За руските книги

[Dodo]

I simply must have this discussed, because there are lots of outstanding Russian books undeservedly forgotten, but mostly because the damn war in Ukraine is also a war on books.

Don`t know about Bulgaria, but in Lithuania, and quite a few other countries, hating Putin has evoked hate towards everything Russian, including language and books. No, Russian books, whether source or translation, have not (as yet?) been banned outright. Bans provoke curiosity, so bans still leave hope. Things are much worse. Russian books are just quietly disappearing from libraries and bookstores; publishers simply shy off translating and publishing books written by Russian authors, even though the authors be confirmed pacifists... and so on.

But neither the language nor the books are pro-Putin! I do believe it`s a crime to force people to think so. And No, I`m not a Russian; I`m a Lithuanian and an ingrained Balt. Makes me ashamed to see my compatriots gone crazy with hate...

I`d like to tell you about some wonderful Russian books, only I`m not quite sure where do I start. Besides, I would not want this thread merged into another thread, because this is a distinct separate topic. Therefore I beg of Mods and Admins to remove this altogether rather than merge. Thank you sincerely!

Meantime, here`s a RU quote:

Порядочный человек – публичная пощечина обществу.
Евгений Лукин

The EN for that would, more or less, go: "A honest person is a slap in the face of society"...

[Кал]

Being the merge-itchy moderator here, I'll honor your request. I only moved the topic to this subforum, because Книгите is for the books in the Human Library series.

I know where I would like you to start: by telling us about Russian books that 1) are new--written in the past 10 or at most 20 years; 2) have won your heart and mind.

But you can start wherever your heart and mind tell you.

P.S. As for older Russian books, my response to Туманность Андромеды turned into an almost-essay.

[Dodo]

Being the merge-itchy moderator here, I'll honor your request.

Thank you!

I know where I would like you to start: by telling us about Russian books that 1) are new--written in the past 10 or at most 20 years; 2) have won your heart and mind.

I`d dearly like to start with a Russian writer that could, in a certain sense, be considered Russian Pratchett, but I`m afraid that would take up too much time and space. So I`d better start with something crazy but beautiful. I have already bothered you about that particular author, but "Сказки Старого Вильнюся" by Макс Фрай being really unique, I think it would be not much of a sin to repeat myself...

The review to be found here: https://readaholicme.weebly.com/tales-o ... lnius.html , and here`s something about the author. Макс Фрай is the pen-name of Светлана Мартынчик, a Ukrainian writing in Russian living in Vilnius, Lithuania. I mean, I think she`s still living in Vilnius, but I`m not sure, what with "Russians Go Home" in vogue... and Oh My here I am back at things unpleasant, instead of talking things beautiful... So I`d better stop.

Still, here`s a quote I particularly like:

Захотеть что-то забыть – самый простой способ затвердить это наизусть. Даже удивительно, что до сих пор никто не додумался применять этот метод для изучения иностранных языков.
Макс Фрай

It comes from the Tales. I`m sorry I cannot offer you a translation - simply too hot to do any half-decent one. This heat wave will be the end of me...

[Dodo]

Cold shower and cold beer, and I can continue.

Макс Фрай most translated is the Echo series. "Лабиринты Эхо", written together with Игорь Стёпин (at the beginning the pen-name covered both writers; now it`s Светлана Мартынчик by herself) is available in EN, too; the EN title is "The Strangers Magic", and here`s a review on that: http://max-frei.net/knigi/the-stranger- ... iy-yazyik/

The book(s) is (are) not bad, but I still like "Tales" much better. Those are unique.

Then there`s yet another "face" of Макс Фрай. "Полный няпиZдинг" is a sort of diary, or essays, or something quite different, and of course crazy in a fascinating way. The title is untranslatable, and even if translated more or less accurately it would be not quite printable. But the important thing, nowadays, is this: the Latin letter in the title has nothing to do with the Z and V stolen by Putler for his war (While at that, I do wonder: should he steal ALL Latin alphabet, would we ban all the letters and start using hieroglyphs or something, or just stop writing altogether?). For one, the book was written way before the war started; for two, the author is neither pro-Putin nor pro-war.

I both like and dislike the book. It surely is worth reading. I`ve only managed to find some few reviews, or rather comments, in Russian, so I don`t think I should post links to those here. Still, I can offer an excerpt: https://readaholicme.weebly.com/they-win.html

But the question I really need answered is this: Do Bulgarian people also try to oust everything Russian, books included? It was one of the reasons that made me start this thread. Could/would anybody here enlighten me on that? Thanks!

[Dodo]

Another Russian writer I`d like to recommend is Святослав Логинов. He`s a SF writer, first and foremost, and his SF is OK (some outstanding things, too, like, say, "Свет в окошке" https://readaholicme.weebly.com/lit-little-window.html ), but it`s not his SF that I absolutely love. I do love his "Kitchen Essays"!

Here`s a man that does know his food! I believe his essays would send various dietitians and Healthy Food Prophets screaming; I suspect junk food fans would not like his recipes much, either. But, loving good and tasty things myself, I do declare: his culinary recipes (only those are not mere culinary recipes but something quite else, most probably unique) are rather Poems Singing Tasty Things than "kitchen essays"...

