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возрождение
“возрождение” – это сборник эссе, написанных за “первую пятилетку” жизни в Берлине.
Сборник собран с целью переосмыслить опыт эмиграции и поделиться ими с “новой волной” по(на)ехавших. Помимо гайдов о том, как с честью и достоинством простоять проклятую очередь в банках и государственных департаментах, есть менее очевидный процесс изменения личности. На нём и фокусируется эта книга.
Из слабо связанных между собой историй удалось собрать пазл жизни мигранта новой волны: вечный поиск себя в новой реальности, мысли о городе, путешествия и карантины, любовь и депрессия, сомнения в жизни и страх смерти, карьерная рефлексия и переживания чувств любви/ненависти к родине вдали от родины.
Помимо работы с текстом, моя команда потрудилась над тем, чтобы сделать бумажную версию классной и привлекательной: обложка, верстка, пасхалочки. В бумажной версии “возрождения” раскиданы QR-коды на мой личный проект 1 Second Everyday, который я веду уже девятый год. В этих фильмах отображается каждый день длиною в одну секунду, из-за чего создается эффект скоротечности жизни.
Каждый код ведет к unlisted YouTube-роликам, по одному видео на год берлинской жизни. Так мы старались представить книгу как полноценный арт-проект: достичь эффекта “point of view”, внести духовную близость и сопереживание в процесс чтения и проживания прочитанного.
Сборник собран с целью переосмыслить опыт эмиграции и поделиться ими с “новой волной” по(на)ехавших. Помимо гайдов о том, как с честью и достоинством простоять проклятую очередь в банках и государственных департаментах, есть менее очевидный процесс изменения личности. На нём и фокусируется эта книга.
Из слабо связанных между собой историй удалось собрать пазл жизни мигранта новой волны: вечный поиск себя в новой реальности, мысли о городе, путешествия и карантины, любовь и депрессия, сомнения в жизни и страх смерти, карьерная рефлексия и переживания чувств любви/ненависти к родине вдали от родины.
Помимо работы с текстом, моя команда потрудилась над тем, чтобы сделать бумажную версию классной и привлекательной: обложка, верстка, пасхалочки. В бумажной версии “возрождения” раскиданы QR-коды на мой личный проект 1 Second Everyday, который я веду уже девятый год. В этих фильмах отображается каждый день длиною в одну секунду, из-за чего создается эффект скоротечности жизни.
Каждый код ведет к unlisted YouTube-роликам, по одному видео на год берлинской жизни. Так мы старались представить книгу как полноценный арт-проект: достичь эффекта “point of view”, внести духовную близость и сопереживание в процесс чтения и проживания прочитанного.
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2023
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Misha Chinkov
2 books30 followersSelf-publishing author living and working in Berlin.
Bilingual author, writing in Russian and English. Published my first book in 2022, and writing has been a big part of my life ever since. From non-fiction essays to novels about life in modern society, from art performances to charity events.
Bilingual author, writing in Russian and English. Published my first book in 2022, and writing has been a big part of my life ever since. From non-fiction essays to novels about life in modern society, from art performances to charity events.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 8, 2023
This is a solid 3.5 for me. This book is very much written in a diary/memoir/essay format over the course of several years. I was intrigued to read this as this was written by the author describing his life in Berlin.
The writing is clean but very techy, broken apart into date entries. The readings felt like thoughts and feelings the author had on that particular day and then culminated them into this book. It was interesting to peek into his world, if even for a little while.
The overall on this however will not be for everyone. This isn’t a true memoir and nothing cataclysmic happens here. It’s more like looking into the fishbowl than anything else. I found it interesting at times, but too technical at others and it became hard for me to follow. If you are a tech geek, want to read about the day in the life of a Berliner and appreciate diary entries, this might be up your ally.
Thank you to the author for generously providing a copy for my honest review.
The writing is clean but very techy, broken apart into date entries. The readings felt like thoughts and feelings the author had on that particular day and then culminated them into this book. It was interesting to peek into his world, if even for a little while.
The overall on this however will not be for everyone. This isn’t a true memoir and nothing cataclysmic happens here. It’s more like looking into the fishbowl than anything else. I found it interesting at times, but too technical at others and it became hard for me to follow. If you are a tech geek, want to read about the day in the life of a Berliner and appreciate diary entries, this might be up your ally.
