Lidia Ginzburg said that a real work of art is obtained when the author is driven not only by purely literary interests. In this case, this is exactly what happened: the publication, published with the aim of helping hospices, turned out to be perhaps the best collection of contemporary Russian writers. Some (Dina Rubina, Tatyana Tolstaya, Boris Akunin) published fragments of new works, others (Vladimir Sorokin, Vladimir Makanin) presented already published ones, and someone wrote specifically for this publication.
Lidia Ginzburg said that a real work of art is obtained when the author is driven not only by purely literary interests. In this case, this is exactly what happened: the publication, published with the aim of helping hospices, turned out to be perhaps the best collection of contemporary Russian writers. Some (Dina Rubina, Tatyana Tolstaya, Boris Akunin) published fragments of new works, others (Vladimir Sorokin, Vladimir Makanin) presented already published ones, and someone wrote specifically for this publication. Different genres, themes, characters. But here’s the amazing thing: there are no random texts in the book. Whatever attracts our attention — a strange stylized picture of the village pre-war life of Vladimir Sorokin («Black Horse with a White Eye»), Viktor Pelevin’s dystopian story («Ontology of Childhood»), Zakhar Prilepin’s story imbued with light lyricism «Grandma, wasps, watermelon» or the extraordinary text by Eduard Limonov about the death of his mother (“Left Alone”) – in each case one can feel the conscious and responsible choice of the author. And the whole book, as you read it, begins to be perceived as something whole. It is as if one author is transferring his energy to another.
Vera Hospice Relief Fund, 2009
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