 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Jurij Andruchowycz Review … Andrukhovych is a master at making the reader a part of his tale. As each character stumbles into increasingly surreal surroundings, the reader is transported into the scenes with them. Nemyrych and Shtundera, each in his own way, discovers a part of the past in this little village of Chortopil. It is a past that is dark, even frightening. Martofliak grapples with alcoholism and Khoma with personal loyalty. Unlike many authors who don't seem to know how to write a good ending, Andrukhovych builds the tension in crafty increments, sustaining the readers' interest right to the end and then wallops you with a crescendo that frankly caught me completely off guard. Andrukhovych leaves you wanting more, which is just as it should be. Let's hope his other novels, Moscoviad: A Horror Novel (1993) and Perversions (1996) are translated into English as soon as possible… [Zdorov! Fall 1998, Recreations: A review by Yuriy Diakunchak] … If you’re looking for international writing free of the obvious touchstones of contemporary Western lit, Eastern Europe is a good place to start. This year’s modest IFOA crop includes Russian expatriate Andrei Makine and Ukrainian postmodernist Yuri Andrukhovych. Makine (who lives in Paris and now writes in French) was the first writer to win both of France’s major literary awards—the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Medici —for the same book, a lyrical (and politically frank) autobiographical novel entitled d Dreams of My Russian Summers (since translated into 25 languages). Makine takes the stage Oct. 30 (with Canadian anthologist Alberto Manguel), reading from his new novel, Once Upon the River Love, a coming-of-age story set in a depressed Siberian village. Ukrainian poet Andrukhovych’s controversial satirical novel, Recreations, bears the scars of the Ukrainian cultural revival that accompanied that country’s independence referendum in the late '80s. Lively and experimental, the novel plays no favorites in lampooning Ukrainian history, its misguided recent surge of nationalism and the author’s own literary pretensions… [Kevin Connolly, www.eye.net, 09.24.98]
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
© 1998-2000 Czarne Publishers |
Site Design by Insomnia |