Wise man with an open smile

Writers and critics recall Fazil Iskander

In Moscow on July 31, writer Fazil Iskander, a classic of Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, died. The author of “Sandro from Chegem”, the creator of magical realism in Russian literature and the most fun representative of the generation of the sixties are recalled by writers and critics.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

writer

One of the most charming, smart, worthy people died. I don’t even say that he was a great writer and that he changed the attitude to the life of so many people, because he proposed such a kind of literature that we did not know, we did not touch it. Then, when we grew up, and time passed, and we recognized Marquez, recognized South American literature, completely exceptional, we realized what kind of creativity comes from. This is the same general root, deeply folk, with such folklore subtraction. And, of course, it was a unique, amazing literature. She is.

Dmitry Bykov

writer

Iskander was one of the most likely candidates for the Nobel Prize from Russia, many were talked about, first of all, because he put a territory that was not there on a literary globe, they usually give Nobel for this - Abkhazia. Of course, she was very far from real Abkhazia, it was a metaphysical Abkhazia, the country of his childhood, happiness.

He understood, of course, that neither Georgia nor Abkhazia would never be the same, there would never be the previous brotherhood. He also understood the fact that the country generally lost some basic values, so in recent years he spent in rather deep depression, and his last stories were very gloomy, almost hopeless.

Uncle Sandro, he is not ideal, of course, Iskander does not idealize him. This is a rogue, a Tamada, a hero of a feast, but it was Uncle Sandro that was given to recognize the villain in Stalin, that is, he is morally impeccable.

Pavel Basinsky

writer, critic

This is a very big loss for Russian and world literature, because Fazil Abdulovich was a representative of the tradition that may already leave - when a person from the depths of the Caucasian, Abkhaz people becomes one of the best Russian writers and is translated into many languages. He wrote in Russian, but all his prose was permeated by the air of the Caucasus, the life of the Caucasus, the wisdom of the Caucasian elderly. Especially "Sandro from Chegem." The Iskander has all his prose, even such pamphlet things as “rabbits and boars” or a completely humorous thing “Little Giant Great Sex”, illuminated by a cheerful, wise, vital, everything that places Sandro's eyes in its places. This is a very sunny writer.

Hibla Gerzmava

Opera singer

"My human man ..." my dear Fazil, what a blessing that I lived with you at the same time. My Abkhaz! My great story! Pride and incredible worldwide love! Rest in peace ... A low bow ... Hibla.

Yuri Saprykin

Fazil Iskander, one of the few great Soviet writers who survived to our days, the author of Sandro from Chegem and dozens of brilliant stories, a wise man with an open smile, who always seemed to be some kind of eternal-and in his texts, without a doubt, would have died. Bright memory.

Oleg Lekmanov

philologist

It was probably the most cheerful and charming writer from the generation of sixties. He was the first in the story “The Constellation of the Kozluture” ironically rethought the utopian “pink” ideals of the era. Probably, each of the readers of the Soviet era has “its own” Iskander.

Evgeny Vodolazkin

writer

Fazil Abdulovich had everything that the great writer should have. He saw the world as a whole, and not in privacy, and described it with special, incomparable, humor.

Sergey Shargunov

writer

I had a chance to communicate with Fazil Abdulovich several years ago, he was already seriously ill, and he struck me with a stunning, lively children's spontaneity, he was a completely sunny person, and how he spoke - he answered the questions vividly and aphoristic.

His world -class prose is priceless, you re -read it again and again and see its love in the world, it is an acute satire, and depth, and an appeal to childhood, which he did not accidentally carry this childhood through all his literature.

George Danelia

director

Fazil was always associated with something bright for me, and if you figure it out when I listed the great writers of the Soviet Union and Russia and in general I managed to meet in life, then among them Fazil Iskander was not in the last place, and often in the first. I believe that Fazil Iskander was an excellent writer and man.

Sergey Stepashin

Former head of the Accounts Chamber, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

I personally knew this great man and would put him on a par with writers such as Genghis Aitmatov, Rasul Gamzatov. He was a great Russian writer, and he was the conscience of the Russian nation.

Through his works, I found out what a wonderful Abkhazian people. And such a work as “rabbits and boats” should read all those who are in power. I express the deepest condolences to the family and the loved ones to the deceased and mourn with the Russian and our fraternal Abkhazian peoples.

Raul Hajimba

President of Abkhazia

Anna Narinskaya

Literary critic

Yes, he is the heir to Tolstoy. And not only in the formal sense: “Sandro from Chegem” is a symbiosis of the epic and novel, as well as “War and Peace”, but also in the essential, in the completely Tolstoyan realization that we are “simply present in the game of comprehensible and incomprehensible”.

Yes, he is a re -wearing of the Gogol laughter in our literature - in his prose, visible laughter and invisible tears are mixed and become cleansing and facilitating.