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On the Golden Porch
Thirteen stories--by the first woman in years to rank among Russia's most important writers--celebrate courage and the will to endure among the people who live on the periphery of society but who dream with a redeeming passion.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
198 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
18 people are currently reading
805 people want to read
About the author
Tatyana Tolstaya
56 books298 followersTatyana 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 29, 2024
[Edited 1/29/24, spoilers hidden]
A collection of thirteen short stories translated from the Russian. The author is distantly related to Tolstoy (a great-grand-niece).
In Loves Me, Loves Me Not, two little girls reflect back on their ugly nanny and how much they hated her.
In Sweet Shura, a woman in her late 80’s tells a young visitor about her three husbands. But mostly she regrets the road not taken. At one time she bought a train ticket to leave one of her husbands to join a lover waiting for her at a distant station.
In Okkervil River a young bachelor lives mostly alone; his only pleasure is listening to old records. He falls in love with the voice of an old singer. Then he finds out that she is still alive and living in his city.
In the title story, On the Golden Porch, a woman visits a neighbor’s house that she remembers as magical as a child and finds her dreams destroyed.
A few stories are fantasies. In A Clean Sheet, an older man has a wife and a lady friend but just can’t shake his depression. A friend he meets daily in a bar tells him he just needs to change his attitude. Eventually the friend tells him of a doctor who will perform an under-the-table operation to cure him by 'extracting something.'
Several stories are incredibly depressing. In Sonya, an ugly, stupid woman, who is a good babysitter, is taken advantage of all her life by her so-called friends. Around the time of the siege of Leningrad the friends came up with a joke, writing love letters to her from a man who was crippled from the waist down. Sonya falls in love and the 'correspondence' goes on for years.
Peters is about a boy raised as if were an adult by his grandmother. He has never had a friend or a social life. He gets a job as a librarian and that social pattern continues his whole life.
There is good writing:
“Many times, 104-degree flus would scream and bang at my ears, banging on red drums, surrounding me from eight sides and, swirling widely, project a delirious film, always the same: a wooden honeycomb filling up with three-digit numbers; more numbers, louder noise, more urgent drums…”
“Ignatiev did not know how to cry, and so he smoked.”
“If a person is dead, that’s for a long time; if he’s stupid, that’s forever.”
“At sixty, fur coats get heavy, stairs grow steep, and your heart is with you day and night.”
Good writing and quite original stories. But no one will ever call this collection a 'fun read.' Many of these stories are also included in another collection of shorts by this author that I read: White Walls by Tatyana Tolstaya. (NYRB Classics,2007) Paperback
Photo of Kirov, Russia by Ilya Buyanovsky from russiatrek.org
Photo of the author from pravdareport.com
A collection of thirteen short stories translated from the Russian. The author is distantly related to Tolstoy (a great-grand-niece).
In Loves Me, Loves Me Not, two little girls reflect back on their ugly nanny and how much they hated her.
In Sweet Shura, a woman in her late 80’s tells a young visitor about her three husbands. But mostly she regrets the road not taken. At one time she bought a train ticket to leave one of her husbands to join a lover waiting for her at a distant station.
In Okkervil River a young bachelor lives mostly alone; his only pleasure is listening to old records. He falls in love with the voice of an old singer. Then he finds out that she is still alive and living in his city.
In the title story, On the Golden Porch, a woman visits a neighbor’s house that she remembers as magical as a child and finds her dreams destroyed.
A few stories are fantasies. In A Clean Sheet, an older man has a wife and a lady friend but just can’t shake his depression. A friend he meets daily in a bar tells him he just needs to change his attitude. Eventually the friend tells him of a doctor who will perform an under-the-table operation to cure him by 'extracting something.'
Several stories are incredibly depressing. In Sonya, an ugly, stupid woman, who is a good babysitter, is taken advantage of all her life by her so-called friends. Around the time of the siege of Leningrad the friends came up with a joke, writing love letters to her from a man who was crippled from the waist down. Sonya falls in love and the 'correspondence' goes on for years.
Peters is about a boy raised as if were an adult by his grandmother. He has never had a friend or a social life. He gets a job as a librarian and that social pattern continues his whole life.
There is good writing:
“Many times, 104-degree flus would scream and bang at my ears, banging on red drums, surrounding me from eight sides and, swirling widely, project a delirious film, always the same: a wooden honeycomb filling up with three-digit numbers; more numbers, louder noise, more urgent drums…”
“Ignatiev did not know how to cry, and so he smoked.”
“If a person is dead, that’s for a long time; if he’s stupid, that’s forever.”
“At sixty, fur coats get heavy, stairs grow steep, and your heart is with you day and night.”
