Little Jinx

by Andrei Sinyavsky, Larry P. Joseph (Translation), Rachel May (Translation)

Little Jinx is a canny mockery of the Soviet world. Its author, Andrei Sinyavsky, a respectable member of the USSR's Institute for World Literature, was exposed in 1965 as the real author of a series of irreverent essays and fantastic tales that had been circulating under the nom de plume Abram Tertz. After five years in a labor camp he immigrated to Paris. Little Jinx is the tale of a man named Sinyavsky, a literary hack and runt who clumsily survives repression and anti-Semitism but also brings misery to those around him. When this "little jinx" inadvertently causes the death of his five brothers, he is consumed by a guilt that seems universal in his society.

Genres: Russia, Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky was a Russian writer and a literary critic. He was a Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial of 1965.

Russian: Андрей Донатович Синявский
Pen name: Абрам Терц
Pen name in English: Abram Tertz

Reviews

[Phaedrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about every other year. It's one of my favorites.

The plot is a little difficult to parse; it is about a child who, through mistakes in his speech and ability to communicate, is responsible for the death of his 5 brothers. But the book is *really* about the power of the writer to create and destroy through language, communication, and intent.

The language of Little Jinx is careful and interesting... the overall effect is very very Russian. Tertz is a Soviet-era writer who writes obliquely to obscure his message, but the language itself is not guarded. He has an unbridled enthusiasm for language itself, and this book is almost a self-referential poem of the writing process. A wonderful read if you're willing to take the chance.

[Erich C · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, a sick neighbor causes a speech impediment, a pediatrician steals souls for the devil and reappears 50 years later as a sales clerk, and the best thing about a marriage is a cabinet with "Hoffmanesque legs." No, this isn't a teaser; reading the book won't tell you why. Cause and effect, time, and other features that are helpful to creating meaning in a narrative are abandoned. Its absurdity is "a canny mockery of the Soviet world" according to the introduction, but the dedication "To Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's radiant memory" should have warned me that this canny mockery is not for me.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russian's are darker than Nigerians.

[Suzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Russian books read while I was busy not majoring in Russian Literature. About a man who accidentally has a hand in his five brothers' deaths or doesn't, is unlucky or is blamed for everything and also about the Soviet Union. Written by a non-Jewish man under the pseudonym of a Jewish gangster. If you know about the history of antisemitism in the USSR, you will know, A BOLD THING TO DO.

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