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A Present Past: Titan and Other Chronicles
The Soviet and post-Soviet world, with its untold multitude of crimes, is a natural breeding ground for ghost stories. No one writes them more movingly than Russian author Sergei Lebedev, who in this stunning volume probes a collective guilty conscience marked by otherworldliness and the denial of misdeeds. These eleven tales share a mystical topography in which the legacy of totalitarian regimes is ever-present—from Katyn to Chechnya, from Lithuanian KGB documents to the streetscape of unified Berlin, from the fragments of family history to the echoes of foot soldiers in Russia’s wars of aggression. In these stories, as in Lebedev’s acclaimed novels, the voices of things, places, animals, and people seek justice for a restless past, where steel claws scrape just beneath the surface and where the heredity of evil is uninterrupted, unacknowledged, unnamed.
288 pages, Paperback
Published April 11, 2023
About the author
Sergei Lebedev
14 books38 followersSergei Lebedev was born in Moscow in 1981 and worked for seven years on geological expeditions in northern Russia and Central Asia. Lebedev is a poet, essayist and journalist. His novels have been translated into many languages and received great acclaim in the English-speaking world.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 24, 2023
”От опит знам, че за една истинска среща със злото не можеш да се подготвиш, да тренираш. То винаги те сварва неподготвен. И чудото, истинското чудо, е именно, че се намира някой, който в началото е объркан като всички останали, който е връстник с връстниците си, брат на братята или сестра на сестрите си, но върху този човек злото няма да остави печат, колкото и да се напъва.”
———
Има нещо средновековно у Лебедев. Средновековен е и всеки ловец на вампири, преследвач на дракони, гонител на зли сили и разказвач на страшни истории, които разстройват сън и покой. Само че всички тези създания на мрака отдавна са изпълзели от приказки и легенди, и сменяйки форми и названия, си живеят редом с хората, които им се кланят, поднасят им дарове и им вдигат паметници.
Защото по времето на Сталин е имало ред. И никой не брои милионите избити в ГУЛАГ или от голодомора. Всичко е било светло и безопасно. Но не и словото или дори музиката - те са били под ключ, а архивите на Лубянка съставляват изумително подробно творчество.
А оцелелите мразят да помнят, и подобно на трите маймуни, упорито отказват да видят, да чуят и да кажат. Защото паметта е отговорност, а отговорността е омразно бреме, от което човечеството от край време се опитва да се отърве, като си разказва сантиментални, национални, религиозни или някакви други приказки, чийто общ мотив е “доброто старо време”. То никога не е съществувало, още по-малко е било златно, но така се спи спокойно - винаги другите са виновни.
В разказите си Лебедев отключва тъмни мазета, заключени хамбари насред пустошта, изоставени стари къщи, прашасали архивни шкафове или “невинни” детски спомени, откъдето изскача зловонието на руската история от последните 100 години. Но благодарение на специалистите по модерни и неразбиваеми ключалки и тези по изливането на задушливи парфюми с имена като “ред”, “благополучие”, “благонравие”, “патриотизъм”, “върховна мисия” редовият руски и световен гражданин спи блажения сън на пълно, доброволно и радостно невежество. Само от време на време се стряска от някой кошмар с чудовища и нечестиви сили, който бързичко забравя или жално проплаква “Боже, защо на мен? С какво съм го заслужил?”
3,5⭐️
———
▶️ Цитати:
🎖️”Усещането за наближаващия край на една епоха винаги дава живот на мистиката.”
🎖️“Е, призраците наистина не се раждат сами за себе си. Ражда ги мълчащата съвест. Раздвоението на моралната оптика. Те са реални дотолкова, доколкото са реални изместването на знанието за престъпленията и отказът да се поеме истинска отговорност.”
🎖️”Фактически през цялото време на съществуването си съветската държава е унищожавала хора и е унищожавала всяка памет за унищожените.
При това в архивите на Държавна сигурност и досега се пазят милиони архивно-следствени дела. Милиони измислени обвинения. Милиони лъжливи разпити, построени по един художествен канон: от отрицанието до признаването на несъществуваща вина.
Тези дела, този метатекст с неговите стандартни сюжети и жанрове е може би главното и най-страшно руско произведение на ХХ в. Свидетелство за злото, останало непрочетено.”
