Merry Frederick

One lady, having watched the film "The Place of Gorenstein", drew attention to the fact that in almost all the frames of the picture about the difficult fate of the writer he has funny eyes and a smile on his face. Why? After all, life and fate smiled very rarely to him.

During the life of Gorenstein, his round dates were never celebrated in Russia, even his sixtieth anniversary in 1992, although his books were already published and he was on the short list of the first Russian booker. No one was preparing to celebrate his 70th anniversary in 2002. Gorenstein did not live to see him for two weeks. And today it turns the 85th anniversary of the writer's birth.

As a result of gossip, Gorenstein at one time formed in Moscow a reputation as a misanthrope, a gloomy, unpleasant critic of everyone and everything. Was Gorenstein really the way the gossip described it? And yes, and no. He was rude and impolite, sometimes ignoring the rules of decency, incontinent to the language, but mainly only with the militant graphomaniacs easily recognized by them - adapters and envious people. And almost never was such with people in whom God's spark has seen ...

What could you envy in his case, you ask? The talent of the film script, who fed Gorenstein and made him independent as a writer. Govor Gorenstein quickly outlined in Moscow, but sometimes deliberately provoked the unfriendly environment, exaggerating his Ukrainian accent, or even depicting "Pyni from Zhreinka." In other situations, he spoke differently, but in general he was an excellent storyteller, which many did not even know about, but those with whom he converged closer knew it. Gorenstein was artistic, acting gifted, knew how to play roles, reincarnate. In Germany, he went, for example, at the demonstration of neo -Nazis, embedded in their ranks, and they did not recognize him "alien". And living in the USSR, he even starred in the episodic role of the Afghan border guard in the film "Seventh Bullet".

Friedrich Gorenstein. Photo: Joseph Malkiel

Director Ali Khamraev recalls: “ Frederick flew in the fall of 1972 by my call“ fruits ”and just relax, like the author of the script of the Seventh Bullet ... In the USSR, the author of the script received a salary for three months for 250 rubles (it was good money). Friedrich stayed in the film group for two weeks, and I persuaded him to withdraw into the role of Afghan Border guard officer, my friend, artist Emonuel Kalantari, was played by a beard and mustache, he rolled up his sleeves and said: “So the Germans fought in the 41st ...” Then he added: “A strange situation: the Austrian and Bukhara Jews protect the border of Afghanist Basmachi, instead of the text “Do not shoot! ..” Friedrich said - “Welcome!” ... Then his words were voiced in the language of Dari ... In the evening there was pilaf on the banks of the river, and Friedrich joked: “Two Jews held the border on the castle! "

Friedrich Gorenstein, frame from the film

Gorenstein had a peculiar, but genuine sense of humor. And he, who did not recognize the mat in the literature, in everyday life coolly and deliciously artistically fade and even composed obscene rhymes-burglashes. It certainly was not Friedrich with a gloomy man, at least "among his own." By his nature, he was rather a Rabelazian, an epicurean, and even more accurately, a man committed to the household aesthetics of the Renaissance. He loved to eat deliciously (maybe as compensation for hunger, experienced in children's and youth years). He was, as said in the same ancient Greek fable, "to the feasts and to the love of a fall", although without alcohol libations.

Art was everyday life, and life was art. And the current art is able to make a common picture with everyday life

Much in Gorenstein is explainable to his most important life and aesthetic attitude, which he outlined in the Sinopsis of one of his scenarios, "Jewish stories told in Israeli restaurants": " The originality of the script should consist in the first glance incompatible: documentary reports and journalistic interviews with real people, scene, scene, screens. The actors, from the life of these people and even from the life of their ancestors, are known for legend and legends, as well as the advertising guide to Israeli restaurants with a description of the dishes presented there and the culinary explanation of their preparation. Her bestseller comics, sculptures of rusty nuts, super-expensive films to the taste of children and adolescents, in order to attract the consumer overwhelmed with the fat sensations of the consumer, in certain restaurants, rich lawmakers eat fried flies or snake meat. The Renaissance, between the Freschies of the Joan, was a close connection. Talent and professional craft. "

From the memoirs of Evgenia Popov :

" Once, back in Moscow, Frederick called me and asked:

- Do you want to eat?