Good writing and quite original stories. But no one will ever call this collection a 'fun read.' Many of these stories are also included in another collection of shorts by this author that I read: White Walls by Tatyana Tolstaya. (NYRB Classics,2007) Paperback
Photo of Kirov, Russia by Ilya Buyanovsky from russiatrek.org
Photo of the author from pravdareport.com
April 28, 2018
A collection of short stories by Tatyana Tolstaya and yes she is a descendant of Tolstoy. The stories are as follows:
Loves Me, Loves Me Not
Okkervil River
Sweet Shura
On the Golden Porch
Hunting the Woolly Mammoth
The Circle
A Clean Sheet
Fire and Dust
Rendezvous with a Bird
Sweet Dreams Son
Sonya
The Fakir
Peters
A wonderful set of stories about ordinary people their hopes, fears, wants and illusions and as one reviewer put it, “bittersweet melancholy”. The stories are atmospheric and reminded me more of Chekov than Tolstoy. There is humour and warmth here as well even along with the disillusionment. The characters are well developed and drawn and there are sagas of the loss of dreams, unspoken love, loss of identity and the struggle to survive. There is also a touch of magic realism suffusing some of the stories, but it is a very Russian variety. In Rendezvous with a Bird a boy is waiting for the death of his grandfather. Death comes in the form of a bird, but Tolstaya’s touch is light:
“The dark garden rose and fell like the ocean. The wind chased the Sirin bird from the branches: flapping its mildewed wings, it flew to the house and sniffed around, moving its triangular face with shut eyes: is there a crack?”
The writing style is a delight to read, this is a description of a hairdressers:
“..stiff green sabres grew hilt-down out of large pots, and photographs of bizarre creatures with unpleasant glints in their eyes stared from the walls under incredible hair - towers, icing, rams' horns; or ripples like mashed potatoes in fancy restaurants.”
The stories are populated by the well-meaning people who often delude and deceive themselves with theirs hopes and dreams, trying to avoid mundane reality. People with bleak lives and rapturous imaginations. There is inevitably sadness and disillusion and some of the stories are in their own way heart-breaking. I really enjoyed these stories; they were moving and very human.
Loves Me, Loves Me Not
Okkervil River
Sweet Shura
On the Golden Porch
Hunting the Woolly Mammoth
The Circle
A Clean Sheet
Fire and Dust
Rendezvous with a Bird
Sweet Dreams Son
Sonya
The Fakir
Peters
A wonderful set of stories about ordinary people their hopes, fears, wants and illusions and as one reviewer put it, “bittersweet melancholy”. The stories are atmospheric and reminded me more of Chekov than Tolstoy. There is humour and warmth here as well even along with the disillusionment. The characters are well developed and drawn and there are sagas of the loss of dreams, unspoken love, loss of identity and the struggle to survive. There is also a touch of magic realism suffusing some of the stories, but it is a very Russian variety. In Rendezvous with a Bird a boy is waiting for the death of his grandfather. Death comes in the form of a bird, but Tolstaya’s touch is light:
“The dark garden rose and fell like the ocean. The wind chased the Sirin bird from the branches: flapping its mildewed wings, it flew to the house and sniffed around, moving its triangular face with shut eyes: is there a crack?”
The writing style is a delight to read, this is a description of a hairdressers:
“..stiff green sabres grew hilt-down out of large pots, and photographs of bizarre creatures with unpleasant glints in their eyes stared from the walls under incredible hair - towers, icing, rams' horns; or ripples like mashed potatoes in fancy restaurants.”
The stories are populated by the well-meaning people who often delude and deceive themselves with theirs hopes and dreams, trying to avoid mundane reality. People with bleak lives and rapturous imaginations. There is inevitably sadness and disillusion and some of the stories are in their own way heart-breaking. I really enjoyed these stories; they were moving and very human.
August 10, 2024
Lev Adolfovich, sempre irónico, franzia os lábios, erguia as sobrancelhas e abanava a cabeça, as lentes muito finas dos óculos cintilando. 'Se uma pessoa morre, é por muito tempo; mas se uma pessoa é estúpida, é-o para sempre!'
-Sonya
Tatiana Tolstoi escreve muitíssimo bem e não envergonha os seus antepassados. Expressando-se com muitos laivos de humor e crítica social, mas também com melancolia e piedade, cria personagens excêntricas, desencantadas e decadentes de uma forma muito convincente e transporta-nos para ambientes tipicamente russos, com as dachas e os apartamentos onde vivem várias famílias. Ainda assim, houve alguns contos de “O Alpendre Dourado e Outras Histórias” em que dei por mim distraída e pouco interessada, porque a autora, por vezes, parece não conseguir refrear a sua criatividade e acaba por enveredar por caminhos surrealistas em histórias que pediam talvez mais realismo. “Doce Chura”, “Sonhos Felizes, Meu Filho”, “Sonya” e “Peters” foram os meus preferidos desta compilação.