———
Има нещо средновековно у Лебедев. Средновековен е и всеки ловец на вампири, преследвач на дракони, гонител на зли сили и разказвач на страшни истории, които разстройват сън и покой. Само че всички тези създания на мрака отдавна са изпълзели от приказки и легенди, и сменяйки форми и названия, си живеят редом с хората, които им се кланят, поднасят им дарове и им вдигат паметници.
Защото по времето на Сталин е имало ред. И никой не брои милионите избити в ГУЛАГ или от голодомора. Всичко е било светло и безопасно. Но не и словото или дори музиката - те са били под ключ, а архивите на Лубянка съставляват изумително подробно творчество.
А оцелелите мразят да помнят, и подобно на трите маймуни, упорито отказват да видят, да чуят и да кажат. Защото паметта е отговорност, а отговорността е омразно бреме, от което човечеството от край време се опитва да се отърве, като си разказва сантиментални, национални, религиозни или някакви други приказки, чийто общ мотив е “доброто старо време”. То никога не е съществувало, още по-малко е било златно, но така се спи спокойно - винаги другите са виновни.
В разказите си Лебедев отключва тъмни мазета, заключени хамбари насред пустошта, изоставени стари къщи, прашасали архивни шкафове или “невинни” детски спомени, откъдето изскача зловонието на руската история от последните 100 години. Но благодарение на специалистите по модерни и неразбиваеми ключалки и тези по изливането на задушливи парфюми с имена като “ред”, “благополучие”, “благонравие”, “патриотизъм”, “върховна мисия” редовият руски и световен гражданин спи блажения сън на пълно, доброволно и радостно невежество. Само от време на време се стряска от някой кошмар с чудовища и нечестиви сили, който бързичко забравя или жално проплаква “Боже, защо на мен? С какво съм го заслужил?”
3,5⭐️
———
▶️ Цитати:
🎖️”Усещането за наближаващия край на една епоха винаги дава живот на мистиката.”
🎖️“Е, призраците наистина не се раждат сами за себе си. Ражда ги мълчащата съвест. Раздвоението на моралната оптика. Те са реални дотолкова, доколкото са реални изместването на знанието за престъпленията и отказът да се поеме истинска отговорност.”
🎖️”Фактически през цялото време на съществуването си съветската държава е унищожавала хора и е унищожавала всяка памет за унищожените.
При това в архивите на Държавна сигурност и досега се пазят милиони архивно-следствени дела. Милиони измислени обвинения. Милиони лъжливи разпити, построени по един художествен канон: от отрицанието до признаването на несъществуваща вина.
Тези дела, този метатекст с неговите стандартни сюжети и жанрове е може би главното и най-страшно руско произведение на ХХ в. Свидетелство за злото, останало непрочетено.”
January 9, 2024
I loved Lebedev's "Untraceable" - so was looking forward to reading more from him.
This series of short stories, haunting tales of a Soviet past intruding on a Soviet present, were very different from the abovementioned work, but were intriguing in themselves nonetheless. I would have to say that my favourite tale was "Titan" - the story of a person of interest to the Soviet Secret Police, who managed to turn the tables on them in a rather unique way.
For anyone wanting to further explore Russian literature, definitely pick this up!
This series of short stories, haunting tales of a Soviet past intruding on a Soviet present, were very different from the abovementioned work, but were intriguing in themselves nonetheless. I would have to say that my favourite tale was "Titan" - the story of a person of interest to the Soviet Secret Police, who managed to turn the tables on them in a rather unique way.
For anyone wanting to further explore Russian literature, definitely pick this up!
