My latest books

Yuri Kozlov. Petitioner M., “Tsentrpoligraf”, 2001
A novel by one of the most talented Russian soil scientists. By the way, in this camp there are not only Prokhanov, but also Konyaev, Segen, and Mikh. Popov - the trouble is that all these talented people are poisoned by bad taste and tendency, so they write continuous popular prints, “drenched in bitterness and anger.” Kozlov is one of the most enlightened, and his early stories (especially “Castle in the Air”) were not at all bad. “The Petitioner” is a little better than the previous “Well of the Prophets”, but again, again - crazy stylistic excesses, false beauty, geopolitics, esotericism mixed with Orthodoxy, completely poster caricatures of bankers and deputies, strained Russian erotica (it’s terrible, what anxious “soil people” we have)... In the center, naturally, is a Russian writer with the telling surname Berendeev. Temptations of money, fame, party and Islam. It’s a pity for a talented person who could not withstand the main temptation - vulgarity. Everything else - patriotism, cliches and the desire to look for all-explaining theories - is secondary.

Anatoly Naiman. Sir M., Eksmo-press, 2001
The literary secretary of Anna Akhmatova and friend-rival of Joseph Brodsky was acquainted with another outstanding person - Sir Isaiah Berlin - and now took on him. Two-thirds of the book consists of Naiman’s conversations with one of the main characters of Akhmatova’s literary myth (Akhmatova believed that it was her meeting with Berlin in 1946 that provoked both her persecution and the Cold War). On the first pages of the novel, Naiman asks himself: what was so outstanding about Sir, as Anna Andreevna called him? Berlin the thinker is famous in Russia for his Four Essays on Freedom, but his conscientious atheistic liberalism is rather boring. His memories are interesting, the memories of an unconditionally decent person. It’s amazing how Akhmatova (even to a greater extent than Tsvetaeva, who was still based on reality) was able to invent lovers for herself and create a myth out of anyone, even mediocrity like Anrep or... nothing, nothing, silence. This is not out of philanthropy - it was just more interesting for her. In my opinion, the book turned out to be about this; if Naiman meant something else, sorry.

William Golding. Double language M, "AST", 2001
This book must be read not only because this is Golding’s last novel, completed - and only in rough form - a few days before his death. And not only because Golding is one of the greatest prose writers of the 20th century, who thought more and more painfully than anyone in this century about human imperfection: about what animals we are all, gentlemen (“Lord of the Flies”), or about how vile it is to cling to life (“Grabber Martin”), or about the fact that any progress is, first of all, the progress of vulgarity and stupidity (“Ambassador Extraordinary”). "Double Tongue" is a novel about the Pythia, about late Greece, conquered and ruled by Rome. This is a classic Goldingian parable on a classic Goldingian theme: should you continue to do something that is obviously doomed, in which you yourself do not believe, especially if this business causes harm to everyone? There is no definite answer; this is the difference between Golding and all his contemporaries. I think that even now he doesn’t know this.
Dmitry Bykov.