Contents
“Lie down on the couch with a book…” The occupation, for which there was never enough time, can now be indulged without a twinge of conscience both on weekday evenings and on weekends. But how not to get lost in the wealth of choice? We’ve put together some interesting books for you.
Choice
“James Miranda Barry” door Patricia Dunker
James Miranda Barry was a famous XNUMXth century surgeon who served in South Africa, where he treated wounded soldiers of the British army and local residents. It was he who first performed a successful caesarean section there, in which both mother and child survived.
However, James Barry was not only a talented physician, but also a skilled actor: after the death of a venerable doctor from dysentery in July 1865, the maid who washed the body saw that a man who had served in the imperial troops for 46 years was shooting himself in a duel and arguing with a military man. tribunal, was … a woman! Incredible in scale and success, the hoax formed the basis of the novel by Patricia Dunker.
For red-haired petite Margaret Bulkley, a stubborn tomboy with an explosive temper, studying to be a doctor at the university is a goal so alluring that giving up the external trappings of sex seems like a negligible price. When three influential men from her mother’s entourage offer the girl a choice (“As a woman, you will be wasted. Be a man”), she is more than ready.
Barry chooses and creates his own destiny, based on his own abilities and destiny, and not social rules.
At the age of 11, Barry becomes a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. If he is suspected of anything, it is only that he is too young, but in anatomy classes the future surgeon is more cold-blooded than many, so who cares about a couple of added years? Only the mother is incredibly worried that she will not be there when James Barry begins his period. However, his whole future life will show that his mother was worried in vain and that the decision made one evening turned out to be correct.
Patricia Dunker finished the book 20 years ago, but the story is as relevant as ever. Amid the tumultuous debate surrounding the nature of gender and gender identity, Dunker writes about personality. The fact that every person has the right to his body and sexuality. And fiction, which allows history to pass through itself, is much more convincing in defending this position than any scientific treatises.
Barry chooses and creates his own destiny, based on his own abilities and destiny, and not social rules, class prejudices, and even nature. And even if it was possible even in the British army of the XNUMXth century, now there is nothing to talk about – the life path is determined by the personality, and not by the combination of chromosomes.
Translation from English by Alexandra Borisenko, Victor Sonkin. Sinbad, 480 p.
Memoirs
“New York Detour” by Alexander Stesin
A collection of stories from an oncologist about working in various hospitals in New York – from the Bronx to Harlem. And so interesting that the jury and experts of the NOS-2019 literary award gave him the prize almost unanimously. Patient stories, staff relationships, the difficulties of adapting to the metropolis and the invisible struggle of each of them with their diagnosis – everything is shown through the eyes of Stesin.
The stories are written with humor and respect for the people they meet. At the same time, he himself remains a stranger to the characters – from drug dealers to respectable lovers of Korean opera. A Russian emigrant, a cosmopolitan Jew, a doctor (who can alleviate suffering, but still cannot fully understand them), Stesin becomes a mirror for them, and an impartial researcher for readers.
UFO, 288 pages, 364 rubles
Anti-utopia
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Fresh “Booker” novel Atwood owes its success to the cult “The Handmaid’s Tales”, which the Canadian released more than 30 years ago. Then Atwood followed in the footsteps of Orwell and Huxley, creating a hermetic world of the totalitarian republic of Gilead, where women are turned into birthing machines. Yielding to the requests of readers and fans of the series of the same name, Atwood wrote a sequel.
The conditions of life have changed: the hopeless prospect that Atwood felt 34 years ago has changed direction. There are more opportunities in the world. No regime can last forever, especially one fueled by fear, so in The Testaments Gilead’s totalitarianism begins to rot from within. And at this critical moment, fate brings together three heroines who are tired of agreeing with the imposed order of things.
Translation from English by Anastasia Gryzunova. Eksmo, 320 s
Three reasons to read
“House of Fallen Angels” by Luis Alberto Urrea
Hear the polyphony of life. The patriarch of the Mexican De la Cruz clan Elder Angel has a birthday. He is ill and wants to bring the family together one last time to celebrate properly. As if in mockery, his mother, a hundred-year-old Mama America, is sent to another world. Thinking that hotels for numerous relatives are already booked, and refreshments are ordered, the Elder Angel decides not to cancel the party.
And it’s no longer possible to make out whether it’s a birthday or a commemoration. Just a Mexican carnival of funny, bitter, scary and incredible family stories, where love and hate, jealousy and sympathy, tears and laughter are intertwined.
Become an accomplice. The reader seems to find himself at a common table, where some talk about their lives, while others supplement, interrupt and pick up. It is impossible to listen to them dispassionately – exactly found words, accurately conveyed details delight so much, and this is a separate merit of Maria Alexandrova’s translation.
Get to know yours. Luis Alberto Urrea is an American from Mexico. He skillfully recreates the color and traditions of his homeland. But surprisingly, in place of the noisy Mexican family, there could be an Italian, or a Georgian, or another large family, such as your own. And you literally jump with the joy of recognition, because the brilliant storyteller Urrea knows everything about the complex tangle of family feelings and the alchemy of family ties.