May 27, 2023
A Present Past: Titan and Other Chronicles brings together eleven haunting and haunted short stories by Sergei Lebedev, in a translation by Antonina W. Bouis, who has previously translated Lebedev’s novels into English. I had come across the author through his novel Untraceable and had been intrigued into how Lebedev uses elements of genre fiction (in that case the spy thriller) to put across a social and political statement. There is a similar approach in this short story collection published by New Vessel Press, except that while not abandoning the political thriller Lebedev here ventures into the realm of the ghost story and supernatural fiction. This is appropriate, as what are “ghosts” if not the intrusion into the present of a past deemed gone and forgotten? As the author points out in the preface to the volume:
Lebedev presents us with a Soviet and post-Soviet setting marked by the brutalities of the regimes of the 20th Century: not just Stalinism and its forebears and successors – although those, obviously, feature prominently - but also anti-semitism the horrors of the Second World War (most clearly in “The Barn”). The stories have the aura of the unheimlich, a sense of the uncanny and of unease which serves to evoke the feeling of danger and constant fear engendered by oppressive regimes. In the tradition of dissident literature, the title story “Titan” about an anti-conformist writer and his spiritual heir or “The Letter Й”, are stories which portray individuals broken by the state. But in some cases, it is the perpetrators who are visited and punished by a remnant of the past (“Judge Stomakov”). There is much horror in this volume (rarely explicit, more often roiling underneath) but I was also intrigued by the occasional outbursts of colourful fairytale-like passages – as in “The Night is Bright Tonight” – which reminded me of the rich tradition of Russian fantastical and magical realist literature by such authors as Alexei Remizov (who has, incidentally, also been translated by Antonina W. Bouis).
This volume of Lebedev's short fiction will surely cement his already significant reputation in the English-speaking world while showing a different aspect to his craft from the novels which have brought him acclaim to date.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
Soviet ideology – at least on paper – called for a rational view of the world and the only ghost allowed was the “specter of communism” that Marx and Engels had prophesied in the nineteenth century. That made it all the more astonishing how quickly the other world appeared, the “reverse” side of Soviet consciousness; a dark storeroom filled with everything that had been tossed, hidden, crossed out of life and memory during the seventy years of communist rule. A new mystical folklore arose before our eyes, seemingly out of the air of the epoch. It spoke of evil places, anomalous zones where the laws of physics did not hold. About strange creatures, poltergeists who lived in houses and apartments and persecuted residents they did not like... People’s minds sought images, sought a language to describe the tragedy, and they turned to mystical allusions to make the evil past real and at the same time managed to become estranged from it, turning it into the subject of another world and another reality.
Lebedev presents us with a Soviet and post-Soviet setting marked by the brutalities of the regimes of the 20th Century: not just Stalinism and its forebears and successors – although those, obviously, feature prominently - but also anti-semitism the horrors of the Second World War (most clearly in “The Barn”). The stories have the aura of the unheimlich, a sense of the uncanny and of unease which serves to evoke the feeling of danger and constant fear engendered by oppressive regimes. In the tradition of dissident literature, the title story “Titan” about an anti-conformist writer and his spiritual heir or “The Letter Й”, are stories which portray individuals broken by the state. But in some cases, it is the perpetrators who are visited and punished by a remnant of the past (“Judge Stomakov”). There is much horror in this volume (rarely explicit, more often roiling underneath) but I was also intrigued by the occasional outbursts of colourful fairytale-like passages – as in “The Night is Bright Tonight” – which reminded me of the rich tradition of Russian fantastical and magical realist literature by such authors as Alexei Remizov (who has, incidentally, also been translated by Antonina W. Bouis).
This volume of Lebedev's short fiction will surely cement his already significant reputation in the English-speaking world while showing a different aspect to his craft from the novels which have brought him acclaim to date.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
November 12, 2023
Eine Kurzgeschichtensammlung, deren Grundidee (Geister der Vergangenheit erzählen Gräuel verschiedener Epochen via Flashback o.Ä.) leider zu schnell zu repititiv wurde. Schade, da so die meisten Geschichten für mich schon jetzt, wenige Tage nach dem Lesen, nicht mehr richtig zu unterscheiden sind. Am besten hat mir die Titelgeschichte gefallen, mit dem Vereis auf die Macht des Erzählens bzw. Schreibens.
Mehr zum Buch in unserer ausführlichen Besprechung @ Papierstau Podcast: #283
Mehr zum Buch in unserer ausführlichen Besprechung @ Papierstau Podcast: #283
November 11, 2023
Sergej Lebedews übergreifendes Thema ist die Verdrängung und Vertuschung von Kriegsverbrechen der Sowjetunion. In „Der Himmel auf ihren Schultern“ hatte der Großvater des Erzählers nördlich des Polarkreises als Kommandant ein Arbeitslager geleitet. Als Geologe folgt er Jahrzehnte später den Spuren einer Gruppe von Häftlingen, an denen der Großvater sich schuldig gemacht hat,bis ins eisige Niemandsland.