Durante o Outono, Peters sentia um prazer imenso em odiar a sua cidade natal, e a cidade pagava-lhe na mesma moeda: cuspia-lhe água gelada dos telhados, enchendo-lhe os olhos de gotas opacas, escuras, punha-lhe charcos especialmente cheios e profundos debaixo dos pés, batia-lhe no rosto míope, no chapéu de feltro e na barriga com chicotes de chuva. Os viscosos prédios que iam contra Peters estavam propositadamente cobertos de finos cogumelos cor de pérola e de um veludo musgoso e tóxico, e o vento que vinha das estradas enormes frequentadas por ladrões, andava à volta dos seus pés húmidos, fazendo oitos cadavéricos, tuberculosos.
-Peters
-Sonya
Tatiana Tolstoi escreve muitíssimo bem e não envergonha os seus antepassados. Expressando-se com muitos laivos de humor e crítica social, mas também com melancolia e piedade, cria personagens excêntricas, desencantadas e decadentes de uma forma muito convincente e transporta-nos para ambientes tipicamente russos, com as dachas e os apartamentos onde vivem várias famílias. Ainda assim, houve alguns contos de “O Alpendre Dourado e Outras Histórias” em que dei por mim distraída e pouco interessada, porque a autora, por vezes, parece não conseguir refrear a sua criatividade e acaba por enveredar por caminhos surrealistas em histórias que pediam talvez mais realismo. “Doce Chura”, “Sonhos Felizes, Meu Filho”, “Sonya” e “Peters” foram os meus preferidos desta compilação.
Durante o Outono, Peters sentia um prazer imenso em odiar a sua cidade natal, e a cidade pagava-lhe na mesma moeda: cuspia-lhe água gelada dos telhados, enchendo-lhe os olhos de gotas opacas, escuras, punha-lhe charcos especialmente cheios e profundos debaixo dos pés, batia-lhe no rosto míope, no chapéu de feltro e na barriga com chicotes de chuva. Os viscosos prédios que iam contra Peters estavam propositadamente cobertos de finos cogumelos cor de pérola e de um veludo musgoso e tóxico, e o vento que vinha das estradas enormes frequentadas por ladrões, andava à volta dos seus pés húmidos, fazendo oitos cadavéricos, tuberculosos.
-Peters
December 17, 2015
4.5/5
Tolstaya's frame of reference is, as it was in the masterful The Slynx, the mating of imagination and reality. Neither is the nicer one, for the former is depression, fear, the worst breed of lie, while the latter is cold, starvation, and the unthinking forging ahead that keeps the means of thought blooded and bleeding. Child, woman, man, all follow a line between fate and fiction in their respective lives that all too often leads to the banal dead end.
Tolstaya's frame of reference is, as it was in the masterful The Slynx, the mating of imagination and reality. Neither is the nicer one, for the former is depression, fear, the worst breed of lie, while the latter is cold, starvation, and the unthinking forging ahead that keeps the means of thought blooded and bleeding. Child, woman, man, all follow a line between fate and fiction in their respective lives that all too often leads to the banal dead end.
Petya was given a large bowl of rice porridge; a melting island of butter floated in the sticky Sargasso Sea. Go under, buttery Atlantis. No one is saved. White palaces with emerald scaly roofs, stepped temples with tall doorways covered with streaming curtains of peacock feathers, enormous golden statues, marble staircases going deep into the sea, sharp silver obelisks with inscriptions in an unknown tongue—everything, everything vanished under water.What keeps it moving is the prose, an irreverent mix of internal and exterior that manages, despite the constant trend between thirteen stories, never to drown the eye in its lush enclosure. Scenes with every sight and sound and scent and texture are set in a single sentence, thoughts unravel into the mundane walk through the grimy streets and envelop it up again, people puppet themselves along their half-won dreams and half-hearted reticence, much as any mortal yearns for flight and loathes to chance the plunge. Sometimes, though, unseen and unsearched, the cliff comes up under their feet, and the change in train or word, death or life, simpering nobody or used-to-be somebody, shoves them on their unknown way.
The untouched whiteness stretched, stretched, smoothly turned the corner: and on the corner, a Venetian window filled with pink light; and within it, Isolde lay awake listening to the unclear blizzard melody in the city, to the dark winter cellos.My favorite of the thirteen was "A Clean Sheet", the clearest illustration of what price the empathetic, sick with their blossoming yearning, often think they'd be willing to pay for its excision. Venerated as psychopathy is by the patriarchy, it is not for everyone.
He liked the dull spot in his solar plexus. It was boss.
