Chekhov's Mistress
Tony Wood on Daniil Kharms
Tony Wood gives us a nice overview of Daniil Kharms in the London Review of Books. He begins:
“We are clearly in a fictional world very different from our own, in which curious old women are in infinite supply, and seemingly made of glass. The narrator’s yawning nonchalance towards these events only underlines the distance separating our world from his, where death is cartoonish and commonplace rather than traumatic or terrifying. It is the world of Daniil Kharms, a Russian writer whose work – predominantly written in the Soviet Union in the 1930s – contains countless comic reversals, fantastical or nonsensical outcomes, as well as outbursts of unmotivated violence. Occasionally his characters simply die out of the blue: ‘One day Orlov stuffed himself with mashed peas and died. Krylov, having heard the news, also died. And Spiridonov died regardless. And Spiridonov’s wife fell from the cupboard and also died. And the Spiridonov children drowned in a pond.’ ‘Characters’ is perhaps too strong a word for these unfortunates: we are given no idea of who Orlov, Krylov or Spiridonov are, just the fact of their demise.”
It’s interesting to see Kharms getting a fair amount of press for a long-dead author of writing that probably has a limited audience (who does that remind you of?), and as much as I like Kharms’ work, I’m not entirely sure it’s warranted. What I would like to see is more 20th century Russian work. I’ve seen it written that post-Soviet writing has been relatively weak with the obvious cause being lack of oppression (stimulating as some good ol’ oppression is), but something tells me, intuition maybe, that that’s not entirely true. There must be some post-perestroika Bulgakovs out there. Anyone have suggestions?
comments
try erofeev’s moscow to the end of the line
– (06/01 at 08:56 PM)
“Moscow to the End of the Line” is fantastic, but I don’t think Erofeev counts as post-Perestroika. He died in 1990 and “Moscow..” was written in the ‘60s. In any case, it’s a very good reading recommendation. I wish I could offer a post-Perestroika writer to check out, but unfortunately I’m not up on recent stuff, though I’ve read many good things about Vladimir Sorokin.
– (06/12 at 06:39 PM)
Thanks, since making this post I’ve been browsing around Words Without Borders to find some current Russian writers as well.
– Bud Parr (06/16 at 10:59 AM)
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: May 14, 2008
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
- Comments:3
- Links to this Post: Technorati
