Search results for ""Author Alexander Rojavin""

Book SynopsisDovlatov and Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the most consequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, to another: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book’s focus is ostensibly the man himself, the text unfolds as a comprehensive look at the Soviet, post-Soviet, and American cultures that shaped him and which he shaped. Dovlatov and Surroundings constantly, but effortlessly shifts its focus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis’s reflections on his friendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diaspora life, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics, and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plain the significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of the Soviet cultural heritage.Trade Review“Appearing almost a quarter of a century after the publication of the Russian original, Rojavin's translation into English of Aleksandr Genis’s Dovlatov i okrestnosti, an ambivalent tribute to Russian literary historian Sergei Dovlatov, is flawless. … Including (often-unattributed) witticisms… this book… provides a sociohistorical record of the Russian immigrant life and elements of the diaspora trying to maintain the identity of their native land. … Recommended.— D. Hutchins, CHOICE“Dovlatov and Surroundings in this new translation offers a cocktail of brilliant spirits: An informative introduction by accomplished scholar Mark Lipovetsky, then Alexander Genis’s striking and influential study of beloved (and tremendously funny) émigré author Sergei Dovlatov. Bilingual translator Alexander Rojavin has brought Genis’s work into precise and idiomatic English, hitting every note right.”— Sibelan Forrester, Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Russian, Swarthmore College“A famous Russian émigré writer and a sharp Russian literary critic meet in this blend of a literary biography and a memoir. Sergei Dovlatov’s massive personality is portraited by Alexander Genis sympathetically and with keen observations. In this book, life and literature intertwine seamlessly, as was the case for both Dovlatov and Genis. Those interested in a detailed account of the aspirations and mind-set of the Soviet immigrants’ literary milieu in New York will find this narrative educational and fascinating. The book works as a perfect entrée to Dovlatov’s simple, but exquisite prose.”— Olga Bukhina, Translator, Author, Children’s Books Specialist“Genis achieves the same effect that Dovlatov did: he simultaneously makes the Third Wave of immigration more intimate and more mythological. On the one hand, Dovlatov and Surroundings is the best possible memorial to a generation of immigrants who left the Soviet Union on a Jewish visa and created a new Russian literature abroad. On the other hand, it is a house, filled with joyful and dramatic life, whose doors are open to all who wish to enter. The fact that Genis’s philological novel is coming out in English today is proof of this project’s success. When all is said and done, Genis’s book is an inexhaustible source of optimism…”— Mark Lipovetsky, from the prefaceTable of ContentsForeword: Genis and Surroundings, or Twenty Years Later by Mark Lipovetsky The Last Soviet Generation Laughter and Trepidation The Poetics of Prison Do You Like Fish? The Metaphysics of Error Cabbage Soup from Borjomi Tere-Tere Poetry and Truth None of Us Are Lookers An Empty Mirror A Dotted Novel All That Jazz Pushkin A Concert for an Accented Voice Halfway to the Homeland A Matryoshka with Genitals The Unwilling Son of the Ether Death and Other Concerns Without Dovlatov A Brief History of The New American Dovlatov as an Editor Dovlatov on the Screen Dovlatov and Death

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Book SynopsisDovlatov and Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the most consequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, to another: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book’s focus is ostensibly the man himself, the text unfolds as a comprehensive look at the Soviet, post-Soviet, and American cultures that shaped him and which he shaped. Dovlatov and Surroundings constantly, but effortlessly shifts its focus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis’s reflections on his friendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diaspora life, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics, and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plain the significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of the Soviet cultural heritage.Trade Review“Appearing almost a quarter of a century after the publication of the Russian original, Rojavin's translation into English of Aleksandr Genis’s Dovlatov i okrestnosti, an ambivalent tribute to Russian literary historian Sergei Dovlatov, is flawless. … Including (often-unattributed) witticisms… this book… provides a sociohistorical record of the Russian immigrant life and elements of the diaspora trying to maintain the identity of their native land. … Recommended.— D. Hutchins, CHOICE“Dovlatov and Surroundings in this new translation offers a cocktail of brilliant spirits: An informative introduction by accomplished scholar Mark Lipovetsky, then Alexander Genis’s striking and influential study of beloved (and tremendously funny) émigré author Sergei Dovlatov. Bilingual translator Alexander Rojavin has brought Genis’s work into precise and idiomatic English, hitting every note right.”— Sibelan Forrester, Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Russian, Swarthmore College“A famous Russian émigré writer and a sharp Russian literary critic meet in this blend of a literary biography and a memoir. Sergei Dovlatov’s massive personality is portraited by Alexander Genis sympathetically and with keen observations. In this book, life and literature intertwine seamlessly, as was the case for both Dovlatov and Genis. Those interested in a detailed account of the aspirations and mind-set of the Soviet immigrants’ literary milieu in New York will find this narrative educational and fascinating. The book works as a perfect entrée to Dovlatov’s simple, but exquisite prose.”— Olga Bukhina, Translator, Author, Children’s Books Specialist“Genis achieves the same effect that Dovlatov did: he simultaneously makes the Third Wave of immigration more intimate and more mythological. On the one hand, Dovlatov and Surroundings is the best possible memorial to a generation of immigrants who left the Soviet Union on a Jewish visa and created a new Russian literature abroad. On the other hand, it is a house, filled with joyful and dramatic life, whose doors are open to all who wish to enter. The fact that Genis’s philological novel is coming out in English today is proof of this project’s success. When all is said and done, Genis’s book is an inexhaustible source of optimism…”— Mark Lipovetsky, from the prefaceTable of ContentsForeword: Genis and Surroundings, or Twenty Years Later by Mark Lipovetsky The Last Soviet Generation Laughter and Trepidation The Poetics of Prison Do You Like Fish? The Metaphysics of Error Cabbage Soup from Borjomi Tere-Tere Poetry and Truth None of Us Are Lookers An Empty Mirror A Dotted Novel All That Jazz Pushkin A Concert for an Accented Voice Halfway to the Homeland A Matryoshka with Genitals The Unwilling Son of the Ether Death and Other Concerns Without Dovlatov A Brief History of The New American Dovlatov as an Editor Dovlatov on the Screen Dovlatov and Death