October 2, 2015
The first thing that jumps out at me about Tolstaya is the sheer dynamism of her voice. She's not as manic as Miranda July, because she's more strategic about when to turn the mania off and switch to some serious lyricism (check out the title story, whose fluctuations in energy are pretty powerful), but it's still the sort of thing that might put a reader not used to the torrent-of-words style that strikes me as the dominant thing of the past several decades off. The second thing that jumps out at me is how great Tolstaya is at using her manic voice as a way of concealing sadness, which is just around the corner of all these stories. Check out how stories like "Sweet Dreams, Mom," "Date with a Bird" or "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" will turn with no warning from jokes to intense and overwhelming loneliness. This is great, great stuff, even though the child's voice she uses sometimes can get a little too sophisticated for me to believe it as a kid, even though the truth is I didn't care much for either "Peters" or "The Fakir." It's all balanced out by the power of a couple of these; "A Clean Sheet" has one of those endings that'll wreck you if you're not ready, "Fire and Dust" has a beautifully realized creepy-fairy-tale quality to it, and my favorite, "Okkervill River" is a sad & gorgeous exercise in empathy centered around characters lesser writers would brush off as pathetic. She'd only get better with the Slinx, and I'll admit sometimes the narrative momentum gets lost, but for prose and strength of characters, this is a great and occasionally enviable debut.
July 13, 2016
A few words to describe this wonderful, dark short story collection; original, compelling, evocative, rich, creepy, mysterious, startling, overwhelming, claustrophobic, and important.
April 27, 2008
Tolstoya is the best least known Russian author today, and this first collection from her is perfect. I heard about her writing from the band Okkervil River, their name taken from a story in this volume. I trusted their judgement, finding them literary folk- to my great pleasure.
This is swirling, elegant, depair riddled reading..dreamlike and beautiful, haunting even. There is no real way to talk about this collection without simply spewing adjectives everywhere, but this is truly well thought out, evocative literature. The best review came from a friend I recommended this to: "Makes me love literacy, and fear its lack."
This is swirling, elegant, depair riddled reading..dreamlike and beautiful, haunting even. There is no real way to talk about this collection without simply spewing adjectives everywhere, but this is truly well thought out, evocative literature. The best review came from a friend I recommended this to: "Makes me love literacy, and fear its lack."
June 1, 2007
Everyone must read this book. I met her once, and she was dreadful.
May 17, 2011
I didn't get what was going on at all but it was all so pretty. Kind of like Russia.
May 5, 2021
DNF. Just couldn't get into these stories. I wanted to hear a Russian voice but I felt I was reading another writer from the MFA club... the authenticity wasn't there.
March 8, 2024
This is a bilingual review.
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Как и во всяком сборнике, здесь есть более и менее удачные рассказы; к счастью, среди первых попадаются настоящие жемчужины. Например, рассказ, давший имя всей книге, берёт за душу бесконечно правдоподобной картиной утраченного детства. На самом деле я вовсе не хотел быть взрослым!.. Поздно.
Как ни странно, рассказы похуже портит тот же самый стиль, который делает лучшие лучшими. Видимо, сюрреализм надо отмерять с точностью до грамма, ошибёшься - и уже не пошло. Толстая вообще любит заменять человека на набор странностей, а это работает не всегда.
Читать строго по одному. Возможна передозировка и побочные эффекты.
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Each story collection is, by definition, uneven: some stories are good, others not so much. This collection has definite gems. Such as the titular story - what a picture of childhood lost! Now I have grown up, I know I never wanted to...
The less fortunate entries suffer from the imbalance of the same traits which make the better ones beautiful. Tolstaya is a bit prone to make a set of quirks stand for characterization of a person, and the surreality does get out of hand sometimes.
To be read strictly one at a time. You don't want an overdose.
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Как и во всяком сборнике, здесь есть более и менее удачные рассказы; к счастью, среди первых попадаются настоящие жемчужины. Например, рассказ, давший имя всей книге, берёт за душу бесконечно правдоподобной картиной утраченного детства. На самом деле я вовсе не хотел быть взрослым!.. Поздно.
Как ни странно, рассказы похуже портит тот же самый стиль, который делает лучшие лучшими. Видимо, сюрреализм надо отмерять с точностью до грамма, ошибёшься - и уже не пошло. Толстая вообще любит заменять человека на набор странностей, а это работает не всегда.
Читать строго по одному. Возможна передозировка и побочные эффекты.
----------------------------------------------
Each story collection is, by definition, uneven: some stories are good, others not so much. This collection has definite gems. Such as the titular story - what a picture of childhood lost! Now I have grown up, I know I never wanted to...
The less fortunate entries suffer from the imbalance of the same traits which make the better ones beautiful. Tolstaya is a bit prone to make a set of quirks stand for characterization of a person, and the surreality does get out of hand sometimes.
To be read strictly one at a time. You don't want an overdose.
