Catch Hold Of The Dream Life Of Sukhanov Drafted By Olga Grushin File Format Leaflet

'Stunning' amp 'Heartbreaking' claims the cover, The blurb is something I always take with a pinch of salt but on this occasion, for me, the book was all those things,

I think it would strike a chord with many, as most people have to compromise and sell out to some degree in order to have comfort and security for themselves or their family often losing who they are in this life process.
Thankfully, these days not many are in the extreme situation that Sukhanov and others faced, in which case nor can we truly imagine it but due to the accomplished writing here, we experience the culminating poignant aftermath of his past life choices along with him.

Poor, dear Sukhanov, my heart was hurting,

As the book progresses, he increasingly wanders in and out of the past, When he visits a place which triggers a memory, he steps right into that memory and relives the events of long ago, The past manifests so strongly that it seems to overlay the present completely, temporarily obliterating it,
As his mind crumbled things progressively became more confused and blurred, and I felt quite dreamlike myself, That was probably because the writing is astounding and this was Olga Grushin's first novel,

My copy was a library book I had requested, but I have now ordered my own along with her other two currently available novels, Yes ladies and gentlemen, I liked it very much indeed,
Can I just say: WOW, And not just because Grushin is a Russian lady writing in beautiful, crisp, evocative English, that's grand and all, but what an approach to a classic subject matter! She addresses the things we aspiring writers, artists and such think about constantly, mumble to ourselves and talk to others, passionately when drunk: what is talent can it be confused with youth and energy does an artist have a duty to fulfill himself, and at what expense to his family and friends is to create a right or a luxury what's the purpose of art in society and what price is too high to pay for staying true to one's ideals in a life, in a country, in a time when everything is shifting and changing.

and then, there is the question of crazy, . . I'll leave it at that,
I recommend the book highlyhighly, Would be curious to see what everyone else thinks,
Grushin was named one of Granta's best young writers this year blah blah blah and if you read it, you'll see why, Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov's life is at a crossroads, Not only is the Soviet Union about to end, but his many years as the editor of an official art publication pushing socialist realism after a fiery youth as an art innovator has led him to a series of disturbing dreams involving his childhood, his family, and his art.


sitelinkOlga Grushin's sitelinkThe Dream Life of Sukhanov is a fascinating book about coming to know who and what you are after decades of dissembling.
The dreams are so intertwined with the present reality that it is often difficult to pinpoint them as they occur, But it doesn't matter, because author Grushin knows how to keep the reader entranced,

There is a real sweetness about her novel about a Soviet member of the nomenklatura who is at one and the same time trying to save his marriage, his children, and his selfrespect.
This is Grushin's first novel, written in, Now I am fairly certain to check out her other works,
This paranoid, dark, twisted, funny and moving novel enthralled me, Once I got used to it, I loved Grushins writing, She has a style thats hard to describe descriptive, blunt, and lush, I was hooked pretty quickly by this strange tale and found myself impatient to get back to it whenever I had to put it down, The world of Sukhanov was highly addictive, You never really knew what was going to happen next as this Soviet official wandered arounds Moscow in a fog, dipping in and out of reality, and creating some very amusing scenes with those around him.


The past is always lurking right there ready to claim us, One minute Sukhanov is living his cushy life, the next hes entire being is overcome by the force of nostalgia and regret, The narrative switches up without warning from third person to first person and it works magnificently,

Is Sukhanov an unreliable narrator Looking back, Id say yes, But arent we all How clouded by hindsight and remorse are we When everything is filtered through the lens of the present, its easy to see what we shouldve done easier still to justify what we did do.
Nothing is isolated. Everything we do sends ripples that touch those around us and alter the future,

Life is nothing but forks in the road, Sukhanov went one way, his friend went the other, Who was wiser We are our choices, Sartre said, Indeed. Id go one step further and say we are also our consequences, We have to live with what weve done and that never goes away, no matter how deeply you bury it, There were parts in this novel that made my chest tighten, The hold memories have on us is something so powerful and absolute, Sukhanovs mental break was beautiful, claustrophobic and hopeless, This book is a gem,
Beautiful and lyrical and satirical all at the same time, It's clear that Grushin has read the Russian masters Bulgakov, Gogol, Dostoevsky and it shines through in this gorgeous little book, I picked it up from the library, but now I wish that I'd bought it, . .

