Description
Book SynopsisThe author is widely recognized as one of the leading living Russian poets and prose writers. In this title, his story radiates out, relaying the poet's personal history through 1994, including his unique perspective on the 1991 coup by Communist hardliners resisted by Boris Yeltsin.
Trade ReviewFew books capture the proverbial spirit of their time and place as effectively: for all its introspective, indeed confessional, character, this memoir is a paean to a motley crew of individuals who chose freedom of expression in obscurity over conformity in dishonor.... Those of us teaching courses on (not-so-) Soviet Russian literature should thank Fusso for giving us a chance to offset the effects of Venedikt Yerofeyev's Moscow to the End of the Line with this genuinely uplifting, if decidedly unorthodox, tale of survival and absolution.
* Slavic and East European Journal *
Susanne Fusso has done an admirable job with this immensely complicated text.
* The Russian Review *
This is a short, dense read (kudos to Fusso for her translation) that evokes all of the hopelessness and haplessness that filled life in that unusual period. And it is so beautifully written that is requires multiple visits.
* Russian Life *
Fusso's translation admirably retains Gandlevsky's dizzying cocktail of literary diction and slang, his relentless allusiveness to high and low culture.
* Cosmonauts Avenue *
That the poetry of [Gandlevsky's] prose resonates in translation is a tribute to Susanne Fusso's mastery of both modern, colloquial Russian and Gandlevsky's milieu.
* World Literature Today *
Fusso has provided an outstanding translation, drawing on her deep knowledge and understanding of Russian culture and language. Her choices of English equivalents for Gandlevsky's colloquial Russian and her sensitivity to English readers' need for additional cultural translation are remarkable.
* Canadian Slavonic Papers *
We owe Susanne Fusso a great debt of gratitude for resourcefully tackling the challenge of bringing a major contemporary Russian prose text to the attention of a wide range of readers.
* Slavic Review *