Years ago, I got a birthday present, a tiny booklet on pancakes. A wonderful present, but also sadistic. The process of making and eating simple pancakes described in such a way you do not know whether to read on or rush to the kitchen and grab a griddle...

For those that can read Russian, here`s a link: https://kuking.net/8_256.htm

A warning, though. Read at your own risk!

[Radiant Dragon]

But the question I really need answered is this: Do Bulgarian people also try to oust everything Russian, books included? It was one of the reasons that made me start this thread. Could/would anybody here enlighten me on that? Thanks!

As far as I'm aware, there has been no widespread "witch hunt" on Russian things (or people) around here, at least in the social circles I frequent. Admittedly, those circles are quite limited in number, but the overwhelming majority of my friends find it absurd to negate or "cancel" outright anything based solely on the behavior of a select few [people in power]. Also, this doesn't extend only to Russian people and culture, but to all peoples and cultures. In this regard I'm lucky to have quite cosmopolitan friends.

[Dodo]

As far as I'm aware, there has been no widespread "witch hunt" on Russian things (or people) around here, at least in the social circles I frequent.

Thanks, Dragon! No, we have no outright witch hunt here, either. It`s just soft but powerful ousting, accompanied by occasional hysteric outbursts from "masses", a certain part of "masses", to be precise. I find that more dangerous... Oh well, rather than whine, I`ll tell you about yet another Russian author.

Евгений Лукин could be, in a sense, at least, compared with Terry Pratchett. Of course, different environments produce different authors, and where Pratchett is ironic Лукин is sarcastic, yet something I cannot quite put my finger on makes the two akin.

I must admit not everything written by Лукин is outstanding. But quite a few books are, the Баклужино-Лыцк series in particular. Here`s the link to one of those: https://readaholicme.weebly.com/the-sca ... rtorg.html

The writer has been silent for at least a decade, alas. While at that, many interesting Russian authors seem to have stopped writing, or maybe being published. Makes me uneasy. I suspect a war on Russian books is being waged in Russia, as well... Sad.

Somehow, this reminds me of a verse from "Sylvie and Bruno" by Lewis Carroll ( https://readaholicme.weebly.com/sylvie-and-bruno.html ):

Little Birds are writing
Interesting books,
To be read by cooks:
Read, I say, not roasted -
Letterpress, when toasted,
Loses its good looks.

[Dodo]

There`s also this to Russian language and Russian, or, to be more precise, Soviet literary/cultural outlook: many a national literature, bar (plus?) the Big Five, has been popularized thanks to Russian/Soviet literary politics (I`m not sure if "politics" is the right term, but that`s of no crucial importance, in this case). Of course and sadly, that`s no longer so...

The Big Five, EN in particular, prefer to stew in their own literary juice, so, except for the rare cases of some book written in some "unimportant" language making a scandal, or some author/nation coming into vogue for certain (usually political) reasons, which sometimes triggers off translating that particular book/author/national literature, they generally shun translating the "unimportant" into their languages, EN in particular. Back in the late USSR, it used to be quite the other way round. We used to have books, especially books for children, translated from every language imaginable, even languages unheard of in most other countries.

Bulgarian, of course, is not unheard of. Still, books translated from Bulgarian (or Lithuanian, for that matter) seem to happen very seldom, nowadays...

In my home library, all the translations from Bulgarian, like, say, a SF "Blue Butterflies" by Pavel Vezhinov, some Bulgarian folk-tales, some collected Bulgarian humorescues 1904-1982, "Bay Ganyo" by Aleko Konstantinov (there must be more, but rummaging among my thousands of books for them seems to be a task I`m not feeling equal to right now) were all translated, into either RU or LT, back in the USSR. None translated from Bulgarian during the last "independent" decades in my country. I suppose things might still be different in Russia, but I suspect not much better over there, as checking new translations into Russian seems to produce, with rare exceptions, translations from the Big Five mostly, EN first.

EN and the rest of the Big Five are perfectly OK, still I find that sad...

[Dodo]

Here`s another excerpt ( https://readaholicme.weebly.com/they-win-2.html ) from another book I have already mentioned ( https://readaholicme.weebly.com/the-sca ... rtorg.html ). The book, I think I`ll never get tired of repeating, is well worth translating, but I`m afraid it will never be translated. Simply because any dictatorship will find themselves mirrored too aptly.

The book has been translated into Polish, but Poles have always been a bold lot, so that`s rather the exception proving the rule.

While at that, I`m not sure whether any Russian copies are still available in Russia...

I must beg your kind pardon for the quality of the translation; I do know no decent literary translator should translate from their B to their C. Still, of the two evils choose the lesser, they say...

[Dodo]

I am damn disappointed again! Why would authors ridicule miracles of their own creation by writing sequels not half as good?

Well, in this particular case, it`s rather a "semi-sequel". But the important thing is, should the Тяжелый свет Куртейна by Макс Фрай https://readaholicme.weebly.com/readaho ... sappointed have nothing to do with the Tales of Old Vilnius, the book (books, because there are several of them as well) would be perfectly OK! Just some Science Fiction well worth reading.

But using the City and most of the persons from the Vilnius series in this totally different series is very disappointing, and that it is!

Might have to do with the phenomenon of only forgiving those you are indifferent to but never those important to you...