Mikhail Shishkin

[Liam]

Well, there is some good (possibly great) literature left in modern Russia still, names like Sosnora (both poetry & prose), etc.

Probably NOT Pelevin and Sorokin, who are in the good-not-great category, as S. rightly notes.

I myself am very curious about Mikhail Shishkin/Михаил Шишкин, whose name I have mentioned before on several occasions (specifically his novel Maidenhair/Венерин Волос). From what I've heard, he does completely new things in his prose, with the Russian language, the concept of plot/storytelling and character development.

I don't have much time to check him out at present but, you know, one of these days, ...

He also has a serious, pleasant face, I think:

[Svidrigailov]

I tried to read this author. I read 100-150 pages and tired. Interesting, but too chaotic, broken written. It is possible, further book was better, but I was bored of reading such "artificial" the text.

[Liam]

Which one are you talking about, Sosnora or Shishkin?

Sosnora's poetry is wholly artificial, but that's part of the pleasure. If everyone wrote like Sosnora I would go crazy, but he's one of a kind. I particularly like his "reworkings" of medieval Russian texts, like The Song of Igor's Campaign, etc.

Can't comment on Shishkin as I haven't read him yet.

[Svidrigailov]

Which one are you talking about, Sosnora or Shishkin?

Mihail Shishkin

[Liam]

OK, I have recently come across an excellent new review of Maidenhair (which I still haven't read), and so I thought it might be a good idea to open a separate thread on Shishkin. I have consequently "borrowed" a couple of posts from the Russian Literature thread and put them here.

[Eric]

I'm afraid that the Wikipedia article about Shishkin fails to tell you what his books are about, which is a crucial step when trying interest people in a writer.

There are also a lot of complex caveats in the Three Percent Will Evans review:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...857#post111857 (the same review as Liam drew our attention to)

To quote Evans: "To discuss the plot of 'Maidenhair' seems vulgar". That sounds suspiciously pseud to me. You get the feeling Shishkin's a genius, yet the critics can't say why, except by using the all-embracing idea of "use of language". Does he write about anything apart from vague philosophical concepts? Does he write a poetic novel?

To me, Liam, he doesn't have a pleasant face. He looks dishonest, as if he's hiding something and is inwardly smirking that no one has found out. Menschenkenntnis, and all that.

I too am hoping for a series of new, breakthrough Russian authors to lead us away from the obsession with 19th century Russian masterpieces. But I'm not sure that he fits the bill.

[Liam]

To me, Liam, he doesn't have a pleasant face.

Eric, I'm not asking you to fuck him, I'm asking you to read him, . I can only hope that your own mug is more adorable and trustworthy-looking, .

[maidenhair]

To quote Evans: "To discuss the plot of 'Maidenhair' seems vulgar". That sounds suspiciously pseud to me. You get the feeling Shishkin's a genius, yet the critics can't say why, except by using the all-embracing idea of "use of language". Does he write about anything apart from vague philosophical concepts? Does he write a poetic novel?

To me, Liam, he doesn't have a pleasant face. He looks dishonest, as if he's hiding something and is inwardly smirking that no one has found out. Menschenkenntnis, and all that.

How about actually reading that nice article Liam refers to before giving moronic comments on friendly and likeable looking writers?? That would have also kept you from sharing your most intimate fantasies on the Nobel thread. And Liam, if you are really curious about your last statement in this thread, you could check out the Dedalus Books pages, but I am not sure you really want to do that.

[Eric]

I've read the Three Percent Will Evans review now. But I still can't really grasp what the book is about except that it is a "novel of ideas". Four people talking separately to an interpreter. Plus a lot of poetic and loosely connected rather philosophical ideas. So much I've understood. But I would have to get hold of the text itself to know whether I would appreciate it, because the reviewer gives us very little idea of how these four people differ in narrative style and so on, and what aspects of their lives Shishkin examines. The ideas are big enough, but I would like to see what Shishkin does with them.

Do you know of any other reviews, preferably in English, but also in other languages?

[maidenhair]

Since the book is not even out officially in English you will have to be patient. Here is a short blog post (of a blog specialized on Russian literature):

http://lizoksbooks.blogspot.de/2011/...shishkins.html

[Liam]

OK, so I started reading Maidenhair on my trip to Boston yesterday morning; currently I'm about 100 pages into the novel. It reads like a strange mix of Pynchon and Pelevin: the same broad, exhausting, all-encompassing narrative voice as in the former, while at the same time the plot is clearly surreal, otherworldly and thoroughly satirical, as in the latter.

I think Shishkin is holding up a mirror to our times, saying, This is my country, and these are the kinds of lives it is possible for people to have and to live in such a place.

The intermixing of different historical epochs is vaguely reminiscent of Milorad Pavic's tiny novella called The Glass Snail, in which the life of the ancient Egyptian queen Hatshepsut is connected to the life of a modern-day Serbian woman. From what I dimly remember, there was a lot of violence in that story too, as well as humor and terrorists!