Thank you to the author for generously providing a copy for my honest review.
November 2, 2023
Misha Chinkov’s Gentrification is at first sight a diary of thoughts and events, but in actual fact, the excerpts are arranged thematically. Perhaps it might have been helpful to have chapter headings to make this clear, or a foreword that explains the structure. I was interested to read it because I wanted to hear his perspective on life as a young Russian expat in Berlin, as I am also an expat and previously lived in Germany for a couple of years. As I read, I also discovered that he is some sort of software engineer working for startups, so his view on technical jobs was novel to me, having worked (in a support role) in a large, established technical firm.
I really enjoyed reading his observations about Berlin and the way he writes about it. It’s clear he threw himself into expat life and the self-improvement lifestyle, until he became disillusioned with both. He’s sometimes funny, often critical, disappointed in how difficult it is to get to know new people beyond a very superficial level. He contrasts this to his home country where people tend to remain friends with a small group of people throughout their lives. That’s possibly also due to the fact that he’s living in a dynamic city full of newcomers. He comments that you don’t need to travel to get to know Germany because there are people from all over the country living there and the weather is equally varied. And there’s no point in improving one’s level of German because you are unlikely to make friends with Germans. One of the more amusing sections compares the Tinder experience in different countries and the frenetic pace of socialising is not all it is cracked up to be.
“It turns out that the apparel of Berlin’s bohemia is just the local dress code. The Altbau [old building] has terrible internet connection and expensive heating. Local perspectives lack introspection and could be challenged within five minutes of conversation. Low-cost flights are just cheap flights that rarely go beyond Lonely Planet recommendations. Techno without drugs is terrible. And the mass fun events every month are all just mass fun events every month.”
Inspired by the vast range of crazy political parties in Germany (but also the Netherlands and the UK), he has interesting ideas about how to create a utopia, including basic universal income, freely available mental health treatment (life is awful when the people around you are unhappy, he says), four-day workweek, menstrual leave (new one on me!) and monthly vacations for every profession. He imagines a Serotonin Protection Party (Serotoninschutzpartei), decriminalising all drugs and leaving it up to individuals to find out the lows aren’t worth the highs of harder drugs. He also suggests hugging protesters instead of attacking them and turning palaces into homeless shelters. I’m not sure how many of those ideas are lifted straight from Rutger Bergman’s Utopia for Realists (which my son lent me a couple of years ago and I still haven’t read), but they seem sound, except the hard drug decriminalisation (still not convinced).
Apparently it’s common in Berlin startups for people to bring dogs and children in to work with them. The author complains how disruptive this is. As someone working from home with cats and family interruptions, I can’t imagine why a business would encourage this. I am also astounded that it is so easy to switch jobs within these software companies because the number of companies the author has worked for is mind-boggling.
“For some reason, software engineers aren’t happy. For some reason, they burn out, and not just from working too much. Then, they look for ways to get out of IT: whether as a barista in a coffee shop, a retiree at forty on FIRE, [early retirement by living frugally] or a hermit in an eco-village. It’s hard to give a short answer to the question “Why?” But the problem surely exists—judging by online communities and blog posts discussing this theme. I’m not the only one.”
In the context of Russian aggression in Ukraine, he also has interesting things to say about Russian society, questioning why it has failed to create a successful civil society. Why, he asks, has Russia not become independent of the Soviet past, unlike all the other former iron curtain countries? He likens the steps you need to take to improve your working environment (solidarity, willingness to complain) to those needed to improve the country. One of his interesting insights into current life in Russia is that his Russian print-on-demand short story collection could no longer be distributed because a character criticised the Russian army, Western social media sites are deemed terrorist organisations and cannot be named, etc. For now, he is stuck in Berlin as he cannot return to his homeland.
Even though a lot of what Chinkov has to say is interesting, there were parts of his book that I found irritating. Sometimes he is hyper-critical or self-absorbed. Some sections are written in a stream of consciousness style that I didn’t appreciate. Mostly, however, the main issue is that it is presented as fragments, arranged thematically. If the information could be edited into a coherent narrative, it would be much easier to follow the author’s thinking. Because it seems to copy blogposts directly with little editing, Chinkov’s opinions have obviously changed in time, so this can lead to repetition or contradictory opinions. It is interesting to know that his feelings have changed, but a straight narrative would have made it easier to follow.
