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It's Time
This is a book about all the magical new things that you can discover if you're brave enough to break out of your boring routine and take a fresh look at the world around you. But this is also a story about love. Passionate, selfless love. That may seem ridiculously naive in today's world... So be it. It's a book about how, whatever trials life may have in store for you, if at heart you are a romantic, if you know how to love, then everything will work out. An artist's novel, a journey of life, street art and magic, a story written by the city itself and by the street-artists living there. Our heroes are both ordinary and extraordinary young romantics, they use their life and art to express new ideas. The story follows a group of street artists, not unlike Banksy, Ben Eine, Cityzen Kane, C215, Roa. These characters are secretive. They live in their own world with their own philosophy and outlook on life. But how does one become such urban romantic? We see a freedom seeking artist in Pavel's new novel, we see his journey, his adventures, his dilemmas and his choices. What would you choose? The comfort of daily routine or the free spirit of art? For Pavel's characters this becomes a question of life and death.
260 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 31, 2013
Yep, time to bin this absolute non-event!
Why did I do it? It seemed a good idea at the time and the book – vaguely interesting; particularly after reading the extravagant claims – made by the author. Perhaps I’ll write down my random thoughts interspersed between brief accounts of my day during which I do nothing more interesting than encounter various uninteresting friends and associates and a mysterious and intriguing woman with whom I share philosophical musings and who keeps vanishing and then reappearing at odd times: is she real? Perhaps I’ll even succeed in getting it published and dupe gullible people into reading it by making, even though it has nothing remotely resembling an actual story, extravagant claims for its contents. Perhaps I’ll succeed in getting it published if I make it surreal enough people won’t have a clue what it’s all about and take the safe option and believe that I’m a genius – just in case.
Dire.
Why did I do it? It seemed a good idea at the time and the book – vaguely interesting; particularly after reading the extravagant claims – made by the author. Perhaps I’ll write down my random thoughts interspersed between brief accounts of my day during which I do nothing more interesting than encounter various uninteresting friends and associates and a mysterious and intriguing woman with whom I share philosophical musings and who keeps vanishing and then reappearing at odd times: is she real? Perhaps I’ll even succeed in getting it published and dupe gullible people into reading it by making, even though it has nothing remotely resembling an actual story, extravagant claims for its contents. Perhaps I’ll succeed in getting it published if I make it surreal enough people won’t have a clue what it’s all about and take the safe option and believe that I’m a genius – just in case.
Dire.
December 8, 2022
I received this book free from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.
This is the story of Max. We first meet Max sitting on the edge of a roof, contemplating suicide. Lady F appears to talk to him. It isn't clear who or what Lady F is: a hallucination, a guardian angel, a ghost. She seems to magically appear when Max needs her. She gives him some cryptic advice that always help him, if he can decipher it.
His friend Viktor is a photographer. His friends Mutt, Linda, Torte, and Tanya are all street artists. They have some very philosophical and thought-provoking conversations.
It seems that the story is about nothing inparticular until about the last 200 pages. That is when things come together. And if you look back you realize that everything was leading you to this conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and recommend it to everyone.
This is the story of Max. We first meet Max sitting on the edge of a roof, contemplating suicide. Lady F appears to talk to him. It isn't clear who or what Lady F is: a hallucination, a guardian angel, a ghost. She seems to magically appear when Max needs her. She gives him some cryptic advice that always help him, if he can decipher it.
His friend Viktor is a photographer. His friends Mutt, Linda, Torte, and Tanya are all street artists. They have some very philosophical and thought-provoking conversations.
It seems that the story is about nothing inparticular until about the last 200 pages. That is when things come together. And if you look back you realize that everything was leading you to this conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and recommend it to everyone.
May 25, 2012
I received this book free from Library Thing’s Early Reviewer Programme.
It’s a different sort of book, as are most Russian books in my experience. It is recounted by Max, who has a job as a night watchman, while his friends are street artists. Lady F. seems to be a sort of guardian angel. She appears unexpectedly, comforts him, saves his life apparently at times and disappears again.
I have to say that nothing much seems to happen in most of the book. Max has strange, abstract, philosophical conversations with his friends with apparently no content to them. The book is hard to read because of this lack of content and action and not much of a plot, if any (at any rate, at the start of the book).