Die Geister der Toten als Spuren hingerichteter Kriegsgefangener finden sich auch in Lebedews neuem Band mit Erzählungen. Zu kleinen Funden wie Knöpfen oder Münzen, die der Permafrostboden mit der Zeit an die Oberfläche zurücktransportiert hat, kommen in seinen Erzählungen symbolhaft Gebäude, in denen Gefangene zusammengetrieben, und Schauplätze, an denen sie hingerichtet wurden. Stimmen der Toten belagern Menschen der Gegenwart u. a. in ihrer abgelegenen Datscha, wo sie Abstand zu Widrigkeiten des Alltags erwartet hatten. Doch auch auf dem Land ist Korruption und gegenseitige Bespitzelung allgegenwärtig. Subbotnik, das gemeinsame Ramadama der Hüttenbewohner, ist noch der harmloseste Ausleger unerwünschter Nähe in der Sommerhaus-Kolonie. An anderer Stelle verkörpert die „Datscha“ im übertragenen Sinn die Stelle für Statistik und Beurteilungen, von der nahezu jeder Lebenslauf abhängt.
„Der Obelisk“ führt in eine von Sträflingen gerodete Gegend, in der selbst zivile Tote der Gegenwart in ihren Gräbern keine Ruhe finden vor Geschachere um Privilegien. Lebedews Figuren, die sich so penibel mit den Grabmählern der eigenen Familie befassen, ignorieren hier die Massengräber, auf denen sie errichtet sind. In „Abend eines Richters“ zeigt Lebedew einen Mann, den Ereignisse seiner Kindheit bis heute und bis auf den Richtertisch verfolgen. Er muss einsehen, dass das System eines Staates dessen Zusammenbruch überleben kann. „Antoniusfeuer“ zeigt aus der Sicht des Geldverleihers Batizki die Macht von Erinnerungsstücken, die zu Beweismitteln für Massenmorde an politischen Gegnern und ebenfalls zu Schatten der Vergangenheit werden könnten. Mit „Die Scheune“ aus der gleichnamigen Erzählung schlägt Lebedew einen Bogen zu Gebäuden und Brunnenschächten, die die Gebeine im Sumpf bis heute überdauern. Große Erinnerungen benötigen große Lagerräume. Diese generationenübergreifende Story lässt sich dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zuordnen.
In weiteren Geschichten beeindruckt Lebedew mit der stimmungsvollen Beschreibung des Nordlichts und mit Figuren, die an Rändern und Außenposten des ehemaligen Reichs eingesetzt sind: ein Funktionär, dessen einzige Auslandsreise nach Ägypten führt, ein Pilot, dessen Trauma seine Existenz bedroht, und der Zuständige für eine militärisch bedeutsame Weiche in der Steppe. Mehrfach scheint das Thema der Kränkung Einzelner in totalitären Systemen durch. Neue Seiten schlägt der Autor u. a. mit „Das kurze Й“ auf, den kyrillischen Buchstaben, der - gespiegelt - mich an das Sütterlin-I erinnert: Rauf-runter-rauf-Pünktchen oben drauf. Die Kurzgeschichte folgt Iwan, dessen Großmutter Professorin war; die Bedeutung ihrer jugoslawischen Schreibmaschine wird ihm erst spät klar. Für Iwan als Diener des russischen Wortes und der russischen Macht ist das i der russischste Buchstabe. Die modernste Geschichte "Die Sängerin auf der Brücke“ spielt im Nachwende-Berlin. So herausragend wie komplex finde ich „Titan“. Hier rührt der Nachlass vom Jugendfreund des Vaters Ereignisse der 30er Jahre auf und kann den Erben noch heute ins Gefängnis bringen.
