Five deaths of Ivan Petrovich

No, no, don’t worry, Rybkin is alive and well. He is sitting in London, which is what he wishes for you. It’s just that there is another Ivan Petrovich - Mr. Pushkin’s essay.

On Thursday, February 19, the announcement of the shortlist for the Ivan Petrovich Belkin Prize took place at the editorial office of the Znamya magazine. The award, established by the Znamya magazine and the EKSMO publishing house for the best story, is presented this year for the third time. Previous Belkin laureates were Sergei Babayan and Marina Vishnevetskaya .

According to the good tradition of recent times, two of the five judges appeared at the press conference: the chairman of the jury, literary scholar and critic Marietta Chudakova and the poet Evgeniy Rein . TV presenter Vladimir Pozner was away, prose writer Alexey Slapovsky was ill and helped his colleagues determine the top five over the phone, and critic Karen Stepanyan, although present in the deliberation room, was unable to speak to the journalists.

A total of 19 texts were nominated for the Belkin Prize. Expressing regret that the short list did not include the stories of Natalya Smirnova and Georgy Petrovich , Marietta Chudakova listed the five finalists: “ St. George’s Day ” by Irina Povolotskaya, “ The Third Wind ” by Valery Popov, “ The Phantom of the Theater ” by Andrei Dmitriev, “ Beautiful Faces of the Sleeping ” by Vladimir Kurnosenko and " Condromo " by Mikhail Tarkovsky. They will be discussed below.

The best thing on the shortlist is “St. George’s Day. Remembrance” by Irina Povolotskaya . In the new story, Povolotskaya continues to explore the territory that she discovered several years ago in “ Diversity ” and deepens the artistic solutions found in the previous work. If we talk about Povolotskaya’s language, then nothing comes to mind except the shameful metaphorical “delicious”.

"Yuryev's Day" is structured as a stylized story that veers either into a fairy tale or into a romance about several generations of servants living in one Moscow family. As a result, this whole mosaic, the kaleidoscopic fragmentation of faces, names and details, forms a complete picture, which turns into a kind of “historical narrative” - a justification of history. Episodes of the tragic history of the twentieth century are contained within the idyll and are subject to its laws. The servants' "commemorations" turn out to be commemorations for a bygone century.

It is no coincidence that the story ends with a symbolic scene of the meeting of eras:

I look out the window as nanny Vera waddles across the yard, towards her and diagonally, moving her thin twigs of her legs, a teenage girl, and, trying not to fall into the usual army step, the guards in stooped jackets, and the sharp-eyed driver froze at the jeep: leather lump, with a radiotelephone in his raised hand - a living monument to the time of free sale of bananas.

The guards with the girl and Vera, without stopping, without noticing each other, pass by each other and, it seems, through... Vera finally raises her head and waves her paw goodbye.

The twentieth century in Russia has ended, but we are alive. Marusya Ryudnerova is still alive.

During the Belkin press conference, Evgeny Rein - somewhat against the rules - admitted that he had already decided on his favorite - only one author, according to the poet, was able, with the help of skill and imagination, to transform autobiographical material into a fact of art. Those gathered politely pretended that they did not recognize Valery Popov in this description.

"The Third Wind" is a chronicle of the relationship between an aging writer (named Valery Popov) and his alcoholic wife (her name, like the author's wife, is Nonna) and his half-crazed father. The author shows how from everyday suffering, from alcoholic delirium, from everyday trash, the understanding of the indestructibility of love - and literature - is born:

I sat at my desk, watching the glass go dark, and at the same time listening to Nonna’s moans coming from the bedroom. But this is how she already is - she demonstrates the unbearability of her existence, while not actually doing a damn thing! Are you driving away from this line? What else would you drive them out of? Third wind.

Of course, Popov's story is more a human document than a work of art. But compared to her neighbors on the shortlist, she stands out for her natural intonation and precision of language.

Even before its release, Andrei Dmitriev's story "The Phantom of the Theater" was declared "a real event" by sympathetic critics. Which, however, is not news - the same cries of “Wolves! Wolves!!!” I’ve already heard about “ The Closed Book ” and “ The Road Back ” and I know the value of them.

“The Phantom of the Theater,” however, is indeed somewhat more successful than Dmitriev’s previous works - there is less pathos and annoying allegory in it, and the “main idea” is not expressed so straightforwardly. There are actually three main characters in the story - director Movchun, actor Shabashov and head of the troupe Fimochka. The aging Shabashov is in love with Fimochka, not knowing - he seems to be the only one of the entire troupe - that she lives with Movchun in a civil marriage.

One day Fimochka goes with her friend to the Nord-Ost and is taken hostage. Despite this, Movchun decides not to film the planned performance. They are performing " Twelfth Night ", Shabashov plays Malvolio (the symbolic subtext of the scene is obvious - he will have to play the same role in life). Suddenly Fimochka finds herself among the spectators. It turns out that she did not go to any musical, but spent this time with her lover. Shabashov, unable to bear the new twist in the plot, dies, and Movchun, on the contrary, accepts this news with the calm of a fatalist.