I do appreciate, however, that the author (and Max) is aware of nature: Max is “in the moment” through his observation of and love of nature and the city in which he lives. The city seems to have a personality of its own – it is alive too.
Max is a lonely sort of character, and there is talk about how other people are not really needed in one’s life. One of Max’s friends walks through the city literally never noticing anyone else, so for him it is as though the city is deserted.
I note that some of the other reviewers of the book gave up on getting through it – I am persistent, so I kept on.
Eventually, things begin to happen – the plot unfolds, and we understand that Max is a troubled soul and why this is.
This book is translated from the Russian. It is mostly absolutely well-written (I’m talking about the English version of course), but there are several spelling/grammatical mistakes and typos. Perhaps this is because, it being an early reviewer copy, the book hasn't been finally revised. I know that many nowadays use the word “me” instead of “I” when speaking, but in the written form it irritated me always to be reading such things as “Me and Oxana went a walk”, though I suppose the translator is trying to give us an adequate translation of the Russian text.
The book includes interesting drawings/portrayals of city art/graffiti.
Sometimes I felt that the writer’s understanding of life was akin to mine, that he understood that life included other realms and dimensions than those generally accepted, but at other times I felt that the book was imbued with a limited, negative viewpoint of life.
In conclusion, if you want to read a different sort of modern Russian novel, try this one, but you may find it frustrating and wonder where it is going and what it is all about.
It’s a different sort of book, as are most Russian books in my experience. It is recounted by Max, who has a job as a night watchman, while his friends are street artists. Lady F. seems to be a sort of guardian angel. She appears unexpectedly, comforts him, saves his life apparently at times and disappears again.
I have to say that nothing much seems to happen in most of the book. Max has strange, abstract, philosophical conversations with his friends with apparently no content to them. The book is hard to read because of this lack of content and action and not much of a plot, if any (at any rate, at the start of the book).
I do appreciate, however, that the author (and Max) is aware of nature: Max is “in the moment” through his observation of and love of nature and the city in which he lives. The city seems to have a personality of its own – it is alive too.
Max is a lonely sort of character, and there is talk about how other people are not really needed in one’s life. One of Max’s friends walks through the city literally never noticing anyone else, so for him it is as though the city is deserted.
I note that some of the other reviewers of the book gave up on getting through it – I am persistent, so I kept on.
Eventually, things begin to happen – the plot unfolds, and we understand that Max is a troubled soul and why this is.
This book is translated from the Russian. It is mostly absolutely well-written (I’m talking about the English version of course), but there are several spelling/grammatical mistakes and typos. Perhaps this is because, it being an early reviewer copy, the book hasn't been finally revised. I know that many nowadays use the word “me” instead of “I” when speaking, but in the written form it irritated me always to be reading such things as “Me and Oxana went a walk”, though I suppose the translator is trying to give us an adequate translation of the Russian text.
The book includes interesting drawings/portrayals of city art/graffiti.
Sometimes I felt that the writer’s understanding of life was akin to mine, that he understood that life included other realms and dimensions than those generally accepted, but at other times I felt that the book was imbued with a limited, negative viewpoint of life.
In conclusion, if you want to read a different sort of modern Russian novel, try this one, but you may find it frustrating and wonder where it is going and what it is all about.
April 7, 2012
I have always felt a certain kinship with eccentric characters in books, those outside society’s mainstream, and this novel is teeming with them. Protagonist and narrator Max leads a life uncluttered by modern concerns (family... career...making as much money as possible). His life is low-tech, he has time to admire the details of his surroundings, observe impressive sunsets, hang around on the beach, sit on roofs. He ruminates on a variety of philosophical topics as the book progresses. I also rather liked Victor, a man given to photographing random bits of road which, to others, are devoid of interest. A man for whom the Turner Prize might have been invented. But perhaps my favourite character was Пёс (‘Dog’, according to my translation, and he wouldn’t be the only one with a bizarre name) who doesn’t feel as though he needs other people and has given up seeing them, to the point of colliding with strangers in the street. An introvert’s introvert. I would have liked to see much more of him (though I am dubious as to his suitability to own a driving license).
