| Storytellers of the Year are ready to be awarded Attentive (and inattentive) readers of Novy Mir have probably noticed: over the last two years, this magazine has become increasingly “cooler” and “advanced.” It seems that the editors have adopted an attitude towards the consistent destruction of the previous good image. The main thing is to stun the reader by breaking old conventions. Now, they say, we are not like that at all, but, quite the opposite, we are like that . So with publications (whether prose or essays) - so with the Yuri Kazakov Prize, an award, whatever one may say, fundamentally new world, designed not so much to identify the best story of the year, but to give a signal about what is now being carried in the founding magazine. Or who they are running around with.
The award begins with the jury: the composition of the current panel of judges is symbolic. Of course, constants are constants: the head of the prose department, Ruslan Kireev, is in the rightful chairman’s place (they alternate there with the executive secretary, Mikhail Butov), and the banker-deputy Alexander Lebedev has not gone anywhere. (Let the people know: the head of the Charitable Reserve Fund not only sponsors the “Cossack”, but also with letters, words, texts on a friendly footing; maybe now he even goes to jury meetings.) But fresh blood “springs and boils” at the highest level: here you have a former critic, and now a novelist, a drinker, a fighter against moss, a disc jockey, a PR man for “beer ice cream” and a future laureate of the Andrei Bely Prize “for overall contribution to world culture and the reorganization of the solar system” Dmitry Bavilsky (catch up and overtake Vyacheslav Kuritsyn!), here you have an active critic - Valeria Pustovaya, who has chosen the difficult but honorable role of commissar-ideologist of the rapidly inventing new literary generation. For balance, Sergei Kostyrko from Novomir was introduced into the jury, combining good taste and common sense with intelligent credulity in all sorts of bells and whistles that pretend to be daring ( what if there is something in this? ).
The jury worked as it should. Whether the best stories of the year made up the six contenders is, as always, a debatable question, but the bold “Look Who Came” stamp adorning the shortlist is visible a mile away. But first, about those who did not come, who turned out to be strangers at the novelists' ball. Evgeny Shklovsky (selections in the May “Znamya” and December “New World”), Denis Gutsko (“Eagles over a Corpse” - “Friendship of Peoples”, No. 10), Dmitry Novikov (any of his new stories that were included) did not survive the competition into the book “Lust” and were published by metropolitan magazines, could legitimately claim the main prize), Nina Gorlanova and Vyacheslav Bucur (“Faces” - “Banner”, No. 7), Mikhail Butov (“Price” - “Banner” , No. 7), Margarita Khemlin (in the cycle “Farewell of the Jewish Woman” - “Banner”, No. 10 - all the “components” are worth attention; I would award “Dark Affair”) and, oddly enough, the thunderous Natalya Rubanova (“ Pathology of a short story" - "Banner", No. 4).
How she didn’t please the “avant-garde” party of the jury, I have no idea. Or did the “conservatives” stand up for themselves here? If so, then it’s a pity. With all the affected mannerisms and the literary institute’s belief in “tricks,” Rubanov is much livelier and more talented than our post-Soviet one hundred and twenty-seventh vice-Borges Ildar Abuzyarov, who had the enviable fate of competing with himself: on the short list (contrary to all logic) two of his shine story - “Mail” (“October”, No. 2 - a crazy girl, letters without texts, writing a book about Japan, a porcelain cup, a bookbinder stealing correspondence from mailboxes; in general, “it’s much more pleasant to communicate with the great Yin under the great Yan") and "Moor" ("Friendship of Peoples", No. 12; slot machines, guys turning on the counter, a professor of logistics, oriental spices, chess of fate and backgammon of the absurd, the wisdom of prophetic dreams and morality about the dangers of a beautiful life).
I can’t say anything about Yuri Goryukhin’s story “The Age of Transition” (Belskie Prostory, No. 11): I missed the magazine published in Ufa. On the one hand, encouraging provincials (especially those who publish far from Moscow) is part of the premium canon. On the other hand, Goryukhin’s story “Oncoming Movement” (published in the same “Belskie Prostakh”), which was awarded the Belkin Prize for 2002, was really good. With the third, after it, Goryukhin seemed to disappear, although today's magazines are not structured in such a way as not to grab a gifted author from the periphery. If “Transitional Age” is a worthy thing, then it is very strange that it did not appear in the same “Banner”. Or in the “New World”. From the fourth, “August Mobius’ Stationery Glue” (Kazak’s shortlist of 2003) was also pressed in Ufa... Go figure.
“Sparrow” by Alexander Illichevsky (“New World”, No. 7) is a powerful story. And not only because of the terrible topic (the Holodomor of 1933); it is constructed intelligently, there is no strain or sentimentality in the intonation, the characters are visible, and so is the narrator. But “Sparrow” had already been awarded a magazine prize, which the jury members were well aware of. Premium doubling is not our style. In my opinion, introducing an essay of this level “for show” is tasteless.
If Abuzyarov replaces Borges, then Denis Osokin simultaneously replaces Platonov, Dobychin and some others from the colorful twenties. They started promoting his near-folklore opuses two or three years ago (publication in “Znamya”, book in “UFO”), something interesting was dreamed about in them, but upon closer examination, the stylized variety of herbs turned out to be drearily monotonous. Osokin writes without capital letters. but with large margins - the text is in the center of the page. The lines are aligned - from punctuation marks in honor of dashes and periods, a rare comma or colon will make its way into Osokin's stories. from the simple life of rural sorcerers. or sentimental security officers. Chekists are not seen in “new boots” (“October”, No. 9). sorcerers are observed. “Kapiton-kugyza - grandfather Kapiton or uncle - an old man over seventy. a red sweater with a torn neck - a black hat - a black sheepskin coat.” etc. peledysh - pyrema. paranga - morks. Bambara-chufara, aka skoriki-yoriki.
Sergei Soloukh closes the list of candidates. The story “Oxidation” (“New World”, No. 9) is undoubtedly brighter, more intense and more elegant than all the other “Cossack” candidates. As, indeed, are included in the same triptych (“Chemistry”) “Crystallization” and “Dissolution”. Or “Subtraction”, “Equality” and “Multiplication”, which made up the triptych “Mathematics” (“October”, No. 8). Or “Light” (which was included in last year’s Cossack shortlist), “Motion” and “Heat” (“Physics” - “October”, 2004, No. 8). Or any of Soloukhov’s earlier “Pictures”. Because in fact all the texts of the “Natural Sciences” cycle (I don’t know whether there will be “Biology”, “Astronomy” or something else) are cleverly linked, and each triptych has a cross-cutting plot, these stories do not lose their intrinsic value . Although, perhaps, when the “cycle” is completed, it will be necessary to nominate him for Booker. Soloukh's novels are no worse than short stories - by the way, the first of them, published in Volga twelve years ago, and written even earlier, finally found book form: the magnificent "Shizgara" was published in "Time", without losing eternal youth, but for some reason losing the second title “..., or An Unforgettable Siberian Adventure.” If they give Soloukh a “Cossack”, the premium plot will add additional pleasant meaning. If they don’t give it, we’ll stay with the slogan We’re not like that. Also information. It can't be any worse than the last Booker.
The best story of 2005 will not be named. Ivan Petrovich Belkin takes a time out. Andrey NEMZER |
|
