Discover Voroshilovgrad Assembled By Serhiy Zhadan Format Printable Format

ігнорувати живих і поважати мертвих, бо відповідальність і вдячність сильніші, ніж віра. Коли такий висновок вселяється як наслідок споживання матеріалу, зітканого із лихих дев'яностих, хочеться сказати 'Je suis Herman'.
Хоча улюблений персонаж батюшкаторчок.
Лавchiar.

Ca să înțeleg ceva despre Donbas din cartea asta a trebuit să pot trece prin amestecul de noir, gipsy și supranatural, Să îmi adun forțele ca să iubesc cele mai poetice descrieri de care am dat în secolul ăsta sper să nu uit vreodată imaginea soarelui care fierbe pe apă ca un gălbenuș în ulei, măcar asta, din zecile de imagini incendiare.
Să accept originalitatea și creativitatea lui Jadan, umorul lui ca smoala, negru, dar și cald, alunecările lui dintrun stil în altul,
Nu știu să semene cu adevărat cu cineva, dar mintea caută clișeul, asemănarea, cunoscutul, așa ca am văzut un amestec de Gogol, Palahniuk și sudamericani.

Daca suporți toate astea, o să descoperi și ce înseamna Donbasul: pâmânt negru, cer înalt, animale precaute, oameni care știu că trebuie sa reziști, să nu întorci ochii, ce e mai rău oricum o sa vină, ești responsabil de cum treci prin asta.
Io non sono esperta di letteratura ucraina, o in generale dellarea ex sovietica,
Metto subito le mani avanti, perché credo che avere una visione in prospettiva del romanzo che si va a leggere quando lo presentano come importante, sicuramente servirebbe capire cosa cè stato prima.

È la prima volta che leggo un romanzo ucraino ovviamente Scerbanenco non vale,
E anche col resto del vicinato va malino nemmeno coi vicini russi va molto meglio, mi sa che ho iniziato e finito col buon Fedor e poco altro
Premessa a parte: dopo le primepagine pensavo di mollare.
Non entravo assolutamente nello spirito del romanzo, mi sembrava che tutti facessero cose senza senso,
Passi che questo protagonista col nome strano, Herman, torni nel paesello natale perché è sparito il fratello abbandonando la pompa di benzina, che per ragioni fiscali era stata intestata a lui.

Ma gli altri Poi mano a mano che iniziavo a entrare in sintonia con la storia, prima di tutto ho iniziato ad apprezzare i paesaggi e le descrizioni dei momenti collettivi della comunità.

Poi ho iniziato a comprendere latmosfera, Un posto dove sembra passato un uragano che invece è una guerra, ma poi sembra che il mondo si sia scordato della sua esistenza, Qualcuno cerca di imporre la propria legge, Qualcuno cerca di non sparire, La maggior parte vorrebbe solo stare tranquillo e viversela un po meglio di come sta, ma alla fine qualcuno ci rimette invece le penne, e tutto torna tremendamente reale e desolante, con la sola via duscita di continuare, centimetro dopo centimetro, a resistere per difendere quello che ognuno è.
Grāmata par švaļiem, Par kuriem lasīt man nepatīk, jo pietiek jau, ka kaimiņos dzīvo kaudze tādu, Nu un jēgu, kāpēc man par viņiem jālasa jo tā gadās, ka temata, vide un viss cits nepatīk, bet tu redzi jēgu arī neatradu.
Містично охуєнний роман. I should state for the record that I read this in the original Ukrainian but I flipped through the first few pages of the English translation and it looked pretty solid.


I've been a big Zhadan fan for over a decade, and one of my favorite aspects of his novelwriting is on full display here: namely, the ability to depict unsavory characters in postSoviet society thugs, deadbeat alcoholics, soccer hooligans tenderly and empathically.
The comparisons to Irvine Welsch are obvious, but I also like to think along the lines of of Andrei Platonov's novels of early communism hallucinatory, yes super dark, yes but also, a gentleness that is normally reserved for shrugged apologies regarding that one fuckup cousin who just can't get their shit together and may actually be a sociopath, but, y'know.
. . family. Realism it is not, as underscored by the fact that most of the Eastern Ukrainian characters in this story speak in highliterate Ukrainian nope, but that's not really the point.
Also not the point: romanticising the violence or depravity into some kind of ubermacho gangster flick fantasy, in the way postSoviet culture tends to be seen from the perspective of tourist expats thinking of you, The eXile.
It's a fine line to walk, but I think Zhadan does it beautifully, Триста сторінок, міркувала я. Це взагалі не проблема, міркувала я. Це на дватри вечори, міркувала я. І дарма.

Місяць! Майже місяць я читала Ворошиловград Сергія Жадана. Майже місяць безкінечних запитань щодо мотивів та почуттів персонажів, щодо історій і її героїв. Або антигероїв. Майже місяць безкінечної насолоди мовою, влучністю спостережень та тонким гумором. Жадан майстерно поєднує піднесені роздуми з вульгарною лексикою та щиро приправляє містицизмом, який є визначною рисою для української літератури в цілому.

