"An orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head, a gentle radiance glows in the ravines of the thunderclouds and the standards of the sunset float above our heads. [...] All has been murdered by silence, and only the moon, clasping her round, shining, carefree head in blue hands, plays the vagrant under the window"
(From: Crossing the Zbrucz)
maandag 27 augustus 2007
STALINS JEUGDJAREN : CITAAT
"Een groot publiek las de onder zijn bijnaam 'Soselo' in Iveria gepubliceerde gedichten. Het werden bescheiden Georgische klassiekers en nog iemand ooit van 'Stalin' had gehoord, verschenen ze in bloemlezingen van de beste georgische poëzie."
(p. 82)
(p. 82)
zondag 12 augustus 2007
RED CAVALRY / ISAAC BABEL
"From the early Soviet period, the impassioned short fiction of the great Russian-Jewish writer.
One of the most powerful short-story writers of the twentieth century, Isaac Babel expressed his sense of inner conflict through disturbing tales that explored the contradictions of Russian society. Whether reflecting on anti-Semitism in stories such as Story of My Dovecote and First Love, or depicting Jewish gangsters in his native Odessa, Babels eye for the comical laid bare the ironies of history. His masterpiece, Red Cavalry, set in the Soviet-Polish war, is one of the classics of modern fiction. By turns flamboyant and restrained, this collection of Babels best-known stories vividly expresses the horrors of his age."
One of the most powerful short-story writers of the twentieth century, Isaac Babel expressed his sense of inner conflict through disturbing tales that explored the contradictions of Russian society. Whether reflecting on anti-Semitism in stories such as Story of My Dovecote and First Love, or depicting Jewish gangsters in his native Odessa, Babels eye for the comical laid bare the ironies of history. His masterpiece, Red Cavalry, set in the Soviet-Polish war, is one of the classics of modern fiction. By turns flamboyant and restrained, this collection of Babels best-known stories vividly expresses the horrors of his age."
STALINS JEUGDJAREN : VAN REBEL TOT RODE TSAAR / MONTEFIORE
"'Later zullen er voor niemand zaken verborgen blijven,' voorspelde Stalin. Het is Simon Sebag Montefiore inderdaad gelukt om met Stalins Jeugdjaren de meeste geheimen te ontsluieren. Tien jaar onderzoek, in 23 steden en in negen landen, ligt ten grondslag aan dit magistrale boek. Mede op basis van nieuw, opzienbarend archiefmateriaal schreef Montefiore een meeslepende biografie van de in 1878 geboren schoenmakerszoon, de idealistische seminarist, bendeleider, dichter, echtgenoot en charmeur, die in de jaren dertig aan de macht kwam en een van de grootste dictators van de twintigste eeuw werd. Stalins Jeugdjaren is het portret van een zoekende jongen met een jeugd zonder veel vooruitzichten, die in de revolutionaire idealen zijn romantische, messianistische missie vond. Simon Sebag Montefiore is een schrijver van uitzonderlijke klasse. In 2004 verscheen zijn Stalin. Het hof van de rode tsaar over het leven van Stalin vanaf de jaren dertig tot aan zijn overlijden in 1953. Met Stalins jeugdjaren heeft Montefiore een groots overzicht voltooid van de bewogen geschiedenis van Rusland in de eerste helft van de vorige eeuw."
ANNA OF ALL THE RUSSIAS : CITAAT
Armoede in de Sovjet-Unie .... : "Their room [Anna & Shileiko] was large, but damp and cold; the bed was behind a screen. The one bookcase could not accomodate all their books, which had to lie about on the floor."
"I experienced great fame, I experienced great disgrace and I have come to the conclusion that, in essentials, it is all the same."
"I experienced great fame, I experienced great disgrace and I have come to the conclusion that, in essentials, it is all the same."
ANNA OF ALL THE RUSSIAS : A LIFE OF ANNA AKHMATOVA / ELAINE FEINSTEIN
"This comprehensive biography of the legendary Russian poet — a rich narrative of the dramatic life behind the extraordinary work — draws on a wealth of new material, including memoirs, letters and journals, and interviews with Akhmatova's surviving friends and family.
Anna Akhmatova began writing in the years before World War I, a time when, according to Akhmatova herself, to think of a woman as a poet was absurd. Her genius would rise above categorization, but this superb biography makes clear how heavily she paid for the political and personal passions that informed it. A fierce poise, forged by Anna's lonely childhood, carried her through her father's resistance to her writing — which prompted her to change her name from Gorenko to Akhmatova, a name taken from a Tartar ancestor - and her flawed but passionate love affairs. We see Akhmatova's work banned from 1925 until 1940, and banned again following World War II, when the Union of Soviet Writers labeled her half nun, half harlot. We see her steadfast resistance to Stalin during her hopeful but unsuccessful attempt to win her son's release from prison. We see her abiding loyalty to such friends as Mandelstam, Shostakovich and Pasternak as they faced Stalinist oppression. And we see how, through everything, Akhmatova continued to write, her poetry giving voice to the Russian people by whom she was, and still is, deeply loved. "
Anna Akhmatova began writing in the years before World War I, a time when, according to Akhmatova herself, to think of a woman as a poet was absurd. Her genius would rise above categorization, but this superb biography makes clear how heavily she paid for the political and personal passions that informed it. A fierce poise, forged by Anna's lonely childhood, carried her through her father's resistance to her writing — which prompted her to change her name from Gorenko to Akhmatova, a name taken from a Tartar ancestor - and her flawed but passionate love affairs. We see Akhmatova's work banned from 1925 until 1940, and banned again following World War II, when the Union of Soviet Writers labeled her half nun, half harlot. We see her steadfast resistance to Stalin during her hopeful but unsuccessful attempt to win her son's release from prison. We see her abiding loyalty to such friends as Mandelstam, Shostakovich and Pasternak as they faced Stalinist oppression. And we see how, through everything, Akhmatova continued to write, her poetry giving voice to the Russian people by whom she was, and still is, deeply loved. "
ENVY : CITAAT
"In our country the paths to fame are strewn with barriers. A gifted person either has to fade away or else resolve to lift the barrier and make a great fuss. [...] Here we're afraid of paying attention to anyone. I want a lot of attention." p.25
"You might even kill yourself. Suicide for no good reason. To make trouble. To show that every person has the right to dispose of his own self." p.26
"You might even kill yourself. Suicide for no good reason. To make trouble. To show that every person has the right to dispose of his own self." p.26
zaterdag 11 augustus 2007
ENVY / YURI OLESHA
"One of the delights of Russian literature, a tour de force that has been compared to the best of Nabokov and Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha's novella Envy brings together cutting social satire, slapstick humor, and a wild visionary streak. Andrei is a model Soviet citizen, a swaggeringly self-satisfied mogul of the food industry who intends to revolutionize modern life with mass-produced sausage. Nikolai is a loser. Finding him drunk in the gutter, Andrei gives him a bed for the night and a job as a gofer. Nikolai takes what he can, but that doesn't mean he's grateful. Griping, sulking, grovelingly abject, he despises everything Andrei believes in, even if he envies him his every breath.
Producer and sponger, insider and outcast, master and man fight back and forth in the pages of Olesha's anarchic comedy. It is a contest of wills in which nothing is sure except the incorrigible human heart."
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