Read
August 9, 2022Tolstaya is one of The Big Deals in contemporary Russian Lit & this is collection of short stories is a lovely explanation of why. This could make me sound weird but I’m generally quite disturbed by short stories because when I try to remember them I’m unsure if they were something I read or dreamt. Anyway these should be studied all over Tolstaya’s command of multiple voices within even sentences is something so rare there’s not an english writer I can think of today that’s on similar lines.
Tales of all ages she’s excellent on working with Imagination for tales on children & she also treats old age rather well. Married life is chaos and murderous which I think is just realism
Tales of all ages she’s excellent on working with Imagination for tales on children & she also treats old age rather well. Married life is chaos and murderous which I think is just realism
August 22, 2007
I love her writing - after living in Russia, I find that few writers sum up the ecstasy of being, the chaos, and the mundane of Russian life like Tatianna Tolstaya. She has the voice of a freight train filled with brightly colored jelly beans.
May 19, 2023
A fantastic writer in both long-form and short-form. It always takes me longer to get through short story collections for some reason.
I may post actual thoughts on some of my favourites at some point.
I may post actual thoughts on some of my favourites at some point.
December 9, 2023
I had vaguely heard of Tolstaya and was planning to read 1-2 stories from this collection, but I ended up reading the whole book.
Tolstaya has a very unusual style--prose poetry, is that a thing?--especially in stories like on On Golden Porch. And that's good, too, because at face value her stories sound pretty banal: A lonely man gets rejected by women. A woman feels life is passing her by. Children are mean to their nanny. And so on. Tolstaya's writing, humor, wit and sharp observation really elevate most of these stories, even if occasionally she gets carried away for a few pages with baroque metaphors.
Some of the stories touch on Soviet life in a very lighthearted way (communal apartments, black market clothing sales, bard singer-songwriters), but most are very universal and topical, so you don't need to know much a ton about Russia or the USSR to enjoy them.
In fact, I liked most of these stories so much that I'm going to review them all:
-Peters: Dissecting the life of an incel. Pretty timely, eh? Lazy ending, though.
-Okkervil River: A man's infatuation with an obscure singer takes a...turn.
-Sweet Shura: Shopworn topic about lost love, but told in a funny, entertaining way.
-On the Golden Porch: Looking back at one's childhood, read this one for the lovely, complicated language.
-Fakir: A very funny story with a bit of a catfishing theme, satire of Soviet life.
-Fire and Ashes: Similar to Fakir, some laughs at unfortunate Soviet realities but also a great character sketch of the frenemy who lives in your mind rent-free.
-Sweet Dreams Son: Very moving story about a man's (imaginary) search for his long-lost mother.
-Sonya: Sentimental and cruel story set to the backdrop of the siege of Leningrad.
-Hunting the Woolly Mammoth: Woman is stuck in forever girlfriend situation.
-Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The cruelty of children.
-Rendezvous With a Bird: Another sharp story about childhood and death.
-The Circle: One of the few stories I didn't love.
-Clean Sheet: ...along with Clean Sheet, my least favorite in the collection.
Tolstaya has a very unusual style--prose poetry, is that a thing?--especially in stories like on On Golden Porch. And that's good, too, because at face value her stories sound pretty banal: A lonely man gets rejected by women. A woman feels life is passing her by. Children are mean to their nanny. And so on. Tolstaya's writing, humor, wit and sharp observation really elevate most of these stories, even if occasionally she gets carried away for a few pages with baroque metaphors.
Some of the stories touch on Soviet life in a very lighthearted way (communal apartments, black market clothing sales, bard singer-songwriters), but most are very universal and topical, so you don't need to know much a ton about Russia or the USSR to enjoy them.
In fact, I liked most of these stories so much that I'm going to review them all:
-Peters: Dissecting the life of an incel. Pretty timely, eh? Lazy ending, though.
-Okkervil River: A man's infatuation with an obscure singer takes a...turn.
-Sweet Shura: Shopworn topic about lost love, but told in a funny, entertaining way.
-On the Golden Porch: Looking back at one's childhood, read this one for the lovely, complicated language.
-Fakir: A very funny story with a bit of a catfishing theme, satire of Soviet life.
-Fire and Ashes: Similar to Fakir, some laughs at unfortunate Soviet realities but also a great character sketch of the frenemy who lives in your mind rent-free.
-Sweet Dreams Son: Very moving story about a man's (imaginary) search for his long-lost mother.
-Sonya: Sentimental and cruel story set to the backdrop of the siege of Leningrad.
-Hunting the Woolly Mammoth: Woman is stuck in forever girlfriend situation.
-Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The cruelty of children.
-Rendezvous With a Bird: Another sharp story about childhood and death.
-The Circle: One of the few stories I didn't love.
-Clean Sheet: ...along with Clean Sheet, my least favorite in the collection.
