Eugene VodolazkinSolovyov and Larionov
2019; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 93; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wlt.2019.0228
ISSN1945-8134
Autores Tópico(s)Borges, Kipling, and Jewish Identity
ResumoBooks in Review Dionne Brand 88 The Blue Clerk Broken Stars: 96 Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction inTranslation Dror Burstein 100 Muck Roberto Calasso 89 The Unnamable Present Cherokee Nation: A 102 History of Survival, Self Determination, & Identity Amparo Dávila 83 The Houseguest & Other Stories Suzanne Dracius 104 The Dancing Other Daša Drndić 95 Doppelgänger Nuruddin Farah 82 North of Dawn Tana French 105 Witch Elm Johannes Görannson 96 Transgressive Circulation: Essays on Translation Mohammed Hanif 108 Red Birds Wolfgang Hilbig 94 The Females Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd 94 From a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual: My Memoirs Marlon James 80 Black Leopard, Red Wolf Ilya Kaminsky 84 Deaf Republic Natasha Kanapé Fontaine 85 Blueberries & Apricots Doris Kareva 93 Days of Grace: Selected Poems John M. Keller 108 Johnny Allan Nora Krug 109 Belonging: A German Reckons with History & Home Tore Kvæven 103 Når landet mørknar Yahia Lababidi 87 Where Epics Fail: Meditations to Live By Laila Lalami 79 The Other Americans Luz 106 Indélébiles Tanja Maljartschuk 86 A Biography of a Chance Miracle Franca Mancinelli 91 The Little Book of Passage Panna Naik 98 The Astrologer’s Sparrow Reena Nanda 107 From Quetta to Delhi: A Partition Story Naomi Shihab Nye 80 The Tiny Journalist Maxim Osipov 92 Rock, Paper, Scissors & Other Stories Huzaifa Pandit 107 Green is the Colour of Memory Sasenarine Persaud 104 Monsoon on the Fingers of God Lia Purpura 82 All the Fierce Tethers Carlos Ruiz Zafón 86 The Labyrinth of the Spirits Meenal Shrivastava 101 Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir Swallows & Floating 99 Horses: An Anthology of Frisian Literature Enrique Vila-Matas 90 Impón tu suerte Juan Villoro 98 El vértigo horizontal Eugene Vodolazkin 78 Solovyov & Larionov Laila Lalami's “Other” American Dream Questioning Assimilation with Nuruddin Farah Navigating the Signs of Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic Juan Villoro Maps Mexico City 79 82 84 98 WORLDLIT.ORG 77 Books in Review Eugene Vodolazkin Solovyov and Larionov Trans. Lisa C. Hayden. London. Oneworld. 2018. 404 pages. Russian novels have a common reputation for being hefty books, but despite the page count and the sweeping subjects that justify the size of hefty masterpieces like War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Doctor Zhivago, or The Gulag Archipelago, these books are surprisingly intimate in exploring the main characters, with authors scrutinizing the details of their souls and feelings, like quantum physicists seeking to find the truth of the entire universe in its tiniest particles. In Eugene Vodolazkin’s Solovyov and Larionov, Solovyov is the subject under minute examination. A young historian at the beginning of his career, he finds his subject in General Larionov, who led White Russian troops against the Bolshevik revolutionary army, but who, after his defeat in the Crimea, evacuated what men he had left, put the rest in disguises, and waited to meet his enemies in his own uniform. Larionov was one of the most effective generals of the White Army, a legend on the battlefield, and the Reds were never known for their forgiving nature. What happened after that is unknown, except that the general not only survived the years of Lenin and Stalin and died in 1976 unmolested by the Soviet government , he even retired in his upper-class family’s home, though compelled by the local council to share it with various other comrades—some of whom were executed for political reasons. Did he make some kind of deal that has been lost in the state records? Did he betray his men and their cause? Was he a deep agent working on behalf of the Bolsheviks? This mystery of why Larionov was allowed to go on living obsesses Solovyov, at the very least as a means to establishing a scholarly reputation , and sets him on a search for the unpublished memoirs of the general. Summarizing the plot like this makes the quest for the truth of Larionov seem like the driving force of the book, but instead it is more of a clothesline along which the events of Solovyov’s life are displayed. Born by a remote railroad stop of six buildings grandly named “Kilometer 715,” Solovyov knows few people growing up, and...
Referência(s)