The Big Book Award announced a longlist
of forty-one books a Tuesday or two ago. This year’s longlist gives me hope
that the 2021 shortlist might be at least a little better (meaning more
readable!) than last year’s, though (cue my perennial gripe) only 11.5 of this
year’s longlist titles were written by women. That’s a bit better than last year’s eight
out of thirty-nine although, as always, I don’t know much about what books were
nominated.
I started this post last weekend but didn’t finish (an all-life-cycles
mouse infestation in the garden shed was a complete downer) but am picking back
up today and attempting to accentuate the positive and focus on some books that
sound good.
First off, three books overlap with this year’s National Bestseller
Award shortlist. It’s probably no coincidence that these three had the top
scores in NatsBest voting and are also the (unread, for me) books that interest
me most:
- Mikhail Gigolashvili’s
Кока (Koka) is a continuation (of
sorts?) of The Devil’s Wheel (previous post), which I loved so very much about ten
years ago. The friend who bought Koka seems to be enjoying it.
- Alexander Pelevin’s
Покров-17
(Pokrov-17) is set in the
Kaluga area in 1993 but the action somehow connects to a World War 2 battle.
Pelevin loves playing with time like this, which is one of the reasons I’ve
enjoyed two of his other books (The Four) and (Kalinova Yama) so much. I’ve actively avoided learning more
about Pokrov-17 before reading.
- Vera
Bogdanova’s Павел
Чжан и прочие речные
твари (Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures) sounds scarily intriguing, with its digital
concentration camp and “total chipization.” I’ve seen lots of praise for this
book and am looking forward to reading it.
Then there
are some books I’ve read or have on the shelves:
- I’m still rereading Eugene Vodolazkin’s Оправдание Острова (The
History of Island), which I loved on the first reading for its
chronicle-like format (sometimes!) and stylization (varying!) and blend of
timelines. It’s a very Vodolazkonian novel; he’s exceptionally skilled at
writing about favorite themes from new angles that make his material fresh,
relevant, and related to his others works without repeating them.
- Shamil Idiatullin’s Последнее время (it sounds like this is
more likely Last/Final Time(s) than, say, Of Late, though who
knows!) concerns an invented country. Maria Galina’s back-cover blurb calls it
ethnofantasy. I haven’t been a big fan of Idiatullin’s realistic work so bought
this with the hope of enjoying something that’s less a part of this world.
- Sergei Samsonov’s Высокая кровь (High Blood) is a thick (630+
pages of small print) book set during the Civil War that (among other things) borrows
on themes from Sholokhov. Translating a sample was very, very challenging thanks
to Platonovesque stylistics, regional language, and literary references. The
text is dense and interesting. I need to read the rest of the book.
- Leonid Yuzefovich’s Филэллин (The Philhellene) is a
novel where characters converse through journals, letters, and mental
conversations. Yuzefovich’s own back-cover description of the book refers to it
as being closer to “variations on historical themes than a traditional
historical novel.” This is another book where I’ve purposely avoided trying to learn
too much before reading.
- Bulat Khanov’s Развлечения для птиц с подрезанными крыльями (perhaps something like
Diversions for Birds With Clipped Wings) is described as a book about
rebels but I read about a third and found it a bit slow to develop, even
plodding, as it follows four people who seem to be all too fated to meet. I
suspect part of my problem with Birds is that, well, its wings feel so
clipped, making it feel very safe compared to Khanov’s much briefer, far
riskier, and higher soaring Rage (previous
post). William
Barclay, by the way, translated an extended sample of Rage, under
the RusTRANS
project.
- I’ve had so many similar problems with books by familiar
(even favorite) authors in the last year, that I wonder if my problem is due to
my pandemic-era pickiness rather than flawed novels. To wit… Narine Abgaryan’s
Симон (Simon) also
didn’t quite hit me though I wonder if that’s because her Three Apples Fell
From the Sky, which I translated, still feels so familiar and very dear to me. Similarly,
Marina Stepnova’s best-selling Cад (The Garden, a.k.a. A New Breed) interested me far
less for its nineteenth-century plot and characters than for its stylized
language, which made me more than happy to work on a sample; this could be a
matter of familiarity, too, after so enjoying translating two Stepnova novels
set in later times.
Now a few potentially interesting books and/or authors I hadn’t known anything about.
The pool isn’t very big – I’ve read twenty-seven of the
authors on the longlist – so first I’ll cheat and mention a few more familiar authors on the
list: Irina Bogatyreva, Ilya Boyashov, Sergei Nosov, Aleksei
Polyarinov, Roman Senchin, and Alla Gorbunova. Since I’m
always looking for novels (preferably novels with plots!) that narrows my choices
a lot for unknown books and authors. But here are three books, one of which has
only been published in a journal thus far, making it all the more mysterious:
- Ksenia Dragunskaya’s Туда нельзя (which
I really want to call Don’t Go There, in the literal sense) sounds like
it might connect several characters’ stories because of a lake. (?)
- Olga Pokrovskaya’s Летучий корабль (Airliner,
perhaps?) is apparently about aviation.
- Roman Shmarakov’s Алкиной (Alcinous, I guess) is set in the fourth century,
in the late Roman Empire. Although it’s apparently often described as a “philological
novel,” Artyom Roganov’s review
for Gorky Media says it’s more. (And even cites humor! We enjoy humor!)
Up Next: Two rereads: Vodolazkin’s History of
Island and Svetlana Kuznetsova’s The Anatomy of the Moon, which I nominated
for the Big Book and am translating. I reread very slowly!
Disclaimers and Disclosures: The usual,
including having translated some of the authors on the longlist. I signed a
request to call in an unnominated Pavel Krusanov collection for Big
Book; he’s a good writer so I’m glad it made the list. I’ve received a number of the books on the list from agents, authors, or
publishers in either electronic or print copies.