December 4, 2018
This book is so brilliant and funny, I put every other book aside to finish it, and ordered another by her: Pushkin's Children. Because I knew, after reading the Golden Porch, that whatever thoughts Tolstaya shares about Russians and Russian history will be keenly observant and honest about the good and the bad. Of course, that would require a separate review. As to '. . . Porch,' one seldom reads such a rambunctiously funny book without becoming annoyed. Tolstaya knows how to modulate her voice and imagination with wisdom, and down-to-earth observation -- all deftly rendered so the reader enjoys a sense of participation rather than feeling like a captive audience to the author's self-love. There is none of the latter, but plenty of love for humans in these pages, even if the writer sees and depicts all our foibles. For one thing, I feel quite sure that she includes herself in these observations -- her observed self no truly wonderful writer ignores in favor of self-protection or self-promotion. That is what makes her a good one to read in non-fiction commentary on her society, too.
January 6, 2026
Excelente. Excelente demais, mesmo. Três contos foram extremamente fortes para mim, alguns um pouco menos memoráveis, mas ainda bons, mas um conto para mim foi tão... inexplicavelmente desfuncional que me fez dar 4 estrelas e não 5. Como eu (quase) sempre leio os contos fora da ordem cronológica, esse foi o quinto ou sexto, "O Fáquir" me impressionou tão negativamente que eu pensei que esse era um livro de contos 3 estrelas - obviamente estava errado, porque logo li dois dos contos extremamente fortes e me fez relembrar o quão potente é a escrita da Tolstaia. Ela usa uma linguagem não muito simples, mas também não muito complexa, só que mesmo essa escrita "do meio" não a impede de elaborar imagens e cenas cheias de significado, carregada de floreios e construções diferentes. O ritmo dos períodos também é um estudo intenso, ela sabe quando alongar os períodos e sabe quando usar frases curtas, um equilíbrio fenomenal. Sabendo disso, ler "O Fáquir" foi uma surpresa, o conto mais longo da coletânea me pareceu infinito, realmente não acabava nunca.
"No degrau de ouro...", o conto honônimo, é para se colocar na prateleira dos gigantes literários, assim como "Noite", outro conto de Tolstaia (que não está nessa coletânea). Recomendo, muitíssimo!
"No degrau de ouro...", o conto honônimo, é para se colocar na prateleira dos gigantes literários, assim como "Noite", outro conto de Tolstaia (que não está nessa coletânea). Recomendo, muitíssimo!
January 25, 2018
"No degrau de ouro" é um livro de contos, lindamente dolorosos, da autora russa Tatiana Tolstaya.
Embora seja um livro de contos diversos entre si, existe uma linha condutora: a angústia. A angústia está presente de forma intermitente na vida dos personagens; uma dor aguda e incômoda.
Tatiana Tolstaya constrói a maioria de seus contos mesclando o universo interior dos personagens (fluxo de consciência) e eventos externos que os cercam, imprimindo ritmo e aproximando o leitor das motivações desses personagens, sempre acrescendo uma certa comicidade em suas vidas trágicas.
As narrativas repletas de detalhes ordinários do cotidiano muitas vezes nos cansa ou distrai, porém quando menos esperamos Tolstaya nos surpreende com um soco no estômago.
No decorrer dos contos a autora faz questão de mencionar de forma explícita algumas de suas referências literárias, como Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoiévski, entre outros. Quem conhece algum desses autores já pode ter uma ideia do que esperar.
Destaco dois contos que considero os mais bonitos e tristes: "Encontro com o pássaro" e "Peters".
Embora seja um livro de contos diversos entre si, existe uma linha condutora: a angústia. A angústia está presente de forma intermitente na vida dos personagens; uma dor aguda e incômoda.
Tatiana Tolstaya constrói a maioria de seus contos mesclando o universo interior dos personagens (fluxo de consciência) e eventos externos que os cercam, imprimindo ritmo e aproximando o leitor das motivações desses personagens, sempre acrescendo uma certa comicidade em suas vidas trágicas.
As narrativas repletas de detalhes ordinários do cotidiano muitas vezes nos cansa ou distrai, porém quando menos esperamos Tolstaya nos surpreende com um soco no estômago.
No decorrer dos contos a autora faz questão de mencionar de forma explícita algumas de suas referências literárias, como Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoiévski, entre outros. Quem conhece algum desses autores já pode ter uma ideia do que esperar.
Destaco dois contos que considero os mais bonitos e tristes: "Encontro com o pássaro" e "Peters".
