| The first feeling from the March magazines: read - I don’t want to. Novel flood. Large prosaic works appeared in Znamya, and in October, and in the Urals, and in the New World . True, the local “Candidate” by Anatoly Azolsky is called a story, but we know that the events in any of his stories are enough for an epic. There really are enough of them. Rastignac from Pavlodar (though without a noble pedigree and appropriate illusions) conquers Moscow in the dying years of Soviet power. Marrying the daughter of a noble academician does not close, but opens the plot. Because the first triumph is followed by a series of failures of the impudent nouveau riche: first, his wife excommunicates him from the marital bed (although the young people are united by an exceptionally powerful mutual sexual attraction, and why an academician’s daughter should fulfill the harsh order of her parents is not really explained), then, when deprived of his wife’s caresses the hero is consoled in the arms of a hairdresser, he is tracked down by his wife and mother-in-law, the divorce is followed by expulsion from a three-room paradise, and in parallel from a research institute, where our conqueror of the capital set out to make a great discovery (why would that be?), but fell victim to the intrigues of two competing academicians (in Further, a hint is made that it was precisely the attempt to become Lomonosov that was the true reason for the expulsion of the presumptuous provincial from the noble house - and the immorality was provoked). The new ascent to the top is due to the help of a former fellow countryman (a journalist in form, a security officer in content - why the hell he needed a hero, it’s difficult to understand) and the tutelage of waking organs (sympathy? recruitment? use? - figure out who’s smart). Sex, politics, dissidence, criminality and the desire to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars (to outdo the ex-father-in-law and harm him in every way) form a thick hodgepodge. If you slurp it with large spoons, it seems to be hot, rich and spicy. If you try it, you'll think about it. (It seems that Shchedrin said something similar. Not about Azolsky’s story - about Russian life.) For example, the plot with “cross-pollination” was famously promoted: students who fail a test pay the teacher in kind. But not his own, but from another institute. Who gratefully sends his poor students to his colleague. It's great, of course. It’s just not clear why such an exchange provides better protection against accusations of immorality than an ordinary solution (“without leaving the cash register”). There is another catch. Our sex master gets irritated at times - the girls just keep coming and going. Others deliberately grab troubles in order to amuse the flesh. Apparently, there is no one else to take care of them. Well, the poor guy is forced to work hard. The question is, why? (They don’t pay money for exploits in bed.) The same secret as relations with KGB officers, official movements, the initial misfortune. Symbolically, all this should depict the end of the communist era (the hero’s party and nasty father dies at the end) and the onset of new (also worthless) times - the hero does everything to fly out of the party. The funny thing is that the outright clumsiness is written quite “in the Azol style” - with passion, assertiveness, and drive.
In addition, in “New World” you can read collections of poems by Inna Lisnyanskaya (“Cricket”) and Irina Ermakova (“Tsarist Time”), an excellent story by Boris Ekimov “Rally” (an international motor rally through the eyes of the inhabitants of an abandoned Don farm), the usual (for the author ) Yuri Petkevich’s story “To Grandma, in Bekachin...) and “Yuletide story No. 13” by Dmitry Galkovsky “The Nineteenth Century”. This is about Rozanov. It doesn't look like a story. Similar to all Galkovsky's texts. Against the background of typical opuses about Rozanov (around Rozanov, in the spirit of Rozanov), it may seem that Galkovsky has thoughts. I can’t say anything about the “experiences” of NM editor-in-chief Andrei Vasilevsky (five short, ironic free verses on political topics): I was not deprived of a sense of humor from a young age, and I’m tired of explaining why I don’t like fascists (communists, cannibals and their sophisticated lawyers) .
In "October" the novel is listed as "Brother and Benefactor" by Mikhail Levitin . This time, the leader of the Hermitage Theater avoided the Oberiut problems (though one of the heroes is a director and poet of a futuristic bent), but this did not increase the clarity of the text. Time period: 1917-1945. The place of action is the USA (where the main character, “brother and benefactor” is found), Europe (where he visits from time to time) and the Land of the Soviets (where his loved ones hang out). Everything is very competent - history, irony, lyrics, humanity, family, security officers, patriotism, politics that destroys a good private life. There is no desire to swear - maybe someone will understand what the author wanted to say with his work. I recommend that you not ignore the free verses of Mikhail Zhvanetsky (so to speak, Zhvanetsky is outside the stage), a selection of poems by Bakhyt Kenzheev and - especially - Mikhail Pozdnyaev .
And a novel was found for Ural . Dmitry Bavilsky , who works with equal success in the fields of criticism, poetry and prose, gave his capital creation an impressive name - “Angels in First Place.” (Another novel by Bavilsky is being announced by Novy Mir. There the title is even cooler - “Nodelma”.) To be continued (not ending!) follows - so I’ll wait at least two months. “In the spring, a desperately yawning emptiness hangs between the houses, and a cycle of moisture and abyss takes place in it, making the mud squelching underfoot seem all-consuming, and returning home in the evening, after the performance, is a real problem.” One must thoroughly prepare to comprehend such texts. In the meantime, I recommend Daria Simonova’s story “Life is Good” - although the title is tattered, the text is fresh.
So it turns out that the only full-length novel is in “Banner” . This is “Quality of Life” by Alexey Slapovsky , which Vremya Novostey will talk about separately. Here is an interesting selection from Maria Loseva’s “Phobias of the City” (the creepy “Casket” is especially successful).
Like Novy Mir, Znamya publishes poems by Inna Lisnyanskaya (“Aerial Viaducts”), I’ll cite one of them: I write a lot. I drive an excess of life force into verse - this is one of the tortures, // Given rather by the earth, and not by the good sky, / Given not by a bright spirit, but by black bread. // I write a lot./ But the god-fighter is lucky - / This is faith multiplied by the fate / of Job, who from rags and scabs of pus / Raises his earthly forgiveness to God.
The second part of the correspondence between Georgy Vladimov and Lev Anninsky (the epistolary of 1992-1998 is presented in the March magazine) is no less exciting than the first. It should be noted that Anninsky, although very much at odds with Vladimov, does not try to gloss over his differences, to “fit in” with the writer or to pull him closer to him. Friendly affection and a passionate desire to understand another (precisely as another) do not cancel the possibility of a heated dispute - Anninsky had reason to call his publication “Strikes of the Sword.” As for the explanation after the colon (“about Georgy Vladimov”), it still contains only half the truth - the self-portrait here is as interesting and expressive as a portrait. I am sure that Anninsky’s biased and often irritated letters will be among the most important “home” sources on the modern history of Russia.
The literary results of the past year are summed up in the conference room. The most interesting thing here is the speech by the director of the Moscow book house, Marina Kameneva , and the mocking essay by Roman Arbitman, “Phantoms have gone wild. Mass literature - 2003". However, the above-mentioned creatures rage not only in the vastness of detective fiction and science fiction. Andrey NEMZER
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