Da sich Zeitebenen, Erinnerungen, Ängste und Alpträume vermischen, sind Lebedews Erzählungen oft schwer zeitlich einzuordnen. Laut Prolog beziehen sie sich auf Tschetschenien, Ukraine, Katyn und Berlin. Geschichte lässt sich nicht im Untergrund vergraben und zum Verschwinden bringen, das nehme ich als übergeordnetes Thema mit, das der Autor zu verschiedenen Kreisen kombiniert. Geschichten regionaler oder familiärer Traumata sind in diesem Band meist generationenübergreifend und fallen damit ins Raster der Epigenetik.
Die Geister der Toten als Spuren hingerichteter Kriegsgefangener finden sich auch in Lebedews neuem Band mit Erzählungen. Zu kleinen Funden wie Knöpfen oder Münzen, die der Permafrostboden mit der Zeit an die Oberfläche zurücktransportiert hat, kommen in seinen Erzählungen symbolhaft Gebäude, in denen Gefangene zusammengetrieben, und Schauplätze, an denen sie hingerichtet wurden. Stimmen der Toten belagern Menschen der Gegenwart u. a. in ihrer abgelegenen Datscha, wo sie Abstand zu Widrigkeiten des Alltags erwartet hatten. Doch auch auf dem Land ist Korruption und gegenseitige Bespitzelung allgegenwärtig. Subbotnik, das gemeinsame Ramadama der Hüttenbewohner, ist noch der harmloseste Ausleger unerwünschter Nähe in der Sommerhaus-Kolonie. An anderer Stelle verkörpert die „Datscha“ im übertragenen Sinn die Stelle für Statistik und Beurteilungen, von der nahezu jeder Lebenslauf abhängt.
„Der Obelisk“ führt in eine von Sträflingen gerodete Gegend, in der selbst zivile Tote der Gegenwart in ihren Gräbern keine Ruhe finden vor Geschachere um Privilegien. Lebedews Figuren, die sich so penibel mit den Grabmählern der eigenen Familie befassen, ignorieren hier die Massengräber, auf denen sie errichtet sind. In „Abend eines Richters“ zeigt Lebedew einen Mann, den Ereignisse seiner Kindheit bis heute und bis auf den Richtertisch verfolgen. Er muss einsehen, dass das System eines Staates dessen Zusammenbruch überleben kann. „Antoniusfeuer“ zeigt aus der Sicht des Geldverleihers Batizki die Macht von Erinnerungsstücken, die zu Beweismitteln für Massenmorde an politischen Gegnern und ebenfalls zu Schatten der Vergangenheit werden könnten. Mit „Die Scheune“ aus der gleichnamigen Erzählung schlägt Lebedew einen Bogen zu Gebäuden und Brunnenschächten, die die Gebeine im Sumpf bis heute überdauern. Große Erinnerungen benötigen große Lagerräume. Diese generationenübergreifende Story lässt sich dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zuordnen.
In weiteren Geschichten beeindruckt Lebedew mit der stimmungsvollen Beschreibung des Nordlichts und mit Figuren, die an Rändern und Außenposten des ehemaligen Reichs eingesetzt sind: ein Funktionär, dessen einzige Auslandsreise nach Ägypten führt, ein Pilot, dessen Trauma seine Existenz bedroht, und der Zuständige für eine militärisch bedeutsame Weiche in der Steppe. Mehrfach scheint das Thema der Kränkung Einzelner in totalitären Systemen durch. Neue Seiten schlägt der Autor u. a. mit „Das kurze Й“ auf, den kyrillischen Buchstaben, der - gespiegelt - mich an das Sütterlin-I erinnert: Rauf-runter-rauf-Pünktchen oben drauf. Die Kurzgeschichte folgt Iwan, dessen Großmutter Professorin war; die Bedeutung ihrer jugoslawischen Schreibmaschine wird ihm erst spät klar. Für Iwan als Diener des russischen Wortes und der russischen Macht ist das i der russischste Buchstabe. Die modernste Geschichte "Die Sängerin auf der Brücke“ spielt im Nachwende-Berlin. So herausragend wie komplex finde ich „Titan“. Hier rührt der Nachlass vom Jugendfreund des Vaters Ereignisse der 30er Jahre auf und kann den Erben noch heute ins Gefängnis bringen.