All in all, this was worth reading, but patchy and I would have preferred a straighter narrative.
Disclaimer: My thanks to BookSirens for the free digital ARC. This review is my honest opinion after reading.
I really enjoyed reading his observations about Berlin and the way he writes about it. It’s clear he threw himself into expat life and the self-improvement lifestyle, until he became disillusioned with both. He’s sometimes funny, often critical, disappointed in how difficult it is to get to know new people beyond a very superficial level. He contrasts this to his home country where people tend to remain friends with a small group of people throughout their lives. That’s possibly also due to the fact that he’s living in a dynamic city full of newcomers. He comments that you don’t need to travel to get to know Germany because there are people from all over the country living there and the weather is equally varied. And there’s no point in improving one’s level of German because you are unlikely to make friends with Germans. One of the more amusing sections compares the Tinder experience in different countries and the frenetic pace of socialising is not all it is cracked up to be.
“It turns out that the apparel of Berlin’s bohemia is just the local dress code. The Altbau [old building] has terrible internet connection and expensive heating. Local perspectives lack introspection and could be challenged within five minutes of conversation. Low-cost flights are just cheap flights that rarely go beyond Lonely Planet recommendations. Techno without drugs is terrible. And the mass fun events every month are all just mass fun events every month.”
Inspired by the vast range of crazy political parties in Germany (but also the Netherlands and the UK), he has interesting ideas about how to create a utopia, including basic universal income, freely available mental health treatment (life is awful when the people around you are unhappy, he says), four-day workweek, menstrual leave (new one on me!) and monthly vacations for every profession. He imagines a Serotonin Protection Party (Serotoninschutzpartei), decriminalising all drugs and leaving it up to individuals to find out the lows aren’t worth the highs of harder drugs. He also suggests hugging protesters instead of attacking them and turning palaces into homeless shelters. I’m not sure how many of those ideas are lifted straight from Rutger Bergman’s Utopia for Realists (which my son lent me a couple of years ago and I still haven’t read), but they seem sound, except the hard drug decriminalisation (still not convinced).
Apparently it’s common in Berlin startups for people to bring dogs and children in to work with them. The author complains how disruptive this is. As someone working from home with cats and family interruptions, I can’t imagine why a business would encourage this. I am also astounded that it is so easy to switch jobs within these software companies because the number of companies the author has worked for is mind-boggling.
“For some reason, software engineers aren’t happy. For some reason, they burn out, and not just from working too much. Then, they look for ways to get out of IT: whether as a barista in a coffee shop, a retiree at forty on FIRE, [early retirement by living frugally] or a hermit in an eco-village. It’s hard to give a short answer to the question “Why?” But the problem surely exists—judging by online communities and blog posts discussing this theme. I’m not the only one.”
In the context of Russian aggression in Ukraine, he also has interesting things to say about Russian society, questioning why it has failed to create a successful civil society. Why, he asks, has Russia not become independent of the Soviet past, unlike all the other former iron curtain countries? He likens the steps you need to take to improve your working environment (solidarity, willingness to complain) to those needed to improve the country. One of his interesting insights into current life in Russia is that his Russian print-on-demand short story collection could no longer be distributed because a character criticised the Russian army, Western social media sites are deemed terrorist organisations and cannot be named, etc. For now, he is stuck in Berlin as he cannot return to his homeland.
Even though a lot of what Chinkov has to say is interesting, there were parts of his book that I found irritating. Sometimes he is hyper-critical or self-absorbed. Some sections are written in a stream of consciousness style that I didn’t appreciate. Mostly, however, the main issue is that it is presented as fragments, arranged thematically. If the information could be edited into a coherent narrative, it would be much easier to follow the author’s thinking. Because it seems to copy blogposts directly with little editing, Chinkov’s opinions have obviously changed in time, so this can lead to repetition or contradictory opinions. It is interesting to know that his feelings have changed, but a straight narrative would have made it easier to follow.
All in all, this was worth reading, but patchy and I would have preferred a straighter narrative.
Disclaimer: My thanks to BookSirens for the free digital ARC. This review is my honest opinion after reading.