На зустрічі Kyiv Bookworms Club ми дійшли висновку, що Ворошиловград це східноукраїнська Одисея, Повернення мандрівника додому, яке зненацька сталось у лихіті в пострадянській Україні.

Це абсурдна нелогічна несповна розуму подорож, але сповна історій, які залишають купу риторичних запитань, підвішених ситуацій та незрозумілих вчинків. Все саме так, як відбувається в житті. Відносини без зрозумілого початку та чіткого закінчення.

Чорнобіле забарвлення книги зі старовинними фотографіями, містамипривидами та людьмипривидами, з безжальним та безладним ставленням до життя. Свого або чужого.

І крапля вічності в самому кінці: Ми змушені рятувати тих, хто нам близький, не відчуваючи іноді, як змінюються обставини і як нас самих починають рятувати близькі нам люди. Мені здається, що саме так і має бути і що сама наша близькість зумовлюється спільними переживаннями, спільним життям і можливістю спільної смерті.

Ця книга стала моїм особистим відкриттям чоловічої сучасної української літератури. Scrierea lui Jadan are o forță de factură tolstoviană, e intensă, serioasă, Dar și tema: să nu pleci, să reziști cu încăpățânare, săți asumi responsabilitatea, să te bați cu cei careți atacă prietenii și teritoriul.
Există o etică aici, o etică pe caream uitato fiindcă era prea, . . sovietică Dar uite că Jadan na uitat a scoso din șifonier, a curățito de ideologie și a făcuto să strălucească pentru capitalismul sălbaticit din vremurile noastre.
Back when I was first starting my Global Challenge, trying to find a book for each country, I asked my boyfriend which book I should read for Ukraine, considering he and his family are Ukrainian.
He lent me this one, He'd never read it, but he liked Serhiy Zhadanhe listened to his music and had met him once or twice for a fairly large country, Ukraine is also pretty small, if you get my meaning.
So I took the book and proceeded to not read it for several months,

Then Ukraine was invaded, My boyfriend's family imploded friends and relatives were in peril, suddenly a week without

texts wasn't just someone forgetting to write, it was something terrifying, something so much bigger.
They worked to send supplies and aid over, We went to protests and fundraisers, And, for several more months, I didn't read this book,

I don't know what finally made me open it up, but I'm glad I did, In Voroshilovgradthe title itself referencing the Russified name of a place now called LuhanskSerhiy Zhadan writes of a Ukraine which is at once living and dead, simultaneously dying and being resurrected.
He describes broken asphalt and train tracks that go nowhere, wandering dogs, endless wheat fields and sunbleached negatives where portraits of Lenin once hung, It feels wrong to say this is eerily prescient, presaging the nownearlyobliterated state of many of these places in Eastern Ukraine since the war began.
. . It feels wrong because all of this really started long beforeoror even, and so in a way Zhadan is observing the past just as much as he is telling the future.


I've been vague about what Voroshilovgrad actually is, and it's basically a Ukrainian odyssey, a road novel where the road just keeps bringing you back to the place you were trying to leave.
There is an overarching narrative, but it's very loose, and you find yourself caring less and less about it as the story moves along: the real meat here is the series of surreal episodes our main character Herman experiences.
A midnight soccer match with ghosts, a wedding at a village of Stundist smugglers, a drink of cognac with a psychopathic capitalist, an auspicious birth in the middle of the steppe.
It is, by turns, contemplative, hilarious, mysterious, erotic, tense, depressing, and absurd,

The writing here is superb, Really, really wonderful. Zhadan is a master of simile,

Here is how he describes taking shelter in a building during a rainstorm: ", . . as if we were diving into a tin cookie jar while kids happily drummed on it with sticks, "

Or his description of the desolate cornfields: ", . . yellow cornstalks that swayed in the wind like hangers in an empty closet, . . "

And this lovely sentence about a man entering a house where the main character has been cooped up for a while: "There was fresh air nestled into his leather jacket, as though he had come carrying scraps of an October morning in his pockets.
"

Just wonderful. I should mention the translation, though, It is, in the broad strokes, magnificentperfectly representing Zhadan's expansive, textured, visual prosebut sloppy in the details, Missing punctuation, duplicate words, and omitted phrases are common, There are a few sentences that are totally botched and garbled beyond comprehensibility, Deep Vellum is an indie publisher and a nonprofit and I respect their mission and in fact I did buy two more books from them after I finished this but come on guys, hire a copyeditor, please!



Global Challenge: Ukraine Я не знаю іншого сучасного письменника, який писав би настільки приземленно й водночас піднесено, так, що віриш в усе матч мерців, пресвітера, що дихає вогнем, бандитів і циганів, степ і місто.

