young promising politician, ran without any need to the KGB with a denunciation. The hero of the second, a young rock musician Max, quietly pulls money from Olga. Following on the stage is Max’s father, a professional informant, on whose denunciations dozens of people were imprisoned.
2. Unravel the parable. Vladimir Makanin wrote a tough parable, diagnosing both society and modern man. The 1990s are taken by him as an «axial time», against which it is very convenient to consider the deep properties of human nature and the mechanisms of all the same relationships: a man-woman, an executioner-victim, a parasite-donor…
3. Understand yourself. The entire finale of this novel, Olga sobs in her room. The truths that are revealed to her are indeed disappointing. The wisest and kindest here are the homeless and former prisoners. People feed on illusions — abstract painting, trips to St. Petersburg, falling in love with scoundrels. And one more thing: «In Russia one must live long.» And leave the house, as the hunters say, at «before dawn». In what sense? And here is the stop. Everyone must deal with this for himself: the writer does not explain anything to the end, does not chew. I’m talking parable. Sorry about us.
EKSMO, 320 p.
Maya Kucherskaya