La maison de Lialia et autres nouvelles

by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ludmila Oulitskaïa

Dans le Moscou soviétique de l'après-guerre, la vie quotidienne peut sembler grise et misérable. Mais c'est sans compter l'inébranlable optimisme des Russes pour qui ni la folie, ni la mort ne sont sujets de drame...Avec une justesse et une acuité qui font d'elle la digne héritière de Tchekhov, Ludmila Oulitskaïa décrit par petites touches la vie des Moscovites.

Genres: Fiction, Russia

112 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Russian profile here Людмила Улицкая

Lyudmila Ulitskaya is a critically acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer. She was born in the town of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria in 1943. She grew up in Moscow where she studied biology at the Moscow State University.

Having worked in the field of genetics and biochemistry, Ulitskaya began her literary career by joining the Jewish drama theatre as a literary consultant. She was the author of two movie scripts produced in the early 1990s — The Liberty Sisters (Сестрички Либерти, 1990) and A Woman for All (Женщина для всех, 1991).

Ulitskaya's first novel Sonechka (Сонечка) published in Novy Mir in 1992 almost immediately became extremely popular, and was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Award. Nowadays her works are much admired by the reading public and critics in Russia and many other countries. Her works have been translated into several languages and received several international and Russian literary awards, including the Russian Booker for Kukotsky's Case (2001). Lyudmila Ulitskaya currently resides in Moscow. Ulitskaya's works have been translated into many foreign languages. In Germany her novels have been added to bestseller list thanks to features of her works in a television program hosted by literary critic Elke Heidenreich.

Reviews

[Maria Gubini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not impressed. Not. Impressed.

Narration as dry as desert. I felt no relation towards anybody or anything. If all the caracters would die an agonizing death I wouldn't bat an eye, I swear. Not because of the situations or the caracters, but because the way they were described made me wonder how many pages do I have left... For comparison, Raymond Carver and James Joyce's short stories, they stay with you for years to go. These three will just flash by.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was reading it in french... Not complaining btw, translation is probably great. But I thought, should I or should not I read it in Russian. The stylistic is DULL! MY GOD! So duuuul... No humour, no cunning twists and turns of language, no nothing!!!! No style.
Still Ulitskaya is considered as somebody pretty outstanding in modern Russian literature, that is why I decided to read her. Not sure if I can judge her work only by three short stories, but...so far not so good.

[Kari Ni]

3,5

I liked the book, perhaps mostly because of my Eastern European roots. The characters seemed authentic, and some of the stories were original.

At the same time, I had the feeling that some stories and characters were repetitive. At times, I even wondered whether there wasn’t actually a connection between them all. As with other writers, Ulitskaya seems to try to repeat certain themes and characters until she achieves the impression she’s aiming for.

Overall, the writer intrigued me. Her stories create an atmosphere, even if it is often a melancholic one.

[isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

WIT month 2! :-) just some stories about some middle aged bourgeois women having affairs with men either much younger or older than her who then have some kind of hallucination / health problem. lmao sounds generic but the descriptions of the latter parts and the social commentary made it worth reading

[Amandine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pour parler de ces nouvelles de Ludmila Oulitskaïa, j’ai envie de renvoyer à mon article sur son premier roman, Sonietchka, tant j’ai retrouvé dans ces textes la même ambiance littéraire typiquement russe selon moi : le réalisme de la vie quotidienne, des personnages tragiquement ordinaires, une narration distante et ironique, ainsi qu’un humour subtil et pince-sans-rire. Si cette littérature n’a encore jamais provoqué de coup de cœur chez moi, j’ai néanmoins l’impression de commencer à l’apprécier de plus en plus avec cette troisième lecture de cette auteure.

Ce qui m’attire vers les livres de Ludmila Oulitskaïa, ce sont surtout les vies de femmes qu’elle met en scène : c’est encore une fois le cas dans ces trois nouvelles extraites du recueil Les pauvres parents, dont deux contiennent dans leur titre un surnom féminin. Dans la première, La maison de Lialia, est narré le destin d’une famille autour de la mère et d’un mystérieux jeune homme, tandis que la seconde, Une vie longue, si longue… se concentre davantage sur la figure centrale de Natalia, vieille fille solitaire. Enfin, Goulia est à la fois la nouvelle et le personnage que j’ai préférés : il s’agit d’une vieille dame encore très vive et enjouée, dont la fête se déroulera de façon inattendue. J’ai beaucoup aimé le final de ce texte, très bien amené et semblable à un sourire malicieux.

Ce sont justement ces sourires qui m’ont frappée dans ces nouvelles : on y a le sentiment que rien n’est grave, que malgré les drames la vie continue toujours. Il se dégage de ces récits un optimisme étonnant : non pas joyeux et éclatant comme dans d’autres littératures, mais simplement présent et persistant. Tout comme dans la destinée de Sonietchka, la vie triomphe et avance, qu’importe les coups du sort.

http://minoualu.blogspot.be/2012/07/l...

[Alena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't find out which titles by Ljudmila Ulitzkaja are translated into English, and this particular short-story collection seems to be a collection of stories published elsewhere.

It's the second collection of short stories by Ljudmilla Ulitzkaya I've read, I didn't enjoy it as much as the other one, Сквозная линия, German title Die Tränen der Frauen, but it was still good.

The main characters in her stories are women, from all walks of life, all very unique characters. Their lives are never easy, and the stories all have a certain melancholy that I enjoy a lot. I'm not sure what that says about me ;)

If you can get a hand on one of her books, give it a try.