Alexander Genis – författare

Russian Cuisine in Exile brings the essays of Pyotr Vail and Alexander Genis, originally written in the mid-1980s, to an English-speaking audience. A must-read for scholars, students and general readers interested in Russian studies, but also for specialists in émigré literature, mobility studies, popular culture, and food studies. These essays—beloved by Russians in the U.S., the Russian diaspora across the world, and in post-Soviet Russia—narrate everyday experiences and re-imagine the identities of immigrants through their engagement with Russian cuisine. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book has been translated “not word for word, but smile for smile,” to use the phrase of Vail and Genis’s fellow émigré writer Sergei Dovlatov. Translators Angela Brintlinger and Thomas Feerick have supplied copious authoritative and occasionally amusing commentaries.

Russian Cuisine in Exile brings the essays of Pyotr Vail and Alexander Genis, originally written in the mid-1980s, to an English-speaking audience. A must-read for scholars, students and general readers interested in Russian studies, but also for specialists in émigré literature, mobility studies, popular culture, and food studies. These essays—beloved by Russians in the U.S., the Russian diaspora across the world, and in post-Soviet Russia—narrate everyday experiences and re-imagine the identities of immigrants through their engagement with Russian cuisine. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book has been translated “not word for word, but smile for smile,” to use the phrase of Vail and Genis’s fellow émigré writer Sergei Dovlatov. Translators Angela Brintlinger and Thomas Feerick have supplied copious authoritative and occasionally amusing commentaries.

Stoilo uekhat'' polveka nazad iz SSSR v Ameriku, chtoby napisat'' etu chudesnuyu knizhku. Amerrika — strana, uvidennaya glazami pisatelya, vospitannogo russkoy literaturoy i vlyublennogo v amerikanskuyu prozu. V Amerrike vse odnovremenno blizko i chuzhdo, i imenno etot dvoynoy fokus rozhdaet lichnuyu, pronzitel''nuyu hroniku otkrytiy — ot Tekhasa do N''yu-Dzhersi, ot Francuzskogo kvartala do indeyskih rezervaciy.Genis delitsya Amerikoy kak istoriey lyubvi, v kotoroy vostorg i ironiya, priznanie i nedoumenie idut ruka ob ruku. I esli vam kazhetsya, chto vy uzhe horosho znaete SHtaty — «Amerrika» predlozhit vam posmotret'' eshche raz.

"Nashi", pervyy tom iz "Pyaterki Genisa", vklyuchayet zanovo otdelannyy "filologicheskiy roman" "Dovlatov i okrestnosti", podborku esse "Izbiratelʹnoye srodstvo" kak o russkikh, tak i o zarubezhnykh klassikakh, i "Fantiki" — desyatʹ "rasskazov po kartinkam", posvyashchennykh samym populyarnym polotnam russkoy zhivopisi.

«Lichnoe», vtoroi tom «Piatërki Genisa», sobral avtobiograficheskuiu prozu v nepokhozhikh zhanrakh. «Trikotazh» — sbornik liricheskikh rasskazov s teologicheskim podtekstom. «Obratnyi adres» — podrobnyi memuarnyi tekst, nachinaiushchiisya zadolgo do rozhdeniia geroia i zavershaiushchiisya na predposlednei stranitse ego zhizni. Tom zavershaiut «Zapovedi», kotorye ne sleduet prinimat'' vser''ez nikomu, krome ikh avtora.

Aleksandra Genisa ne tol''ko obyavili v Rossii inoagentom, no i snyali s prodazh ego knigi — v tom chisle «Kozhu vremeni». Cherez mesyats posle zapreta ona pereizdana Freedom Letters.Pered vami sobranie velikolepnykh esse o mire, kotoryy menyaetsya bystree, chem chelovek uspevaet eto osoznat''. Pamyat'' i internet, starenie i tekhnologii, odinochestvo i massovaya kul''tura — lyubaya interesnaya tema dlya Genisa — sposob ulovit'' nerv epokhi.Sochetaya intellektual''nuyu tochnost'', ironiyu i redkiy dar rasskazyvat'' o slozhnom legko i uvlekatel''no, Genis sozdal portret nashego vremeni.

Chtoby ponyat'', a ne pokorno prinyat'' proiskhodyashcheye, nuzhno i mozhno yego vstavit'' v kontekst. Istoriya — ne sklad analogiy, a ikh muzey. Sobravshis'' vmeste, oni prepodayut urok budushchemu, vskryvaya nastoyashcheye. Kniga Aleksandra Genisa, avtora intellektual''nykh bestsellerov («Dovlatov i okrestnosti», «Kamasutra knizhnika», «Personalii: sredi sovremennikov») — kollektsiya etyudov. Devyat'' glav s montazhem tsitat, liricheskimi i memuarnymi vkrapleniyami opisayut totalitarnye rezhimy raznykh stran — ot Avstrii i Germanii do Italii, Ispanii, Yaponii i GDR. Knigu zavershayet esse ob ezopovom yazyke otechestvennoy kul''tury, gde voyna stala universal''noy metaphoroy.

Dovlatovand Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the mostconsequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, toanother: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book’s focus is ostensibly the manhimself, 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 itsfocus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis’s reflections on hisfriendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diasporalife, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics,and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plainthe significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of theSoviet cultural heritage.

Dovlatovand Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the mostconsequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, toanother: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book’s focus is ostensibly the manhimself, 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 itsfocus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis’s reflections on hisfriendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diasporalife, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics,and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plainthe significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of theSoviet cultural heritage.