What do the writers themselves read? What authors, plots and characters make a particularly strong impression on them? Today Zakhar Prilepin answers the questions of the Psychologies questionnaire.
1 What are you reading now?
I got into the habit of reading a dozen and a half or two books at the same time, and I was even confused which one to name. For example, I read the novel «Ostromov» by Bykov (PROZAiK, 2010) and again admired the author. Only sometimes it seems that in this text Bykov laughs a little more than I personally would like — it’s like reading a good tragic book like, say, Dombrovsky, and Ostap Bender would suddenly appear there. In general, the level of the author’s intellect, the stylistic work, the whole structure of Ostromov is a miracle as well.
2 The book that inspired you to write.
Most often I re-read Stepan Zlobin’s novel «Stepan Razin» (Fiction, 1978). Completely unsophisticated, but he shook me terribly at the age of twelve. In general, what am I? I started with poetry, like everyone else. Therefore, Yesenin, of course.
3 The funniest book in the world.
Funny books usually don’t make me laugh. I don’t understand Averchenko, I don’t like Zoshchenko. The humor in tragic books makes me laugh — it serves its true role there: it shows the height of human courage. Here in the «Territory» by Oleg Kuvaev (Veche, 2009) is the humor that I need. Hemingway just has a brilliant sense of humor, Sholokhov. Limonov has an excellent sense of humor, precisely aimed at vulgarity … In general, Gogol, of course, is the funniest.
4 Which living or deceased authors would you like to talk to personally?
Lots of honor, you know. Now I will say that I would sit with Pushkin. Or with Dostoevsky. And what would I tell them? Terrible, I’m afraid to even imagine. But I would probably allow myself to sneak into the company, where the brilliant Yesenin and my beloved Mariengof, and would watch them, pretending that I was drunker than them. Or from the edge to a feast, where, among others, Alexei Tolstoy and Mikhail Bulgakov. And I would watch how Bulgakov looks askance and skeptically at everyone and how Tolstoy pretends not to notice how Bulgakov flogs everything.
5 Why do you and people read at all?
It’s a pleasure — why? In general, literature is one of the few wonderful opportunities to stand on tiptoe and see a few gestures of God.