Full Description
Dovlatov
and Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the most
consequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, to
another: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book's focus is ostensibly the man
himself, the text unfolds as a comprehensive look at the Soviet, post-Soviet,
and American cultures that shaped him and which he shaped. Dovlatov and Surroundings constantly, but effortlessly shifts its
focus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis's reflections on his
friendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diaspora
life, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics,
and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plain
the significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of the
Soviet cultural heritage.
Contents
Foreword: Genis and Surroundings, or Twenty Years Later by Mark Lipovetsky
The Last Soviet Generation
Laughter and Trepidation
The Poetics of Prison
Do You Like Fish?
The Metaphysics of Error
Cabbage Soup from Borjomi
Tere-Tere
Poetry and Truth
None of Us Are Lookers
An Empty Mirror
A Dotted Novel
All That Jazz
Pushkin
A Concert for an Accented Voice
Halfway to the Homeland
A Matryoshka with Genitals
The Unwilling Son of the Ether
Death and Other Concerns
Without Dovlatov
A Brief History of The New American
Dovlatov as an Editor
Dovlatov on the Screen
Dovlatov and Death
