What do the writers themselves read? What authors, plots and characters make a particularly strong impression on them? Every month, famous writers answer questions from Psychologies.
1 What are you reading now?
I have just read The Beast Heart by Herta Müller, 2009 Nobel Prize winner (Amphora, 2010). The feeling is deep and painful: as if she had been to the depths of the sea, where a huge column of water presses. Now I am re-reading Merab Mamardashvili’s “My experience is not typical” (Azbuka, 2000) – this book, in particular, includes his lectures given in different audiences in different years.
2 An author to whom you keep coming back?
Perhaps for me there is no one main author. I noticed a long time ago that writers are especially close to me, from whose books one could make something like the bible of the XNUMXth century. That is, everyone seems to be writing about his own, but it’s like one common book: Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, Andrei Platonov, Yuri Trifonov, and, if we talk about the current ones, for example, Orkhan Pamuk. That is, they solve spiritual issues, but they approach the matter historically. In short, I have always been interested in “historical man” and his internal, spiritual problems. Apparently, by the type of consciousness I am not a metaphysician.
3 The book that you re-read in difficult times?
“Glass Game” by Hermann Hesse (AST, 2011) – there is an unattainable depth and harmony of thought, but at the same time, the crystal clarity of language. For me, this has always been an unspeakable consolation.
4 Character that you are especially close to?
Maybe Joseph Knecht, Master of the Glass Bead Game.
5 What are your criteria for a good novel?
Well, first sound and language. In addition, the author’s impartiality. To put it simply, if the author, when starting a novel, already knows all the answers to the questions and generally knows the answers – and this is always felt from the very first page – my interest instantly fades. For me, this means: either these are “simple” questions (why then waste time), or the author takes on too much. Or, even worse, he plays giveaway with the reader.
6 Which writer, living or dead, would you like to talk to in person?
No, probably not to talk. I would like to listen to them – I mean the writers I have listed. Just enter the audience where they are performing and sit quietly.
Maya Kucherskaya