Characters were the best element of this novel for me, yet the plot holds a strand of magic that keeps the reader interested, wanting to know how it will resolve itself. Max trundles through life, under the influence of a mysterious redhead who appears in a waft of ozone, giving him bizarre pieces of advice, and introducing a touch of the paranormal. I was reminded constantly of Jostein Gaarder’s ‘Sophie’s World’, in the sense that both books create seemingly inexplicable mysteries, and the reader is curious to know how the author will explain them away, and how far from our reality he will have to stray to do so.
To give away the ending would be criminal, but suffice it to say I guessed part of it, by no means all of it, and it’s one of those novels that, as soon as you finish reading it you want to go back to the beginning and read it again, view it through the filter of those final sections. Its time-line feels kind of circular, and such a re-reading natural under the circumstances.
In all, it’s a highly spiritual read, surprisingly touchy-feely for a male author, and a book that I suspect can be read on many different levels. Almost certainly, there were subtleties I missed. But its frequent section breaks allow it to make many different points, so the reader cannot help emerging with food for thought.
Characters were the best element of this novel for me, yet the plot holds a strand of magic that keeps the reader interested, wanting to know how it will resolve itself. Max trundles through life, under the influence of a mysterious redhead who appears in a waft of ozone, giving him bizarre pieces of advice, and introducing a touch of the paranormal. I was reminded constantly of Jostein Gaarder’s ‘Sophie’s World’, in the sense that both books create seemingly inexplicable mysteries, and the reader is curious to know how the author will explain them away, and how far from our reality he will have to stray to do so.
To give away the ending would be criminal, but suffice it to say I guessed part of it, by no means all of it, and it’s one of those novels that, as soon as you finish reading it you want to go back to the beginning and read it again, view it through the filter of those final sections. Its time-line feels kind of circular, and such a re-reading natural under the circumstances.
In all, it’s a highly spiritual read, surprisingly touchy-feely for a male author, and a book that I suspect can be read on many different levels. Almost certainly, there were subtleties I missed. But its frequent section breaks allow it to make many different points, so the reader cannot help emerging with food for thought.
May 2, 2012
I won this book via LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
To me, this book is Perks of Being a Wallflower meets Fight Club. Except instead of wallflowers and fighting and anarchy, it’s street art and expression and youth.
Max is the main character and his friends are street artists. Max claims he has no artistic talent. He frequently meets this woman named Lady F. She gives him advice, however cryptic and saves his life with that advice a few times. Max can’t figure out if she’s real. He talks about life and what he wants out of it and discusses philosophy and the meaning of life and meaning of art with his friends, usually while they paint. And then, Max discovers that he can’t remember anything from before. So he is on a personal quest to discover what is wrong with him.
If you are into art, street art, freedom of expression, youth revolting against something they can’t quite define, the whole movement of young people trying to become something without fitting the mold of society kind of thing, you’ll love this book. It captures that whole… mentality… quite nicely.
I was trying to figure out why I didn’t love this book and I think it’s merely because I don’t like street art. I don’t like the reasoning behind street art, the act of graffiti, however nice, or the entire movement. And so all the lovely philosophies and discussions and revelations in this novel didn’t really resonate with me. Not my thing, even though I love most all other kinds of art.
Overall, it was well written, interesting, thought provoking, and good.
http://meganm922.blogspot.com/2012/05...
To me, this book is Perks of Being a Wallflower meets Fight Club. Except instead of wallflowers and fighting and anarchy, it’s street art and expression and youth.
Max is the main character and his friends are street artists. Max claims he has no artistic talent. He frequently meets this woman named Lady F. She gives him advice, however cryptic and saves his life with that advice a few times. Max can’t figure out if she’s real. He talks about life and what he wants out of it and discusses philosophy and the meaning of life and meaning of art with his friends, usually while they paint. And then, Max discovers that he can’t remember anything from before. So he is on a personal quest to discover what is wrong with him.
If you are into art, street art, freedom of expression, youth revolting against something they can’t quite define, the whole movement of young people trying to become something without fitting the mold of society kind of thing, you’ll love this book. It captures that whole… mentality… quite nicely.
I was trying to figure out why I didn’t love this book and I think it’s merely because I don’t like street art. I don’t like the reasoning behind street art, the act of graffiti, however nice, or the entire movement. And so all the lovely philosophies and discussions and revelations in this novel didn’t really resonate with me. Not my thing, even though I love most all other kinds of art.