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Book SynopsisMan and His Surroundings irreverently explores Soviet and post-Soviet identity, politics, and history. In what Iskander himself calls the book’s seminal novella, the narrator meets a man who believes himself to be Lenin, thawed out after decades of cryogenic storage. The narrator endures a phantasmagorical account of what “Lenin” thought and did during the October Revolution of 1917 and how another revolution is imminent. In another novella, the narrator tells of a nationally renowned fencer as the fencer sits at a neighboring table, discussing the impossibility of equality on earth, while his son pesters him for ice cream. The novellas enrapture the reader with their humor and impart a better intuitive understanding of the Soviet cultural heritage and mindset.Trade Review“This new translation of Fazil Iskander’s Man and His Surroundings, a collection of nine novellas set in the writer’s native Abkhazia, is a much-needed addition to Iskander’s oeuvre available in English. Iskander’s prose, beloved by generations of readers, offers a humorous and de-centering look at the absurdities of the Soviet reality, seen through the looking glass of life in Mukhus (Sukhumi). Alexander Rojavin's translation skillfully captures Iskander’s lapidary style and austere humor, while his passionate translator’s introduction praises the power of humor in the face of tyranny, past and present. This book will be a welcome addition to anyone teaching Soviet and Post-Soviet epochs in post-colonial perspective, and an enjoyable read for many.”— Maria Khotimsky, Senior Lecturer in Russian, Global Languages, MIT“Fazil Iskander was an obvious candidate for the Nobel Prize. Like two other laureates, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he broadened literary geography by adding his motherland, Abkhazia, to it. A fearless explorer who revealed this land to so many readers, Iskander made the written world larger. In the confines of the invented village of Chegem, he wove wise, meandering prose in an Eastern manner. His humorous writing opens a new and unique world for American readers, and the portal to it is this excellent translation by Alexander Rojavin. The work is accessible both to readers familiar with Iskander’s magnum opus, Sandro from Chegem, as well as those who are just now about to discover one of the most inventive and exotic authors categorized under Magical Realism. Welcome to Chegem.”— Alexander Genis, Writer, NYTable of ContentsTranslator’s IntroductionInstead of a Foreword1. Lenin at the Amra2. The Rapier3. The Hunting Hawk4. The Beauty of Norms, or a Boy Waits for a Man5. The Light of the Twilight Youth6. A Sea of Charisma7. Palermo—New York8. The Old Men’s Bender on the Sea9. Lenin and Uncle Sandro

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Book SynopsisMan and His Surroundings irreverently explores Soviet and post-Soviet identity, politics, and history. In what Iskander himself calls the book’s seminal novella, the narrator meets a man who believes himself to be Lenin, thawed out after decades of cryogenic storage. The narrator endures a phantasmagorical account of what “Lenin” thought and did during the October Revolution of 1917 and how another revolution is imminent. In another novella, the narrator tells of a nationally renowned fencer as the fencer sits at a neighboring table, discussing the impossibility of equality on earth, while his son pesters him for ice cream. The novellas enrapture the reader with their humor and impart a better intuitive understanding of the Soviet cultural heritage and mindset.Trade Review“This new translation of Fazil Iskander’s Man and His Surroundings, a collection of nine novellas set in the writer’s native Abkhazia, is a much-needed addition to Iskander’s oeuvre available in English. Iskander’s prose, beloved by generations of readers, offers a humorous and de-centering look at the absurdities of the Soviet reality, seen through the looking glass of life in Mukhus (Sukhumi). Alexander Rojavin's translation skillfully captures Iskander’s lapidary style and austere humor, while his passionate translator’s introduction praises the power of humor in the face of tyranny, past and present. This book will be a welcome addition to anyone teaching Soviet and Post-Soviet epochs in post-colonial perspective, and an enjoyable read for many.”— Maria Khotimsky, Senior Lecturer in Russian, Global Languages, MIT“Fazil Iskander was an obvious candidate for the Nobel Prize. Like two other laureates, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he broadened literary geography by adding his motherland, Abkhazia, to it. A fearless explorer who revealed this land to so many readers, Iskander made the written world larger. In the confines of the invented village of Chegem, he wove wise, meandering prose in an Eastern manner. His humorous writing opens a new and unique world for American readers, and the portal to it is this excellent translation by Alexander Rojavin. The work is accessible both to readers familiar with Iskander’s magnum opus, Sandro from Chegem, as well as those who are just now about to discover one of the most inventive and exotic authors categorized under Magical Realism. Welcome to Chegem.”— Alexander Genis, Writer, NYTable of ContentsTranslator’s IntroductionInstead of a Foreword1. Lenin at the Amra2. The Rapier3. The Hunting Hawk4. The Beauty of Norms, or a Boy Waits for a Man5. The Light of the Twilight Youth6. A Sea of Charisma7. Palermo—New York8. The Old Men’s Bender on the Sea9. Lenin and Uncle Sandro

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