Russian Blog
This is a blog by JustRussian about learning Russian. You will find useful tips for learning Russian, Russian courses available in London, information about Russian culture and links to websites with information for students of Russian.
Learning Russian Literature: – it’s a woman’s world? Part 2
By Vlada 5 July 09
More info from a Russian teacher in London, or something you may be interested to know but may not learn in Russian lessons.
My students doing advanced Russian lessons often ask me about modern Russian literature: what is it like? Who are the most famous best-selling authors and which of them are “readable” from the point of view of foreign learners of Russian? In the previous blog article I talked about 2 of the most popular modern Russian writers – Boris Akunin and Tatiana Tolstaya.
Today I would like to continue the same blog and talk about two more leading ladies of modern Russian literature – Dina Rubina and Ludmila Ulitskaya.
Dina Rubina started publishing her short stories in the 80-s in literary magazines. I was not aware of her work at that time but my friends tell me that she was popular even then. Her books are a pleasure to read: her writing style leaves you in no doubt that she’s a good old-fashioned professional author. Her Russian is flawless; she knows how to grip the attention of the audience and keep it throughout the book, she creates characters who seem real, living next door to us. I am sure some of them are, and lots of her books are based on the lives of people she knew.
Interestingly, Dina Rubina moved to Israel quite a while ago but writes in Russian only and is a best-selling author in all Russian speaking countries. She has recently published a couple of books of sketches about the life of Russian emigrants in Israel: they are funny, ironic and reveal a whole world of cross-cultural differences that Russian “repatriants” have to deal with in their daily lives. A lot of her stories and novels are about creative, “bohemian” people: artists, writers, performers. She herself has a musical education.
Her main books are:
“Na Solnechnoj Storone Ulitsy” – “On the Sunny Side of the Street”, a novel about an artist who grew up in post war Tashkent and went through life living in different countries ever grateful for the sunshine and the wonderful people who surrounded her in those years.
“Na Verkhney Maslovke” – “In Verkhnya Maslovka” (it’s a street name), a rather depressing story about a troubled love-hate relationship between a very old renowned sculptor and her much younger disciple. There is a screen version of this novel which, according to reports, is even more depressing than the novel… but at least the book is very well written.
“Dvoynaya Familiya” – “A Double-barred Surname”, a rather complicated and sad story of a family.
Dina Rubina wrote a lot of short stories. A couple of recent collections include: “Neskolko Toroplivyh Slov Lubvi” – “A few Quick Words of Love”; “Tsyganka” – “A Gypsy” and others.
Her last novel “Pocherk Leonardo” – Leonardo’s Handwriting” was advertised by some newspapers as an answer to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinchi Code” – but it’s not. It’s a mystical story about a girl with supernatural abilities and her journey through life as a circus artist. I don’t think it’s Dina Rubina’s best novel: I found it a bit fragmented, so it’s difficult to follow the plot, but nevertheless fascinating.
Ludmilla Ulitskaya is a heavyweight of modern Russian literature. She has been awarded various prestigious prizes, and her novels have been turned into films and TV shows. She writes in slow, slightly heavy but beautifully constructed long sentences, which make you want to take the book and sit with it in a quiet place, taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the world, thinking about what you are reading. It’s good holiday read, because you need time to think about the text. It’s deep and complicated and yet not boring. It requires thinking but doesn’t make your brain tired, which is a rare quality and a sign of a talented author.
Her most well – known novels are:
“Kasus Kukotskogo” – “The Case of Kukotsky” – the story of a brilliant doctor and his career in Soviet-era medicine, a novel which is sometimes compared to “Doctor Zhivago” not without reason. I found it fascinating, both because of the medical details and the story line. Ulitskaya is a biologist by education, and I am sure she must have had a medical consultant or done a lot of research when she wrote this book, as to me it seems very believable, and yet it has some mystical moments that make it very interesting.
“Veselye Pokhorony” – “A Jolly Funeral” – a story about Russians living in America.
“Medea i yeyo Deti” – “Medea and her Children” – the life story of a woman from a big Greek-Russian family living in the south of Russia.
“Iskrenne Vash, Shurik” – “Sincerely Yours, Shurik” – yet another life story.
“Ludi Nashego Tsarya” – “Our Tsar’s People” – a depressing collection of stories, all doom and gloom, in the best traditions of the Russian psyche.
Ulitskaya’s collections of short stories include:
“Devochki” – “Girls”; “Skvoznaya Liniya” – “A Line Running Through”; “Bednye Rodstvenniki” – “Poor Relatives”.
One thing that I noticed about Ulitskaya’s books is that she is rather anti-men, intentionally or not. In all her novels men come out as either pathetic and misguided or unpleasant characters, whose mistakes and misdeeds are left for the women around them to pay for.
Her last novel, “Daniel Stein, Perevodchik” – “Daniel Stein the Translator” is said to be less good. I was warned against reading it by a friend whose tastes I trust. She took this book to read on a sea cruise holiday, anticipating the pleasure, but after struggling with it for a while and getting more and more bored and disappointed, she got so frustrated that she threw it into the ocean from the boat… So it must have been pretty painful reading. But as we know, tastes differ.
To be continued!