Description
Book SynopsisBarcelona Prose is a collection of autobiographical essays by the gifted translator, literary scholar, and dissident, Efim Etkind. These engaging, deeply psychological vignettes capture the reality of daily life and work in the Soviet Union. Unlike other memoirists who have faced hardships, Etkind's tone is never cruel or embittered. Told through the lens of a practiced scholar, he captures the absurdity of a cultural-political experiment that destroyed his family’s life, his own career, and that of many of his colleagues. By the time of Etkind’s death, he did not rework these essays into a continuous narrative. Originally published in Russian, this first-ever English translation prepared by Etkind’s daughter presents his memoirs as a document of his time, without any changes or abridgements. The editors’ additions are limited to several notes, proofreading of quotes, and checking or inserting the full forms of the characters’ names.
Table of ContentsIn Lieu of a Foreword
He Outsmarted Us
Full Repair!
The Marquis de Lapunaise
The Russian Intelligentsia: Two Generations
Looking through the Walls
The Double
Ferenc, Count Batthyány
Ebensee
“On the Sly”
How We Lived
“The Blond Hidden in a Bottle”
Triumph of Spirit
Up the Down Stairscase
It Turned Out Okay
About the Axe
Last Meeting
Pavel Antokolsky: Generation of the Blind
Cousin
“The Other”
The Cowardice of a Brave Man
Two Jewish Fates: Reading the Diaries of Victor Klemperer
“Youth in a Military Blouse” of My Contemporary
Afterword: A Knight of Culture by David Bethea
List of Names
