В книге представлено собрание прозы Татьяны Толстой: эссе «Зверотур», более двадцати рассказов и роман «Кысь», за который автор была удостоена премии «Триумф». «Кысь» — актуальная антиутопия, страшная и прекрасная сказка о гибели нашей цивилизации, о мутировавших горожанах, дичающих в радиоактивных лесах, но главное — о деградации языка, все еще узнаваемого, но уже малопонятного.
Tatyana Tolstaya (Татьяна Толстая) was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. As the great-grandniece of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy and the granddaughter of Alexei Tolstoy, Tolstaya comes from a distinguished literary family; but, according to Marta Mestrovic's interview in Publishers Weekly with the author, she hates ‘‘being discussed as a relative of someone.’’
Still, Tolstaya's background is undeniably one of culture and education. Her father was a physics professor who taught her two languages, and her maternal grandfather was a well-known translator.
Mixed feelings. My love of the narrative voice here knows no bounds – the mangled language of the post-apocalypse, with its folksiness and childlike awkwardness, the seamless move from an omniscient collective to each of the characters, the dreamy (for Slavic lit nerds) interweaving of fairy tales and poetry, the visceral punch of the horror and the many, many lolworthy moments (the sour cream beauty treatment.. slayed me)...
But for most of the way, this was a beautiful premise desperately lacking a strong plot to drive it forward. And when plot finally appears on the scene, it sucks away all the wit and whimsy and turns this into a predictable and increasingly cartoonish political allegory.
It helps, I suppose, to have the context that Tolstaya began writing this in 1986; I had hoped, I guess, for some of the changes in the world since then to be reflected here, since the finish date was 2000. I didn't expect or particularly enjoy ending up in the same enchanted circle of revolutions and monstrous tyrants that Russian intellectuals have been obsessed with since the 19th century.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
У Татьяны Никитичны потрясающий язык, невероятная структура текста. И все рассказы о чем-то близком, родном, о том, что за стеной, что у нас на кухнях, но при том все так сюрреалистично. Очень понравились рассказы. Очень умно, грамотно и красиво написано.
Стиль и язык на отлично, вроде как сказку для взрослых прочитал. Сюжет временами немного затянут, но довольно интересно. Тонкий юмор, сарказм и ирония прекрасно дополняют друг друга.
It seemed like a promising start in the first half, but ultimately, something was missing and there was no real spark to continue to the end... So, I skimmed through it and moved on.