Post Soviet Lit

[Idril]

Most people who've known me for any length of time know of my love for Russian literature. I've read a decent amount of 19th Century and Soviet lit and while I still continue to explore those genres, I think it's time I ventured into Post Soviet lit as well. I've read a couple of Pelevin books but other than that, I have no clue where to start so give me your Post Soviet Russian recommendations.

[Virgil]

I did a google for you Idril and came up with this:


Post-Soviet era
The end of the 20th century and the early 21st century has proven a difficult period for Russian literature, with relatively few authors, such as Victor Pelevin, Alexander Jorov or Vladimir Sorokin, producing distinctive fiction.

In the early 21st century the reading public in Russia has shown considerable interest in new quality literature. Many new authors have emerged, along with new publishing companies, new brands and new literature series. Traditional Russian prose remains popular, and distinctive work has come out of the Russian provinces: for example Nina Gorlanova from Perm has written stories about the everyday problems and joys of the provincial intelligentsia.

Widely popular in teen and early-twenty's audience gained a humoristic fantasy, sci-fi or mixed literature, mostly known for Andrey Belyanin's books. However the overall plot and humor are widely criticized by some, mostly calling it plain dumb.

Detective stories and thrillers have proven a very successful genre of new Russian literature: note the interesting phenomenon of the huge interest in ironic detective stories by Darya Dontsova. She has written about 50 novels, and her books have appeared published in millions of copies and even translated in Europe.

Generations of Winter (Russian: Moskovskaya saga), a novel by the Russian writer Vasily Aksyonov, has appeared in the USA. Many critics have praised this novel as a new Doctor Zhivago large-scale Russian novel, which tells the story of the Russian Gradov family struggling to survive in the Stalin era.

Several Russian writers have become rather popular in the West, such as Tatyana Tolstaya and (especially) Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Detective-story writer Boris Akunin, with his series about the 19th century sleuth Erast Fandorin, publishes in Europe and in the USA. Alexandra Marinina, the most popular female detective-story writer in Russia, has succeeded in publishing her books around Europe, especially in Germany. Important Russian language writers in Ukraine are Aleksandr Abramovic Bejderman and Andrey Kurkov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_literature

[bazarov]

Hey, I'm also interested!

[Idril]

I did a google for you Idril and came up with this:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_literature

Thank you, Virgil. I had very little luck searching for those authors on amazon. Pelevin is well covered as is Andrey Kurkov but the other authors must not have been widely released in English. I will try some Andrew Kurkov though, there are several titles to choose from, he might keep me busy for awhile. But keep the recommendations coming if anyone can think of any others.

[Raduga]

I was able to follow the developments in Soviet literature during the last ten years before the collapse of the Soviet Union by subscribing to the monthly lierary magazine Soviet Literature (English Language edition). This was 192 page magazine with no ads. I have the last ten years almost complete. I also have a number of Russian Classics and books by Soviet authors in English published by Progress Publishers and Raduga in Moscow. It is much harder to keep up with contemporary post-Soviet literature because there do not seem to be any Russian literary magazines available in English now, and I have a hard time finding any books being published in English in present day Russia. I have been an advid fan of Russian and Soviet literature for almost 50 years and I very much miss the sources that used to exist for English speaking people to keep up with Russian literature and culture.

[Mockingbird_z]

I think it would be interesting to read Leonid Filatov's books (ci am not sure about the titles in English)

[Idril]

I think it would be interesting to read Leonid Filatov's books (ci am not sure about the titles in English)

I checked him out on amazon and it doesn't appear that there are any books available in English. Except for a biography or something, all the titles are in Russian. I'll keep an eye out for him though.

I just finished The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, Tolstoy's great grand neice or something. It's a dystopian novel and it was ok, nothing really earth shattering.

I have found, in reading the very few Post Soviet authors I have, that the modern Russian novels seem incredibly surreal. I don't know if I've just picked these authors by mere coincidence or if this is a true sampling of the current literary movement but I'm having a hard time really wrapping my head around this stuff. Have I just hit on odd writers, like Pelevin and Kurkov or is this typical? And if it isn't typical, could you give me some names? :p

[Mockingbird_z]

yeah. i guess modern literature tend to be more surreal, well if you dont read detective books (i wouldnt advise, though).
i will look for more names. but to tell the truth i hardly read any modern books now, i prefer classical literature.
=)