My other comment is that it frequently reads like a Chagall painting, And while I didn't necessarily care for Chagall before I read this book, I think I like his work now, I need to go to the MOMA to check, Quick quibble: aggravatingly adverbby. A little alliteration for what ails ya It slows the reader's pace, which is a fortunate side effect, because this book does so much in the way of imagination, paranoia, and simple historical narrative.
There's a lot worth paying attention to,

My favorite stylistic flair is the author's true stealth in sliding from thirdperson to firstperson narrative in service of flashbacks, The stitching is impeccable. They never felt sloppy or even a tinge pretentious,

I recommend this to anyone who loves art and/or Nabokovian prose, His ghost was smiling through this one, This novel at its core is a story of man in hiss having to confront the decisions that he made as a younger man and how they shaped the course of his life.
Sukhanov essentially had two paths that he could have taken, On one path he pursues his passions but will inevitably struggle economically and will be outcasted to a certain extent, The other path requires him to give up, even forsake, that which he is most talented and passionate about, but in exchange he will live quite comfortably.
Having a beautiful wife and anticipating future children, Sukhanov "sells out", . . a decision he makes for the benefit of his family, but ironically contributes to alienate him from each one of them later on,

This novel comments a lot on the power of art and the individual, but also examines the relationship between politics and art, To top it off, Sukhanov's first passion, surrealist art, is the very form that his nightmares and delusions take later in his life that cause him to question everything he knows.


One can easily empathize with Sukhanov he is a likable protagonist and we can share the distress of facing our own dilemmas, I also appreciate that Grushin doesn't automatically steer us down one path or the other, There is another character in the book that essentially represents the fate of the other path, and it's not one that we would want either, DNF. Somewhere around thepage mark, only a hundred or so from the end, I gave up on this a book which objectively was probably reasonably deserving of praise, but which had failed to really engage me.
This novel deals with a Soviet gentleman a father, an art critic and magazine editor, a traditionalist in a time of change in the USSR, In some ways a complex character, but in others a person in which I could only find myself taking a far from deep interest, I could neither identify with the lack of progressiveness of the traditional views, or the excess of pretension of novel artistic sensibilities, Though the writing was occasionally shining with beautiful moments and small observations, in general it was meandering and descriptive for little real benefit, After the umpteenth flashback to the protagonists formative moments, I realised I had no interest in how it was going to end, He has a realization
Something was happening to himsomething strange, something, in fact, extremely unsettlingsomething that he was unable to explain, much less stop or control.
He was being assailed by his past,

Anatoly Sukhanov is a man with a past he has edited, a past that now haunts him as those edited parts suddenly make themselves known in both his dreams and his waking hours.
Just what is it that Sukhanov has suppressed all these years and that at the age ofnow has him inhabiting a different plane of reality than those around him Why do his dissatisfied wife and children, and his estranged associates look at him differently now And what about his cousin whom he cant remember, a man who comes out of nowhere and is now turning his life upside down when coming to live with him and his family What else does the cousin want besides room and board Read this book and youll know, bit by bit, what Sukhanov has kept hidden from himself and why.


Youll also learn a lot about art in Russia during the mid twentieth century in which innovative artists seeking selfexpression through their work were forced underground or worse for the greater good.
Sukhanov was one of those underground artists, but he now writes articles for a Russian magazine that criticizes free expression and extolls the virtues of conformity so the common people will strive to be productive citizens, not have flights of fantasy about freedom promoted by surrealism and other subversive movements.
Though times are changing, as is Sukhanov, But are they changing for better or for worse And will he bend with them or break

Before he knew it, he was staggering through the uncharted territory of the basement, crisscrossed with lowceilinged, cramped, poorly lit corridors.
The smells of cabbage stew and detergent cling to walls the color of sickness an illlooking striped cat slunk past him, its invisible tail bristling shapeless objects cringed in the corners, briefly suggesting rags, pails, brooms, a rolledup poster, a threelegged chair, a doll with a missing arm, then sinking back into the shadows.
. . After the sparkling expanse of the lobby, the buildings faintly unclean, unsavory underside jarred his senses, and he felt a dull oppression descending on him, as if all nine stories of human existence above were weighing heavily on his spirit.


Sukhanov is a man in trouble, something the writing in this book makes very clear, It is an hallucinogenic marvel and one of the best parts of this book, as I never connected much with the characters, Many of the scenes were as surreal as the paintings by Dali that Sukhanov scoffed at, But it was never too much, just surreal enough to unsettle the reader as the author seamlessly blended reality into fantasy, fantasy into dreams, dreams into reality, then back again, all of them melting together and dripping languidly off the page like the clocks in Dalis most famous painting.
This caught me off guard and kept me on edge throughout the entire story, as I wasnt sure if what I was reading was truly happening or not, since not even Sukhanov knew.


But this story is much more than a literary, illusionary magic trick, Its about selective amnesia and survival, Its about sacrifice

and irony, the purpose of art, the power of the conscience, Its about following ones dreams and living through other peoples dreams, and more, The list goes on and on, the story perfect for any book club, with an ending that begs to be interpreted and compared within a group, Thanks again to my book club for giving me the chance to read an author new to me and a book Id never have discovered on my own.
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