russian literature post-1991: search & destroy.

What's a good place to start with Pelevin, Gareth? I reckon reading an obscure yet accessible new Russian author will be just the ticket for my post-beard sexy intellectual makeover.

the first book of his i read was Babylon. i would start with either this or The Clay Machine Gun (i have no idea why the english translation is called this - the straight translation should be Chapaev and Emptiness, go figure). these are better to start with than the earlier books, which aren't as fleshed out (feel like practice runs). don't bother with Omon Ra (is ok if you like the others but...)

i think his great skill is his accessibility, despite the fact that you could construe him as 'difficult', it doesn't actually feel that way. as for his obscurity, i'm confused about that. in russia his books have sold 100,000 (although i don't know if this is a lot?). quite a few of his books have been translated into english and seem easy to get hold of, but nobody seems to mention him, so i'm never really sure how well known he is.

Sheesh, Gareth, this is going to be a popular topic. ;)

I can't actually recommend anything I've read because this is all based on stuff I've got that I'm PLANNING to read. Eventually, etc. etc. And some of it is in Russian which makes it all that much harder for me since my Russian's not quite up to snuff.

Andrei Bitov is supposed to be quite good - Pushkin House. I get the impression he may seem a little more traditional than Pelevin, though reportedly he's quite literarily daring, etc.

Viktor Erofeev. No books to recommend, I don't know them. I've got an anthology of conteporary writing which he edited, though. I think he also helped publish the 'Metropol' anthology of new writers in the 70s - not just dissident Soviet stuff. I'm helping a prof of mine with a biographical article on Erofeev soon, apparently he is the enfant terrible of contemporary Russian lit.

You might also try seeking out some of the anthologies like Carl Proffer's "Contemporary Russian Prose" - it was contemporary in 1981, but features writing of the sort of I think you're looking for, with a bit of traditional Soviet stuff thrown in for completeness. Includes all of Sasha Sokolov's novel(a) "A School for Fools". It was published by Ardis, which I think has since gone out of business, so I don't know if you could find it new or not.

been reading bulgakovs the master and margarita, and can certainly see how it influenced pelevin, the same detached irony, distanced magic realism i guess.

has anyone read Dombrovsky?

i just realised that when i say 'anyone' in this context, i mean josh or ambrose don't i?

I have, but I don't like to talk about it.

hmm. Master and Margharita = classic. i spurn all literature written after 1970 though :)

i saw an iskander book the other day, didn't pick it up. maybe i should have done?

Never heard of Dombrovsky, sorry Gareth. What's his deal?

i've had far too little sleep to be coherent here (hopefully tomorrow?), so i'll just say that the clay machine gun is one of the best things i've read in AGES. i think i might buy babylon later today.

You could try Venedikt Yarofeev, he's not post Soviet exactly, he was published around the late 70's. Moscow to the End of the Line (sometimes called Moscow Circles i think) is excelent in the traditonal Russian vodka drinking, poverty stricken, sackcloth wearing philosopher way. There's also Evgeny Popov, not read him myself, but heard good things.

"There is a sort of writing common among stylish Russians of the nineties, often called “surrealism” or “black humor.” You could, with equal justice, call it “Bulgakov without the good eye for detail” or “Mamleev lite.” Whenever the author is stumped for a plot-turn, a good helping of grotesque death or magic realism rescues the story from the loss of momentum which inevtiably plagues writing so profoundly uninterested in the world around it. It can be done well - I must confess that Pelevin does it pretty well sometimes. But it is all too often done very badly, in that way that makes you think, “It must have been funny the first time around - that is, in 1840.”"

anyone read garros-evdokimov?