Da sich Zeitebenen, Erinnerungen, Ängste und Alpträume vermischen, sind Lebedews Erzählungen oft schwer zeitlich einzuordnen. Laut Prolog beziehen sie sich auf Tschetschenien, Ukraine, Katyn und Berlin. Geschichte lässt sich nicht im Untergrund vergraben und zum Verschwinden bringen, das nehme ich als übergeordnetes Thema mit, das der Autor zu verschiedenen Kreisen kombiniert. Geschichten regionaler oder familiärer Traumata sind in diesem Band meist generationenübergreifend und fallen damit ins Raster der Epigenetik.
April 17, 2023
A fascinating collection of short stories. Most of them seemed to be long, convoluted and mysterious stories that revolved around the harsh repressive government that controlled their lives in the Soviet Union. My favorite stories were: The Obelisk that began in a cemetery where grandfather Kostorotov had a plot. The story then follows the grandson Kostorotov throughout his life and eventually returns, full circle, back to the cemetery where he becomes a gravedigger and is obsessed with a black obelisk and the title story Titan about a man who becomes entangled with a writer called Titan who had been imprisoned for his writing. The man was under suspicion because his father had known Titan and so the son was suspected of having ties with him and was kept under surveillance by the government. Some of the stories seemed to meander through a wide range of situations and characters but all were extremely well written.
January 20, 2024
Bis auf die Erzählungen "Abend eines Richters" und "Titan" konnten mich die Storys, die die unbarmherzige und verborgene Weiterexistenz des Vergangenen in dem Mantel der Gegenwart zum Thema haben, nicht abholen.
November 12, 2023
Die ganze Rezension im Papierstau Podcast lässt sich unter folgendem Link finden:
Link zur Folge
Link zur Folge
April 19, 2023
These eleven short stories continue Lebedev's explorations of history, memory, evil, and survival, glowing with his mysterious, mystical imaginings. Antonina Bouis's beautiful translation makes me wish I read Russian to better appreciate how she chose the perfect word "crackling" to evoke the rags of charred and torn flesh and skin of dead soldiers on a train. Or Lebedev's sense of an eerily derelict barn, "filled up with emptiness, thick, fermented to the point that it was no longer emptiness but the presence of absence."
Objects - often buildings - are powerful presences, trapping various men (the characters are overwhelmingly male) in their histories from which they cannot escape: a judge is haunted by a stray dog who birthed puppies under the porch of his childhood home; an obsolete carved ivory holder for calling cards; the strange resident of (or, more properly, under) a cluster of dachas; a red typewriter used to spew propaganda across the bordering Socialist Republics; commandants of the Kremlin and Lubyanka and Stalin's own dacha still imprisoned by the shadows of the places even after The Boss is gone; the book never written by a disgraced writer; the manager of an isolated train station; a carefully secured embassy undermined by the existence of a plaza, a religious group, and a song. I confess to utter bewilderment at some of the stories, but the magnetism of Lebedev's language and imagery (his experience as a geologist shows here, with rocks and mountains imbued with meaning and sometimes menace) kept me reading.
I'm glad Lebedev lives in Berlin now. Even as he writes with a focus on the Soviet era, his evocations of a nation gone horribly wrong surely put him at risk in today's Russia, as we watch history repeating itself. A powerful voice and magnificent writer.
Objects - often buildings - are powerful presences, trapping various men (the characters are overwhelmingly male) in their histories from which they cannot escape: a judge is haunted by a stray dog who birthed puppies under the porch of his childhood home; an obsolete carved ivory holder for calling cards; the strange resident of (or, more properly, under) a cluster of dachas; a red typewriter used to spew propaganda across the bordering Socialist Republics; commandants of the Kremlin and Lubyanka and Stalin's own dacha still imprisoned by the shadows of the places even after The Boss is gone; the book never written by a disgraced writer; the manager of an isolated train station; a carefully secured embassy undermined by the existence of a plaza, a religious group, and a song. I confess to utter bewilderment at some of the stories, but the magnetism of Lebedev's language and imagery (his experience as a geologist shows here, with rocks and mountains imbued with meaning and sometimes menace) kept me reading.
I'm glad Lebedev lives in Berlin now. Even as he writes with a focus on the Soviet era, his evocations of a nation gone horribly wrong surely put him at risk in today's Russia, as we watch history repeating itself. A powerful voice and magnificent writer.
