At Russia Beyond The Headlines Phoebe Taplin profiles Alexander Ilichevsky (Александр Иличевский), in From Moscow's hidden tunnels to Russia's top literary prizes.
Worth it just for the quote:
But, much as I have my doubts about the value of any service a 'literary' agent can supposedly render, I have to admit that the wastepaper basket-consignment of any book which could be described as being "concerned with an exodus from metaphysical bondage" is something that can only be applauded. (I suspect, however, that there's more to Матисс -- check it out (in Russian) at Новый Мир -- than that, and that it's that description that does the book a disservice (including by scaring away those literary middlemen that might help see it get published in English).)
Worth it just for the quote:
The critic, Lev Danilkin, wrote of Matisse, which won the Russian Booker prize in 2007: "Any qualified Western literary agent, should he happen to glance at a synopsis of this novel, which is concerned with an exodus from metaphysical bondage, would immediately and unhesitatingly consign it to the wastepaper basket". The statement reinforces a noticeable (and possibly widening) divide between commercialized, Anglophone fiction and the complex, cerebral books that currently win prizes in Russia.Hmmmm ... Taplin and Danilkin don't seem to have been paying much attention to many of the US/UK literay award debates/complaints of recent years .....
But, much as I have my doubts about the value of any service a 'literary' agent can supposedly render, I have to admit that the wastepaper basket-consignment of any book which could be described as being "concerned with an exodus from metaphysical bondage" is something that can only be applauded. (I suspect, however, that there's more to Матисс -- check it out (in Russian) at Новый Мир -- than that, and that it's that description that does the book a disservice (including by scaring away those literary middlemen that might help see it get published in English).)