Иван Бунин. Жизнь наоборот (ЖИЛ)

by Дмитрий Воденников

"…Однажды зимним морозным утром я понял, что начну тоже с холода, только парижского: когда упал первый ком земли на крышку гроба Бунина на неожиданно по-русски ледяном ноябрьском кладбище. А потом начну отматывать всё к началу. «Жизнь наоборот». Через старость, болезнь, мировую славу, эмиграцию, потрясения, революцию, третью любовь, вторую, первую. И так до истока.
И когда только что появившийся на свет ребенок закричит, книга и закончится.
И тогда мы начнем всё сначала". (Дмитрий Воденников)

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2025

Reviews

[Twyrink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Дмитрий Воденников's Иван Бунин. Жизнь наоборот starts with Bunin's funerals. The poet seems to be talking with Bunin (with surprising dignity and respect/without overwhelming familiarity), but upon further reading I realise that the poet talks - via Bunin - with death themselves. This is not a typical biography (along the lines of "he lived, he wrote, he died"), but some sort of poetry.

This poetry is like weaving: a thread of Bunin's death, of Bunin's life, of his works, of his peers' works, of Bunin's infamous opinions about his peers' works and personalities, of their everyday life, of our everyday life, even a thread of the poet's own life.

There're obviously some shortcomings. 1) Some remarks about Anna, Bunin's first wife, seem cruel. Other remarks about Bunin's other wives and girlfriends are also cruel. 2) Galina Kuznetsova's lover's gender is not mentioned, but is hinted at. 3) Vodennikov rightfully quotes Vasily Rosanov: "Никакой человек не достоин похвалы; всякий человек достоин только жалости," when he is describing the life of the Russian elite in the period of Russian Revolutions of 1917. I pity them. Unlike Leo Tolstoy (one of the very few people Bunin didn't despise), they are not aware that the narod is suffering, starving and being killed in the imperial wars. Revolution is not a natural disaster. In this poetry Bunin lives in a soup-like substance, and sometimes he's disturbed by a spoon of outside world/politics. (He even, like Tolstoy, visited Lucerne in Switzerland! But, unlike Tolstoy, he didn't pay attention to the poor singer and inequality of society. Well, not everybody is as great as Leo Tolstoy :) Once again, that's not a history book, not a traditional biography, so I concede.

Может быть, Бунин самый двоякосмотрящий зверь в русской литературе? Были же, есть двоякодыщащие рыбы. Вот Бунин и есть такой двоякосмотрящий тиктаалик русской прозы.