I'd be interested to know what other people who have read the book think of Shishkin's endless use of rape-scenes. I've only read one-fifth of this rather long-ish novel (at 500 pages in my Russian edition), and so far I have come across at least half a dozen: women get raped, men get raped, children get raped.

In my opinion, although not as graphic as in the recent horror-flick A Serbian Film, these scenes of violence are employed metaphorically. Especially where children and teenagers are concerned: the present "adult" generation is stealing both the future and the innocence of the upcoming one, which will then continue and replicate the same form of sexual violence vis-a-vis its own children.

On the level of satire, perhaps Shishkin is saying that rape is the only form of love possible to humanity in the 21st century. Love, as the ancients knew it, is gone.

But obviously it could all be quite real and literal as well.

[maidenhair]

The comparison to Pynchon is inappropriate, have you ever read Pynchon? I do not see any overlap between Pynchon and Shishkin at all, neither contentwise nor stylistically.

Have we read the same book ? I wonder what it tells us about you that your focus is so much fixed on rape scenes, I mean, as if the book would focus on them, which is not the case at all. You have read 100 pages in that book and the first thing that comes to your mind is the rape scenes?? (you know, I read Hamlet recently, you know, it is all about this ghost, basically a gothic kind of horror tale, what did you think of him, he was spooky right) I have seldomly seen a grosser misrepresentation of a work of literature... Sure, the immigrants and their 'stories' feature a lot of violence, degradation, murder, brutality, rape, the latter being one among many barbaric acts. Unfortunately all of these things happen (and have happened) all around the world in regions of conflict.

I do not think the violence is metaphorically at all, that's reality as it happens right now all around the world, every day, every minute. The authors means it literally, he shows us how the world is, the horrible things, death, suffering, crimes, etc. but also the good things, love, beauty, art etc. He is telling us that we won't get one without the other, some will encounter more bad things in their life, some others will be more lucky. It is life, enjoy it if you can.

His book covers not only the 21st or 20th century, but, as you will see, history, legend and biblical tales get mixed into the stories of the immigrants, life has been like that and will ever be.

And what is this piece of crap about rape being some kind of love. Are you on some kind of drugs? Or seen to many of those strange and cheap horror flicks lately??

Read on and many things will become clearer, I guarantee it. I guess you have just finished the first very long story of one immigrant. That story is quite horrible and exhausting. The book becomes more interesting again later on.

[Daniel del Real]

I think Shishkin is holding up a mirror to our times, saying, This is my country, and these are the kinds of lives it is possible for people to have and to live in such a place.

This sounds great!

It reads like a strange mix of Pynchon and Pelevin: the same broad, exhausting, all-encompassing narrative voice as in the former, while at the same time the plot is clearly surreal, otherworldly and thoroughly satirical, as in the latter.

This doesn't

[Liam]

^Yeah, I'm reading the singer's section at the moment--and it's very tame in comparison.

I hope the book will manage to tie up all the loose ends toward the end, there are just too many of them floating around at present.

[Liam]

I finished the book last night.

I thought I was going to love it, I was prepared to love it, and I did.

The novel exceeded my wildest expectations. I loved most everything about it: its form, its language, the main string of its metaphors, its many different voices and story-lines, and finally, its deep-seated humanistic philosophy.

I probably need a few more days to internalize the beautiful symmetry of this book, but Shishkin is definitely a writer to read and treasure; and I will certainly seek out his other books when I find the time.

Since I read the book in the original, I have no idea how well the translation compares, but my advice would be, Give it a shot. It's rare that a novel should so take over one's imagination the way this book took over mine these last few days, while I was reading it. The last two or three pages had me in tears.

[maidenhair]

That is nice to hear Liam

So you see, this is in a dead language, signifying something alive: Adiantum capillus veneris. Venus hair, genus Adiantum. Maidenhair. God of life. The wind barely stirs. As if nodding, yes yes, that’s true: this is my temple, my land, my wind, my life. The greenest of grasses. It grew here before your Eternal City and will grow here after.

[Liam]

^See, that's just beautiful.

In your opinion, what should be my next Shishkin book after Maidenhair? I was thinking, Письмовник?

[maidenhair]

I do not know, I have not read any other yet, but I will. Which proves that I am not the author

[Liam]

Perhaps you wrote them without proofreading them!

[Eric]

Maidenhair (#10): that Lizok review is a much better one than the other one that I couldn't understand. Clearly, as you have taken your nom-de-plume from the title of that book it must mean something to you. I do not necessarily need to wait for an English translation because I, for one, read several languages into which Shishkin's work could have been translated. My Russian is, admittedly, not at a level where I can read literature.

It strikes me as interesting that it takes a Finland-Swede to interview Russian authors, a book that is then translated into English. I mean Kristina Rotkirch (pronounced: root-cheerk).