“I want,” I admitted, who lived then alone and even in a foreign apartment.

“Come, I'll feed you,” Frederick said.

I went. Under the Soviet regime, I had a lot of free time. Frederick lived somewhere on Preobrazhenka, in an ordinary Moscow high-rise building, and said that more recently there was a “solid village”, consisting of houses with front gardens, that he even took a goat milk from a mistress for his health.

Frederick correctly set the table. Fork on the left, knife and spoon on the right. Napkins. Fresh bread.

“At the first we will have Ukrainian borsch, on the second - fried meat, on the third - compote from dried fruits,” he announced solemnly.

- And you? I asked, finally paying attention to the fact that there is only one dining device on the table.

“I don’t need to,” Friedrich answered fogfully.

- Maybe you want to poison me? - I joked in his spirit.

“Do not poison, but I have already eaten,” Frederick explained seriously and began to treat me. He had no fault.

- Saw? He asked me when I ate everything proposed.

“ Yes,” I said.

- Was it tasty?

- Tasty.

“Then now go and tell everyone that Friedrich Gorenstein is not only a wonderful writer, but also a wonderful culinary specialist . ”

Gorenstein liked to cook and treat. This continued in Berlin. But in Berlin, Gorenstein missed Kyiv products, and the poetess Larisa Shchigol in Kyiv brought him tomatoes, onions and other products from the famous "Bessarabka". Brought and lard. And then he prepared with even greater passion. The artist Olga Jurgens (Gannover) made several drawings on the topic "Gorenstein and Food". Here is one of them.

Gorenstein-Kulinar. Drawing by Olga Jurgens

Gorenstein was not deprived of female attention and love, for women accurately feel the scale of a person, the scale of the personality of a man. He was a strong magnet for many beautiful ladies. Gorenstein was officially twice (according to some information, three times) married, but even after a divorce from the last wife of Inna Prokopets, a woman was always next to him. These were novels of different durations ... There were dreams of the second Snitkina (he even slightly envied Dostoevsky at this point). He knew how to enjoy life and celebrate it.

Olga Jurgens recalls: “ At the time when he collected material for the“ rope book ” (the manuscript remaining in the manuscript, but so far not published the last novel of the writer.-RS) , he sometimes checked the reaction of the potential reader on me and told some funny episodes, as well as the jokes that he came up with on the go. It’s really very funny, he told me (as if with a reproach): “That you laugh so loudly, it’s uncomfortable, the people look around!” But it was clear that he was terribly pleased, that I was so laughing, and he didn’t give a damn about the people .

Friedrich Gorenstein and Olga Jurgens

And at home he sometimes read the already written excerpts, also, in his opinion, the funniest, while he began to laugh first, and all the more fun to listen to him from this. It was probably fun to write to him, because he left his room before reading, very cheerful and in high spirits, like an artist before a performance.

In general, Frederick was very artistic. For me, it was the discovery that he was a great lover of operetta, such as it seems, a frivolous genre, and knows a lot of arias from various operettas by heart. It was necessary to see with what feeling and pleasure he sings the most frivolous songs and at the same time also dance. I liked it terribly, and even then I painted it in this epper image with a cylinder on my head and a cane.

Friedrich Gorenstein. Drawing by Olga Jurgens

Frederick had a very pleasant baritone and great hearing. He generally loved to hum and even sometimes compose something on the go. So, somehow on the eve of our (with my cat Remzik) the next departure from Berlin, when he, beating, composed a song by the cat Ramses, and was not too lazy to record it. It seemed to him that my cat was especially briskly worn around the apartment in anticipation of his return home.