February 18, 2023
I'm afraid this book simply wasn't for me. From the synopsis I was expecting something more like Musa Okwonga's "In the End …" However what I got was part diatribe, part job description, part homesickness/hatred of what Russia has become.
The "essays" range over a number of years. Several of then (especially the employment part) were completely incomprehensible to a non-techie such as I. The rest of it just gave me a headache.
I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
The "essays" range over a number of years. Several of then (especially the employment part) were completely incomprehensible to a non-techie such as I. The rest of it just gave me a headache.
I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
March 9, 2023
I honestly felt that this book was very raw. Dont get me wrong, I loved it and I loved Chinkov's simple writing and how real it was. It was kinda a book filled with deep, yet simple diary entries.
The book is a collection of stories from different stages of the authors life. It touches apon emigration, engineering, soical views, and how the world is around the author. It is a book about stress, and real emotions.
I loved the short chapters and easy to read sentences, though in the beginning you would undertand it more if you know a lot about current technology.
Thanks Misha, for sending me an ARC!
The book is a collection of stories from different stages of the authors life. It touches apon emigration, engineering, soical views, and how the world is around the author. It is a book about stress, and real emotions.
I loved the short chapters and easy to read sentences, though in the beginning you would undertand it more if you know a lot about current technology.
Thanks Misha, for sending me an ARC!
February 25, 2023
gentrification is a memoir in blog posts. It's a slow deconstruction on how youthful aspirations can give way to another personality. Another glimpse into a quarter-life crisis from someone who is typically viewed as hyper competent. The "lucky and successful" ones.
I felt empathy for Chinkov carving himself into a person during a rather confusing time for us all. His thoughtful observations of what it means to create sense of self over a recognized social identity stuck with me. I don't consider this the most engaging read, as sometimes his observations are written with an analytical mind and with absolute emotional distance. Yet they're sincere and stated with ennui that feels appropriate for someone facing many disillusions about adulthood and/or grandeur. I personally would have preferred another format.
gentrification is very much a "for me and my future self" piece, and I respect the author's wish to preserve this old part of himself. I think anyone who is facing a similar identity crisis may find themselves written onto the page. Oh, and anyone who despises Putin. That's a plus for me. :)
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I felt empathy for Chinkov carving himself into a person during a rather confusing time for us all. His thoughtful observations of what it means to create sense of self over a recognized social identity stuck with me. I don't consider this the most engaging read, as sometimes his observations are written with an analytical mind and with absolute emotional distance. Yet they're sincere and stated with ennui that feels appropriate for someone facing many disillusions about adulthood and/or grandeur. I personally would have preferred another format.
gentrification is very much a "for me and my future self" piece, and I respect the author's wish to preserve this old part of himself. I think anyone who is facing a similar identity crisis may find themselves written onto the page. Oh, and anyone who despises Putin. That's a plus for me. :)
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 9, 2023
The author has created a very emotional collection of notes by an emigrant. You read and feel how his attitude towards Berlin changed, how he grew up and got used to the city, how shortcomings turned into virtues, and vice versa.
Each little detail creates a vivid picture: the driver closing the doors in front of you, although annoying, makes it clear that you are at home; the German language, which, it seems, could not be learned, but the knowledge of which helps to integrate into the culture; local customs, which are sometimes surprising, but you gradually get used to them.
It's amazing how much Berlin and Belgrade have in common! I have never been to the first city, but I vividly imagine it thanks to the author, and I moved to the second one quite recently, and therefore, reading these notes, I largely recognized my emotions, some I have already experienced, some I experience right now.
I recommend these notes to everyone who has gone through emigration, who is preparing to emigrate, or who wants to understand those who have moved to another country.
Each little detail creates a vivid picture: the driver closing the doors in front of you, although annoying, makes it clear that you are at home; the German language, which, it seems, could not be learned, but the knowledge of which helps to integrate into the culture; local customs, which are sometimes surprising, but you gradually get used to them.
It's amazing how much Berlin and Belgrade have in common! I have never been to the first city, but I vividly imagine it thanks to the author, and I moved to the second one quite recently, and therefore, reading these notes, I largely recognized my emotions, some I have already experienced, some I experience right now.
I recommend these notes to everyone who has gone through emigration, who is preparing to emigrate, or who wants to understand those who have moved to another country.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews