In the Financial Times Viv Groskop wonders: 'Can the new generation of writers revive a great tradition ?', in Reasserting Russia's literary status.
Opinions are mixed:
Of course, some of the critics might not have quite the right perspective, either:
Groskop also notes that many authors: "are re-examining the past rather than taking on the present" -- and I just got Vladimir Sharov's Before and During from Dedalus (see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) which looks very promising ... but: is set: "in the long decades of late-Soviet stagnation" .....
As to international exposure: even where book get translated into English, it's a painful process:
Opinions are mixed:
"Russian literature is healthy. It's probably the healthiest part of Russian society, actually," says Vitali Vitaliev, a writer and long-term UK resident (he defected in 1990).Well, yes, relatively speaking maybe the literary scene does look okay, and there are certainly some writers doing interesting work. Still, by historical standards, Russian literature has become pretty much a backwater, with a much diminished international presence.
Of course, some of the critics might not have quite the right perspective, either:
Akunin is sceptical about claims of a reassertion of Russia's literary status. This may be because he refuses to read contemporary novelists himself. "I've been reading only non-fiction something like 15 years," he says by email from Moscow. "I believe it's not healthy to read other people's writing when you write yourself. But my wife reads everything and she says that, no, we are not in good shape. There is an occasional spark. But as a whole the landscape is depressing."(If I'd only read non-fiction for the past fifteen years I'd be pretty despairing too; come on, Boris, fiction is "not to be taken too seriously" ? it's the only thing to be taken seriously (and under Putin I would imagine even more so ...).)
Groskop also notes that many authors: "are re-examining the past rather than taking on the present" -- and I just got Vladimir Sharov's Before and During from Dedalus (see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) which looks very promising ... but: is set: "in the long decades of late-Soviet stagnation" .....
As to international exposure: even where book get translated into English, it's a painful process:
This is another problem for Russian literature: quality translation into English is painfully slow. Basinsky mentions that it took a year for the German translation of his book to come out. The English translation has taken three.