Then Friedrich conceived a ridiculous comic book about the UNHERN and Promoysk invented by him, which we, unfortunately, failed to complete, he remained in the first sketches and joint discussions. According to F., this should have been painted easily (as I painted for the “mirror of riddles”, illustrating “how I was a CIA spy” and an article about Russian newspapers, number 9 for 2000). But it should not have been cartoons, so that in combination with the text it looked like complete idiocy. It is terribly sorry that they did not have time to do it. In addition, I can’t help but remember how he really loved to watch funny cartoons and sometimes in the most ridiculous and stupid found a mass of funny. At the same time, he laughed right to tears . "

Writer Boris Khazanov saw Shakespeare's humor in Gorenstein’s texts: “ A special idiological humor that suddenly breaks through in the discussion about how, for example, tram anti -Semitism differs from the anti -Semitism of railway transport - a whole retreat on this topic. This is accessible only to a large writer, because the main tone of Gorenstein’s major things is a tragedy. A separate woman, often a woman, and the tragedy of the whole people.

Some jokes and draws of Frederick were brutal. From the memoirs of Evgenia Popov :

" I testify: the unsociable Frederick revived and bloomed in the" Metropol " company, then he was fine there, in this place.

It’s so good that one day he even decided to joke.

At that time, various troubles were already rained down on the participants of the Metropol - “ to whom in the forehead, to whom in the groin, to whom in the eye ” , and we, once again gathered in the above apartment, once again solved the dramatic issues of our tactics and strategies: to whom to write, what will happen, what will calm down? Someone already drank in the kitchen, the sober Vysotsky sat in a corner on a stack of books, the late avant-gardeist Sapgir read poetry to the religious philosopher Trosnikov ... It seems that this is called " bohemia " ?

Participants in the Almanac "Metropol": V. Aksenov, V. Vysotsky, V. Erofeev, L. Batkin, F. Gorenstein

Friedrich participated very lively in gatherings, but then he suddenly won, looked at his watch, as if waiting for a certain time, quickly walked to the outer door and turned loudly to us:

- Late, gentlemen! Your song is sung! I had to think before!

He opened the door and, having been curved, said in a sweet voice:

- Come in, comrades!

There was no one outside the door . "

When I, at the request of Valentin Gaft, brought him to Gorenstein in Berlin in 2000, they hugged him tightly, and I realized that they were long -standing friends and they have something to remember from young years together. The conversation was about women ...

Gorenstein was very fond of beautiful playwright and comedian Viktor Slavkin. He even once told me that he considers a meeting with Frederick the most important event of his life.

Friedrich Gorenstein and Victor Slavkin

And also about the humor of Gorenstein. He was different from the humor of his beloved Voinovich and Zhvanetsky. Nevertheless, it was genuine humor. I was amazed at how many comic opportunities contained, as it turned out, his story “Champagne and Bile”, which I staged with actors Alexander Filippenko and Ernst Zorin. The unmistakable flair of wonderful artists made it possible to identify many sometimes inconspicuous when reading a "laughter", and the halls now and then exploded that liberating laughter, which in itself gives pleasure. Few, except Shakespeare, can still meet this ability to joke in the midst of tragedy stories.

Gorenstein could rightfully repeat after Zoshchenko: "The mercy never left us."

Today, Gorenstein would have more reasons for joy, for a smile. His books come out, performances and films are staged on them. This year, the “Elena Shubina” (AST Publishing House) will be published by a new book of prose by Friedrich Gorenstein.

And in conclusion, with the gratitude of colleagues from Novaya Gazeta for a kind permission to translate, is a full irony and subtle humor, the last one in the time of writing Gorenstein’s story “Anti -Semit's Arrest” (1998) and his two comers published on Gorenstein’s birthday “New Gazeta”.

Read other materials about Friedrich Gorenstein on the page of the Radio Liberty project "Worlds Gorensnnya"