January 16, 2023
This anthology of stories written during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, can be very mixed in it's approach to the lingering affects to the people and culture of Russia. Most of the stories are written from the perspective of people reimagining what happened at different places and at different times. Would there have been different outcomes had there not been a dictatorship in place when they happened or did they happen because a dictatorship was in place.
I think that how you see these stories has a lot to do with the times you lived in and through. It takes your memories and skews them in ways you don't expect in comparison to what you remember.
I think that how you see these stories has a lot to do with the times you lived in and through. It takes your memories and skews them in ways you don't expect in comparison to what you remember.
October 17, 2023
Obiecywano mi cuda na kiju, dostałem pop-Twardocha, lękliwego i grającego w sumie na czterech akordach, bez startu do Pielewina czy Sorokina w dobrej formie. Pewnie nie byłbym tak rozczarowany, gdyby właśnie nie hypemeni, dziękuję, koleżanki i koledzy. (A panu Lebiediewowi również podziękuję, powieści w tej manierze bym nie zdzierżył).
October 15, 2023
Bez zastanowienia ta najwyższa nota. Finaliści Angelusa w tym roku byli wyjątkowo mocni, ale literacko “Tytan” nie sobie równych. Tu jest wszystko, co w SL najlepsze: język, wyobraźnia, konfrontacja przeszłości z teraźniejszością, kapitalne wyczucie aktualnych wydarzeń. Rzecz niezwykła.
February 26, 2024
This is a collection of short stories. Usually collections are tricky, because the stories aren´t always on the same level, they´re often uneven. Here we have a good selection of good stories.
It´s not easy to describe them, they touch different subjects, problems and aspects of life. These stories seem to focus on a human being living, yet struggling in a modern Russia. I feel like some of the stories aren´t easy to understand, as if I have missed something important, but I am unable to tell what. Overall it´s an enjoyable read.
It´s not easy to describe them, they touch different subjects, problems and aspects of life. These stories seem to focus on a human being living, yet struggling in a modern Russia. I feel like some of the stories aren´t easy to understand, as if I have missed something important, but I am unable to tell what. Overall it´s an enjoyable read.
October 25, 2023
Es handelt sich um Erzählungen eines russischen Schriftstellers.
Erfreulicherweise erfüllt dieses Buch das angekündigte Thema der nicht aufgearbeiteten Schuld der Vergangenheit, die dadurch auch auf die Gegenwart ausstrahlt.
Das zeigt exemplarisch schon die erste Erzählung Abend eines Richters. Das Winseln eines Hundes bewirkt bei einem korrupten Richter einen Flasback. Er erinnert sich an eine Schandtat seiner Jugend.
Es sind düstere Geschichten. Das verwundert bei dem Thema nicht.
Oft wird das Gefühl der Bedrohung transportiert.
Nicht jede Erzählung hat mir zugesagt, unbedingt erwähnenswert ist aber die brillante Titelgeschichte Titan. Darin bewundert der Icherzähler, ein junger Mann, einen Schriftsteller, der im Gulag war. Der Eindruck einer allumfassenden Verfolgung durch die Diktatur wird beklemmend vermittelt.
Für mich ist Sergej Lebedew eine Entdeckung.
Erfreulicherweise erfüllt dieses Buch das angekündigte Thema der nicht aufgearbeiteten Schuld der Vergangenheit, die dadurch auch auf die Gegenwart ausstrahlt.
Das zeigt exemplarisch schon die erste Erzählung Abend eines Richters. Das Winseln eines Hundes bewirkt bei einem korrupten Richter einen Flasback. Er erinnert sich an eine Schandtat seiner Jugend.
Es sind düstere Geschichten. Das verwundert bei dem Thema nicht.
Oft wird das Gefühl der Bedrohung transportiert.
Nicht jede Erzählung hat mir zugesagt, unbedingt erwähnenswert ist aber die brillante Titelgeschichte Titan. Darin bewundert der Icherzähler, ein junger Mann, einen Schriftsteller, der im Gulag war. Der Eindruck einer allumfassenden Verfolgung durch die Diktatur wird beklemmend vermittelt.
Für mich ist Sergej Lebedew eine Entdeckung.
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