Alexander Ageev. Hunger 96

Hunger 96
Practical gastroenterology reading

Alexander Ageev

Publication date: February 20, 2004

The week turned out to be surprisingly fruitful in terms of literary awards: the Apollo Grigoriev Prize was awarded, the shortlist for the Belkin Prize was determined, and Bella Akhmadulina was appointed laureate of the Bulat Okudzhava Prize by presidential decree. Even the Soviet classic, long forgotten by everyone and seemingly not writing anything for a long time, Chingiz Aitmatov , was awarded some kind of honorary title by Moscow University.

It is quite possible that I even missed some events with a bonus meaning - there are so many bonuses now, and the more there are, the less attention there is to them. Accordingly, the status of the laureates is lower.

The incident with the awarding of the main Grigoriev Prize to Yuri Arabov somehow even touched me: you will agree that a funny surprise is a life-affirming attraction.

I have nothing against Yuri Arabov, I spoke well about “Big-Bit” when it had just come out - back in one of the summer or autumn “Hungers”. The novel is cute and was a pleasant surprise for all Beatles fans. And it was made at a good professional level: you can feel the hand of an experienced screenwriter. Still, its quality is not premium. In any case, not at the level of such a prize as the Grigorievskaya.

I heard the ceremonial speeches at the presentation through the word (I was a little late, and did not get into the Oval Hall itself) - via broadcast. I remember the excited voices of Natalya Borisovna Ivanova , I remember some fragments of Basinsky’s speech. In a word, I didn’t catch any clear and consistent version of what happened then, and therefore I came up with my own for “home use.”

I think that the jury turned out to be hostage to the shortlist: two almost classics - Strugatsky and Pelevin - plus a debutant in a major genre Yuri Arabov , whose popularity among the reading public is much lower. The choice between Strugatsky and Pelevin turned out to be extremely difficult: their specific texts are comparable in level (sluggish texts, to be honest), and the “totality of merits” is of approximately the same order, and the nationwide popularity is of a similar intensity (albeit fading before our eyes). How to choose here? "Heart"? Five very different critics' hearts cannot beat in rhythm. That’s why, in order not to offend one of the classics, they offended both by choosing the novel by Yuri Arabov. Somehow, either in speeches or on the sidelines, I heard an exculpatory statement that the Apollo Grigoriev Prize is a prize for a specific text, and not for a big name and “totality of merit.” But I will repeat once again - “Big Beat” is most definitely not the best text in Russian literature of the past year.

I remember when I was chairman of the jury , we also had a very uncomfortable trio: two classics - Yuri Davydov and Viktor Astafiev - and Yuri Buida , who had just published his first book of short stories in his homeland. Although it was already well promoted by magazines by that time. In the end, I still had to offend Viktor Astafiev by awarding the main prize to Davydov.

And in principle, any premium plot initially contains greater or lesser injustice. And there’s nothing particularly scary about it. Let posterity judge fairly. Not even readers, because readers are often even less fair than critics.

The shortlist for the Belkin Prize turned out to be quite decent, and some of the stories from it (if they were novels, of course) could have graced both the Booker and Grigoriev lists. There is someone to root for, and only one name causes immediate rejection - Mikhail Tarkovsky . Its presence in modern literature has always seemed to me like some kind of misunderstanding. I don’t want to say that he is mediocre - there is some kind of gift there. It would look very good in the literature of the 60s and early 70s, when taiga romance was extremely popular, and geologists, hunters and other pioneers simply wandered (without changing much) from book to book.

I hope to write in more detail about the Belinsky shortlist in the next “Hunger”, but now, unfortunately, it’s time for me to call it a day - the week turned out to be fruitful not only for the awards, but also for all sorts of troubles.