Nina Berberova, the author of her autobiography about life in exile, My Italics, talks about the uniqueness of every “average” person.
“Eternity can open up on the footboard of a bus; extinguishing a cigarette butt, we suddenly understand the uniqueness of each individual person; the fragility of the entire world system flickers before the mailbox; in the consul’s office – its own inevitable end, associated with a certain calendar leaf. There is a moment when an “average” person eats his “average” lunch, buys an “average” medicine in a pharmacy – but in the next fraction of a second, everything average in him turns out to be violated by his own uniqueness, and the meaninglessness and wisdom of everything shines through his pale baldness , and in glasses sliding down a sweaty nose, a distance is visible that has no horizon.
Nina Berberova, “Italics is mine”
About the Developer
Nina Berberova (1901-1993) – Russian writer in exile (France, USA), author of documentary and biographical studies. Her most famous study, translated into many languages, is Tchaikovsky, the story of a lonely life (1936). In Russia, her main book is an autobiography about her years in exile, My Italics (Zakharov, 2009).