Readers, and partly critics, perceived “The Phantom of the Theater” as an essay on a current topic (the story was even filmed for the anniversary of the capture of “Nord-Ost”), which, to the author’s credit, is not at all the case. The events surrounding Nord-Ost play virtually no role here. The key to the story is the scene where Shabashov’s friend explains to him his idea for the third option:

For example, you dream of playing a role... They promised it to you. But you are afraid that at the last moment they will suddenly give it to Linyaev. Oh, you keep saying, I wish I could play Paratov and die! Play and die! If only they didn’t give it to Linyaev! If only they didn’t give it to Linyaev!.. In the end, you don’t get Paratov, since it was decided not to stage “Dowry” at all. And this third option, mind you, was not foreseen by you... Let’s say you are prudently afraid that they will decide not to stage “The Dowry” at all. Great, that means you suddenly turn down the role because you're a psychopath. Or maybe you’ll refuse because you’ll suddenly receive an invitation to film in Hollywood. Unpredictability is the main feature of the third option. A person assumes: it will turn out one way or another. What does God have to remind us of Himself in a godless world? The third option, Grandfather, the third option. So it turns out every time - not one way or another, but a third way.

According to this scenario, Dmitriev’s story unfolds, arranged in iambic pentameter, designed to remind of the conventionality of the line between theater and life:

I'm not poor! I staged it in San Francisco!.. There the audience knows a lot about dramaturgy, and is an expert in scenography, and in directing, there the audience knows a lot about experimentation - and fills the halls to capacity...
It's been a long time since I lay in the Hall of Columns...

Although no, it seems that this is no longer Dmitriev...

In “The Phantom of the Theater,” the circle charades scattered here and there by the author throughout the text look like an absolutely alien element—what a critic of the early 20th century successfully defined as “literary sectarianism.” At the end of the story, Movchun ponders whether he should stage a play about Stalin by the progressive playwright Poltorak - the same one around which the action of Leonid Zorin’s novel “ Jupiter ”, which was on the short list of the last Booker draw, is built. Among the people mentioned in the text are Professor Leiderman from Colorado, Semenych, who “doesn’t leave the editorial office,” and Slap (he “drives the series and doesn’t answer the phone”). Connoisseurs of literary life can recognize Mark Lipovetsky , Andrei Nemzer and Alexei Slapovsky, respectively. The technique, by the way, was the last one to be worked out in “ Money Day ,” but what seemed appropriate in Slapovsky’s “rogue novel” looks bad in Dmitriev’s story, which claims to have a tragic sound.

Overall, “The Phantom of the Theater” is a competent, professionally made piece. Good average level. And that there is no spark of God is, in fact, a claim not against Dmitriev, but above.

An order of magnitude weaker than Dmitriev’s story “Beautiful are the faces of those sleeping” by Vladimir Kurnosenko . Its hero, Chupakhin, gets a job as an orderly at an ambulance station in order to be closer to his lover, who works as a doctor. He still does not dare to confess his feelings to her and soon leaves the station.

If Dmitriev is an exemplary representative of the thick-magazine standard, then Kurnosenko’s story seemed to have come off the pages of a provincial literary almanac thirty years ago: “Around... a crowd of curious people was charged with altruistic activity”; “He admonished Chupakhin in his quiet and even somewhat sincere manner”; “But Chupakhin, you see, he didn’t believe it”...

Completely unmotivated “inda”, “inno” and “very possible” are replaced by corresponding level reflections on the heroic profession of a doctor:

After all, it was they, and not all kinds of “hands leading”, who went out to the firing line, into the gladiatorial arena, call it what you want, without sending someone in their place, did not speak from the pulpits and in television studios, but, without evading, without delegating and without squinting their eyes in horror, they walked...

Yes, I almost forgot. The heroine of the story has a “bright head” and a “bell-like laugh.”

Standing apart from the short list is Mikhail Tarkovsky's story "Condromo". Thanks to the editors of the magazine " October ", which published this text, thanks to the unknown critic who nominated it, thanks to the jury members who included Tarkovsky's story on the short list.

In this charming piece from Siberian life, the local flavor reaches a completely anecdotal density from the very first page. The author stuns the reader with tozovkas (this, however, seems to be not dialectism, but a gun similar to it), kutukhs and mezdras, and hurries to tell him what yuks are and what adzes are made of.

However, I am not able to parse and retell this text, since it was not possible to either strangle or kill this song - we will quote it.

And this great and primordial could not be called anything other than the Image...
His professionalism went in the direction of saving time...
They loved this rare man for his directness, honesty and the attitude towards everything he did, which can only be called high...
The internal development of their friendship, further family ins and outs were so carefully guarded by Victor from prying eyes that they exclude any intrusion...
In the spring, he took her (the bride - M.E.) off the ship, and this removal bore such vivid and characteristic features that it is impossible not to describe it...

For those who think that I am taking notes on a manual for foreign students, “How You Can’t Say It in Russian,” I remind you that this is a text selected by a high jury of 19 applicants for inclusion in the shortlist for the award for the best story of the year.

Vitya thought about how these pitchforks, and cloth trousers, and the clean pulp of green manure suited the young guy...
Vitya knew that a cow was the next and inevitable stage of his life...
A stove was burning in the lopsided cabin, and at the sound of Vitya’s engine, a woman’s head in a white scarf appeared from it...

I suggest that the editors of RJ install a counter and conduct an interactive vote. We need to find out what exactly Tarkovsky should be given a prize for - for Sorokin’s powerful scene with the unfortunate woman who is heating the stove, or for the vivid image of the guy who suits trousers and manure?

Frankly, I have always been indifferent to the films of Andrei Tarkovsky , who is the taiga resident’s uncle, but I really feel sorry for my grandfather . Out of respect for the memory of the great poet, it would perhaps be worthwhile for the editors of thick magazines to conclude a pact to prevent this misunderstanding from appearing on their pages in the future...

Several years ago, Alexander Genis stated: “ Ivan Petrovich has died .” “And more than once,” I want to add after reading the five stories included in the short list of the Belkin Prize.