June 26, 2025
Este é um livro estranho, com uma prosa misteriosa e meio amiga, porque o tempo todo a gente anda no limite entre o enredo mais simples e um universo meio fantástico. Tolstáia, a partir de um tipo de equilíbrio mambembe na vida dessas pessoas tão comuns, insatisfeitas com um cotidiano soviético — monótono e levemente temerário —, conta histórias de começo e de fim de vida, se desprendendo da estética soviética para vislumbrar um outro jeito de contar histórias (lançado em 1987, o livro conseguiu, de algum modo, ver o futuro). Mas a imaginação e a inteligência aparecem em pequenas explosões, e de repente a gente está achando tudo engraçado, mesmo essa terrível tendência do ser humano de ser essencialmente infeliz — como a Tolstáia afirma com muito mais estilo do que eu sou capaz. Tolstáia tem um olho no passado recente da literatura soviética, mas mantém sempre perto a tradição russa do século 19, dando a seus contos, sem dúvida nenhuma contemporâneos, um ar de fábula misteriosa.
January 2, 2026
Coletânea de contos sobre a vida cotidiana e que se passam na União Soviética. Preciso dizer que essa é uma leitura desafiadora. A autora faz uso de muitas metáforas, digressões e descrições que dificultam o entendimento. Esse não é o livro que você consegue ler rapidamente, sem pensar muito. Pelo contrário, ele exige atenção, reflexão e possivelmente mais de uma leitura.
Senti um estranhamento grande no início, mas depois de alguns contos, me entendi melhor com o seu jeito de escrever e comecei a apreciar mais. Sua linguagem é bem poética e muito bonita por vezes, embora complexa e peculiar. Os contos retratam pessoas infelizes, insatisfeitas ou em situações precárias e por isso não são muito alegres. Gostei da experiência, mas penso que eu realmente preciso reler com mais tempo e um olhar mais atento.
Senti um estranhamento grande no início, mas depois de alguns contos, me entendi melhor com o seu jeito de escrever e comecei a apreciar mais. Sua linguagem é bem poética e muito bonita por vezes, embora complexa e peculiar. Os contos retratam pessoas infelizes, insatisfeitas ou em situações precárias e por isso não são muito alegres. Gostei da experiência, mas penso que eu realmente preciso reler com mais tempo e um olhar mais atento.
April 28, 2023
4.5/5
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories by Tolstaya. She writes in a uniquely dynamic way and can shift between pointed/realistic descriptions and magical symbolism. Most of these stories deal with the passing of time and are written as if you are listening to an older relative reminiscing, while often digressing into tangents before returning to the main narrative. Tolstaya is adept at developing characters; in only a few paragraphs she can paint a picture of a dreaming child, a jaded old man, or an absentminded woman longing to be loved.
Standouts include: Okkervil River, Sweet Shura, Sweet Dreams Son, The Circle, Sonya
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories by Tolstaya. She writes in a uniquely dynamic way and can shift between pointed/realistic descriptions and magical symbolism. Most of these stories deal with the passing of time and are written as if you are listening to an older relative reminiscing, while often digressing into tangents before returning to the main narrative. Tolstaya is adept at developing characters; in only a few paragraphs she can paint a picture of a dreaming child, a jaded old man, or an absentminded woman longing to be loved.
Standouts include: Okkervil River, Sweet Shura, Sweet Dreams Son, The Circle, Sonya
June 28, 2019
Tatiana Tolstoi é uma escritora focada nos detalhes e, neste livro, esmiuça muito bem cada pormenor relativo a sentimentos. "O Alpendre Dourado" é uma conlectânea de contos, e cada história retrata sensações que provocam aquele sentimento conhecido de quando alguém faz algo que nos deixa desconfortáveis, a conhecida "vergonha alheia". Tatiana Tolstoi escreve sobre amor, mas também sobre ciúme, saudade, memórias, infância, ódios, tristezas. Expõe o ser humano sem piedade, e remete-nos para cada realidade sua, mesmo que, muitas vezes, seja inventada. Um livro sensacional.
April 8, 2020
I bought this book at a used book store with great hopes I'd discover a hidden unknown gem of Russian literature. It's a modern read - and like the worst of modern reads it's realism in it's most depressing and cynical state. I don't understand why many modern writers write about scandal and tragedy in a flippant manner. They treat their protagonists with disregard throwing them into depressing situations and then casually drop the floor out from under them to show it's always worse, until your dead. They don't attempt to lower a rope, shed a ray of sunshine unless it's to be quickly shut out.
At one time I believe this manner of writing was shocking, but now it's old and dull. It's like watching a soap opera on it's 20th season. The drama is rehashed and the audience has long given up hope on the point of tension ever resolving in the main character's life. Even for a moment. At least in a soap opera there's glimpses and experiences of true happiness.
What I've learned from a large number of modernist novels is that a subsection are pure nihilistic sadism. They're bleak, hopeless, and their purpose seem to be increasing the prescriptions of anti-depressants to their readers.