Overall, it was well written, interesting, thought provoking, and good.
http://meganm922.blogspot.com/2012/05...
May 3, 2012
I received this book through LibraryThing as an advanced reading copy. I wasn’t really sure what it was about when I first requested to read it, and after reading it, I’m still not entirely sure what it was that I read. It seemed to make little sense, plot-wise, and I have no idea what in the book was real and what was simply a hallucination of the main character. It jumps around in time and in space, so it’s hard to follow throughout the entire thing. Plus, the ending was completely unresolved.
That being said, I did enjoy the book. It was very stream-of-consciousness – Max, the main character, does a lot of philosophical musing, and therefore his narration brings up some very poignant ideas about life, art, and our place in the universe. In the book, he falls into a crowd of street artists, who take it upon themselves to spread their art throughout their city – which is somewhere in Russia, I presume. I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of the beauty of their art against the gritty background of the urban environment. The book greatly focuses on aesthetics, and that idea certainly came through in the text.
Reading the book, which is very lyrical in it’s prose style, was calming and thought-provoking. Plus, it was interesting to read, even though I didn’t really know what was going on throughout most of it. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. I can’t really judge how well anyone else would like it either, because it’s such a strange novel, but I personally would give it two or three out of five stars.
-Tara
That being said, I did enjoy the book. It was very stream-of-consciousness – Max, the main character, does a lot of philosophical musing, and therefore his narration brings up some very poignant ideas about life, art, and our place in the universe. In the book, he falls into a crowd of street artists, who take it upon themselves to spread their art throughout their city – which is somewhere in Russia, I presume. I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of the beauty of their art against the gritty background of the urban environment. The book greatly focuses on aesthetics, and that idea certainly came through in the text.
Reading the book, which is very lyrical in it’s prose style, was calming and thought-provoking. Plus, it was interesting to read, even though I didn’t really know what was going on throughout most of it. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. I can’t really judge how well anyone else would like it either, because it’s such a strange novel, but I personally would give it two or three out of five stars.
-Tara
May 6, 2012
I received this book thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
There are a lot of layers in this book in which eveyone can find something, and an interesting end that makes you want to read the book again.
The story elements - the narrator and his friends and their lives in a city (modeled on Kaliningrad) and street art are well written. The psychology of the characters is very well crafted, each person is interesting. Moreover, Max, the protagonist, sees life in a different way. The story often gives way to long philosophical/metaphysical passages, about life, death, love, art, friendship, fate, the city... Each of these themes are important to me so I enjoyed it. And when you come from a big city yourself this book really speaks to you.
Moreover, something is happening to Max, adding another layer to the book and leading us to the end of the story.
The only drawback in my opinion would be the editing, for instance there was a passage when Max is with Mutt, but 10 lines after it is Torte...
So I would warmly recommend It's Time, if you're not afraid of metaphysical passages and books that challenge you, it's a real page turner.
There are a lot of layers in this book in which eveyone can find something, and an interesting end that makes you want to read the book again.
The story elements - the narrator and his friends and their lives in a city (modeled on Kaliningrad) and street art are well written. The psychology of the characters is very well crafted, each person is interesting. Moreover, Max, the protagonist, sees life in a different way. The story often gives way to long philosophical/metaphysical passages, about life, death, love, art, friendship, fate, the city... Each of these themes are important to me so I enjoyed it. And when you come from a big city yourself this book really speaks to you.
Moreover, something is happening to Max, adding another layer to the book and leading us to the end of the story.
The only drawback in my opinion would be the editing, for instance there was a passage when Max is with Mutt, but 10 lines after it is Torte...
So I would warmly recommend It's Time, if you're not afraid of metaphysical passages and books that challenge you, it's a real page turner.
July 4, 2012
"...If you are looking for something a little off-beat and don't mind a slower start to a book, or even if you're just looking for something that's more under the radar, I'd recommend giving this one a go. It's definitely not a novel for everyone, though. It's marketed as a kind of urban romance, but it feels more like Romanticism romance than any kind of lovey dovey type of romance..."
For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger:
http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2...
For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger:
http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews