Elu nullpunkt

by Peet Vallak, Heino Puhvel (compiler)

Käesolev valimik Peet Vallaku (1893-1959) loomingust annab ülevaate meie kirjandusklassiku novelliloomingust, mida iseloomustavad peale virtuoosliku vormikäsitluse teisedki aegumatud kvaliteedid, nagu eredad karakterid, stiilne reaalsuse ja groteski põimumine ning rikkalik, peamiselt huumorisse kalduv koomiline element.

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Gertrud Soone]

vallak kirjutab väga kaasakutsuvalt. kuigi novellide sisu on loost loosse sarnane & maalähedane, on selles siiski midagi paeluvat.

[LightIssues]

Probably just in a bad mood atm, maybe again a victim of my various neuroses re: nationalism and Estonia, but--these are not bad, almost compulsively readable, but there's a certain sadness to me that a nation could consider *this* to be among its finest prosaic achievements, separate from the inherent patheticism of ascribing artistic works to "the Nation" and/or "the People" in the first place this is just not the kind of stuff you'd want to do that with. Most interesting when Vallak allows for a sense of ambiguity, maybe even contradiction, or when he's focusing on mood and atmosphere, much less when he's aiming, as he so consistently is, for simple clear-cut moralism presented through simple clear-cut types existing entirely for their thematic purpose, often infused with a boring sort of traditionalism and small-minded self-consideration; the way in which he responds to criticisms of being concerned with the lower classes via his fiction is especially embarrassing in the explicit, polemical tone that's somehow still a little stupid in its correct aims. For a person so critical of modern art as the avenue of the incompetent and the cheaters, he's certainly no successful adherent to representing reality as it is either. Whatever lol.