At first it seems strange, but the novel with the Zamyatin title still has nothing to do with dystopias. This is a tender lyrical story about a family.
At first it seems strange, but the novel with the Zamyatin title still has nothing to do with dystopias. This is a tender lyrical story about a family. Even so: about the Family. Typical, maybe archetypal. Husband and wife lived together for 25 years, he loved her very much, and she loved him as much as she could, they gave birth to a son and lived happily. My son has grown up and will leave to study in the fall. And the wife of the protagonist, Douglas, suddenly reports: their marriage is over. But they have a whole summer ahead of them and a big trip around Europe. One summer for three, then to leave. Reading the novel, I kept catching myself thinking: everything that Douglas tells us about his family, love, life – the novel is written from his perspective – is very familiar to me, even though I am not a biochemist for 54 years. And what he says about his wife is also very familiar, even though I’m not a British artist, I don’t know much about art, I didn’t have such a stormy youth and I don’t really like bohemians. Then it remains to admit that, like their son, art museums are more interesting to me than military history ones. And fall in love with the girl with the accordion because she plays “Smells like teen spirit”, the iconic Nirvana song. They are very different, these heroes. But any of us can be in their place. A simple everyday story in the spirit of a confessional novel. A lively non-linear narrative, where the chapters of the first acquaintance, the first kiss, sex, dance, quarrel are interspersed with chapters with them, but the last ones (or still not the last ones?), but you don’t get confused in the composition. A measured pace, well-written characters, human dialogues, good language, a translation that you don’t feel at all – all this is so pleasant and has not come across in the genre of a love-family novel for so long, what more could you want.
Translation from English by Ekaterina Korotnyan and Olga Alexandrova.
Foreigner, 512 p.