I read 3 short stories in this book and decided I'd prefer reality tv to this misery. There are glimpses of humor and insight. I did enjoy the lonely middle aged bachelor listening to his records of his beloved singer Vera on repeat, believing she was the epitome of perfection and sultry love. Then he discovers she anything but. An engorged aged women whose mostly lost her voice, but is still celebrating her fleeting moment in the limelight decades later. The story of a poor elderly women who chose not run away from her practical stable husband for a young dashing romantic love was kinda sad. She cherished the fact she was once loved and decades later still dreamed about the, what if? The nanny who constantly talked about her past favorite, the perfect child she once raised, while she holds the child she presently cares for at a distance and with slight contempt, was also sad.
These stories weren't horribly depressing (compared to the last modern I promptly recycled after reading 40 pages and a wikipedia plot summary), but they're heavily melancholic. Many people avoid silence and life reflection out of a fear of this kind of melancholy. We were not made to simmer in a cool vat of frustration and discontent. There's peak and troughs in the average life. While some may stuck in a time warp of disillusionment, emptied of treasured and loved people, places, and events - most aren't and don't want to read about it. These type of characters are periphery characters - not main ones. It's like modernist music - you can scramble around the key signatures and notes, but there's a mainstream appreciation for order and goodness.
Phew! Sorry to be such a downer, but these types of books are the real downers. If there was something to be understood beyond - reality can really suck - I'd get it. Camu and Dostoevesky can sink low - but there's always an upswing, a true meaning to be found.
The most beautiful stories show the most terribly side of humanity, but there's a path of redemption. A forgiveness and love that isn't bought cheap, nor is very glamorous. The greatest novels showing the turning from evil and despair to goodness and love through struggle.
At one time I believe this manner of writing was shocking, but now it's old and dull. It's like watching a soap opera on it's 20th season. The drama is rehashed and the audience has long given up hope on the point of tension ever resolving in the main character's life. Even for a moment. At least in a soap opera there's glimpses and experiences of true happiness.
What I've learned from a large number of modernist novels is that a subsection are pure nihilistic sadism. They're bleak, hopeless, and their purpose seem to be increasing the prescriptions of anti-depressants to their readers.
I read 3 short stories in this book and decided I'd prefer reality tv to this misery. There are glimpses of humor and insight. I did enjoy the lonely middle aged bachelor listening to his records of his beloved singer Vera on repeat, believing she was the epitome of perfection and sultry love. Then he discovers she anything but. An engorged aged women whose mostly lost her voice, but is still celebrating her fleeting moment in the limelight decades later. The story of a poor elderly women who chose not run away from her practical stable husband for a young dashing romantic love was kinda sad. She cherished the fact she was once loved and decades later still dreamed about the, what if? The nanny who constantly talked about her past favorite, the perfect child she once raised, while she holds the child she presently cares for at a distance and with slight contempt, was also sad.
These stories weren't horribly depressing (compared to the last modern I promptly recycled after reading 40 pages and a wikipedia plot summary), but they're heavily melancholic. Many people avoid silence and life reflection out of a fear of this kind of melancholy. We were not made to simmer in a cool vat of frustration and discontent. There's peak and troughs in the average life. While some may stuck in a time warp of disillusionment, emptied of treasured and loved people, places, and events - most aren't and don't want to read about it. These type of characters are periphery characters - not main ones. It's like modernist music - you can scramble around the key signatures and notes, but there's a mainstream appreciation for order and goodness.
Phew! Sorry to be such a downer, but these types of books are the real downers. If there was something to be understood beyond - reality can really suck - I'd get it. Camu and Dostoevesky can sink low - but there's always an upswing, a true meaning to be found.
The most beautiful stories show the most terribly side of humanity, but there's a path of redemption. A forgiveness and love that isn't bought cheap, nor is very glamorous. The greatest novels showing the turning from evil and despair to goodness and love through struggle.
January 5, 2025
Alguns livros nos marcam não pelas histórias que nos contam, mas pela forma que são contadas. Esse é definitivamente um desses livros onde o como se fala é muito mais importante do que o que se fala.
Esse foi meu primeiro contato com a autora, mas com certeza lerei mais obras dela no futuro.
Esse foi meu primeiro contato com a autora, mas com certeza lerei mais obras dela no futuro.
March 18, 2018
"Fire and Dust" elevates this to 5 stars.
June 13, 2018
Got this many years ago (in high school?) at a remainder discount book store in Gaithersburg for $1. One of the oldest books in my collection that I hadn't yet read.
May 6, 2019
A very grim selection of stories that felt a bit repetitive by the end.
October 17, 2019
Когда рассказы художественные - супер. Но много предисловий, отзывов, размышлений, которые похожи на курсовые с филфака, на любителя.
June 30, 2024
Czech Edition:
Fakír a jiné povídky,
Mladá fronta, 1996
ISBN: 80-204-0569-0
Fakír a jiné povídky,
Mladá fronta, 1996
ISBN: 80-204-0569-0
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