І головне, він ніколи, ніколи не зливає фіналstars. Voroshilovgrad is a dreamily brutal and brutally dreamy novel about a youngish Ukrainian man who returns to his native places after his brother, owner of a service station, disappears.
This trippy novel is both bizarre and lovely, with a combination of all sorts of odd elements, from a reference to the yellow brick road to finding shelter in the Lenin room of a children's camp during a rain storm.


There's more on my blog, sitelinkhere, Pirmās simts lapas klaji jūsmoju, bet ap vidu jau pamatīgi no visa šī nomoda murdziņajociņa piekusu un nevarēju sagaidīt beigas.
Feini, absurdi dialogi, bet aprakstos autors ir līdz šķebināšanai pārcenties ar tēlainās izteiksmes līdzekļiem,
Ir ceļi un ir dzelzceļi, Ir neceļi un ir sānceļi, Maigums šajā grāmatā mijas ar skarbumu, mazliet absurdais ar brīnišķīgu valodu, kas ieceļ siltās šūpolēs, Tajās tad var uzšūpoties augstu augstu, lai redzētu, kāds ir savs ceļš, pa kuru aiziet, Aizverot grāmatas pēdējo lappusi, sajūtu, kā tās sarkanais vākojums noglāsta manas domas, Починала читати декілька років тому, ще до великого вторгнення. Не пішло. Історія видалась темною і похмурою.
Зараз читала ледь не як роман з елементами комедії. Сміялась, згадувала дитинство. Кожен опис і деталь відлунювались в мені спогадами, чула запах стиглих яблук і тепло серпневої ріки.
Книга не змінилась. Змінились ми. Це вже не похмурий опис провінційного містечка з його безталаними мешканцями і бандитськими історіями. Це довоєнна трагедія, що може пояснити чому ми опинились тут. I received an ARC of this book from Deep Vellum through Edelweiss,

This book can only be described as a literary Odyssey, a roaming adventure through the crumbling town of Voroshilovgrad and its surroundings in the postSoviet period.
The plot offers so much more than Hermans bizarre story as he attempts to run his brothers gas station we are confronted by a poetic journey through the landscape of Ukraine and a up close look at the unique people who inhabit this part of what once was Soviet territory.


The landscape, described in painstakingly detailed and poetic prose, is an important and prominent character in the book, The gas station is old and falling apart and Kocha, an employee, lives in a trailer out back, The airport, which is no longer used, is fighting against nature which threatens to take its territory back, An old Soviet youth Pioneer camp is abandoned but its library which is full of books about Lenin is still intact, Even the hotel is described as a “partially sunken ship, ” Everyone is trying to survive and somehow carve out an existence despite the decaying world around them,

The most important theme of the book is one of loyalty the characters display a remarkable amount of loyalty to their decaying home and to each other.
The city of Voroshilovgrad technically doesnt even exist anymore as its reverted back to its old Ukranian name of Luhask, The place is an odd mixture of past and present: everyone is driving around in old, beat up cars, wearing outdated knockoff designer clothes and no ones cell phone works.
When Herman arrives at his brothers gas station, the two employees, Injured and Kocha, are mistrustful of Herman because they think that at any moment he will abandon them and go back to his white collar office job in the city of Kharkiv.
Injured and Kocha are faithful employees of Hermans brother Yura who has mysteriously left town, Herman calls his brother repeatedly but is unable to solve the mystery of his sudden departure from his life and his business,

Herman intends to stay in Voroshilovgrad for a day or two but the people and the experiences and his sense of responsibility keep him there indefinitely.
Many of the adventures he has are ones that celebrate life and community, Injured, who once was the start striker on the local soccer team, recruits Herman to play a soccer game against their old rivals, the “gas guys” who live on the edge of town.
The gas guys were transplanted from somewhere in the north and were hired by the government to source natural gas in the area, Hermans old friends and the gas guys are a bunch of roughandtumble, worn out, tattooed men who act like children during this game, There is a hilarious argument over who won the game and when a fist fight breaks out between Hermans own team members the gas guys timidly back down.


Herman is also treated to adventures that involve a wedding among a group of smugglers, a brief stay at a nomad Mongul camp, and a funeral for a local woman who has died.
Each of these adventures have a humorous side because of the bizarre settings and interesting characters involved, The smugglers so appreciate Hermans attendance at the wedding that they give him a pair of electric scissors, but are sorry to inform him that they dont come with a warranty.


But each of Hermans adventures also have a serious undertone as there is always a sense of danger looming about, Herman is also being threatened by a group of local Oligarchs who are trying to force him to sell his gas station, But once again loyalty works in Hermans favor when his friends show up to help him out despite any danger they might face, they would not think of having it any other way.
Life in this city is not easy for Herman or for anyone else but a sense of belonging in this decrepit place is what keeps Herman in Voroshilovgrad permanently.


The word Odyssey keeps coming to mind as I think about this book, The various road trips and trips on foot that Herman takes, his encounters with villains and good people trying to help him make for a meandering and adventurous story full of strange characters.
All the while Herman gravitates towards home which, in his heart, is where he knows he truly wants to be,
.