The Bible of the Poor is a book by the Russian writer Evgeny Babushkin , the winner of the Debut Prize . Published in 2017 in the publishing house " AST ". In 2018, she entered [1] the longlist of the National Bestseller award. It consists of three parts: “Old Testament” - stories, novels and plays, “New Testament” - reports and essays, “Apocrypha” - historical journalism.
| Bible poor | |
|---|---|
| Genre | storybook |
| Author | Yevgeny Babushkin |
| Original language | Russian |
| Date of writing | 2009 - 2016 |
| Date of first publication | 2017 |
Reviews
Critic Sergei Kumysh , compares [2] Yevgeny Babushkina with the young Joyce and calls him “perhaps the best modern Russian writer”.
| To describe this horror, too, there is language. This language, in this particular case, found, appropriated, invented by the writer Yevgeny Babushkin. So, art is still able to rise above life, to find words where words would seem impossible, where there is a dead end, the end of language, the death of spirit and mind. |
In the epilogue to the “Bible of the poor,” writer Alexei Tsvetkov Jr. notes [3] that the author “knows how to relive the pain of others and talk about it without accusatory vulgarity and a torn collar.” Tsvetkov describes a special type of "grandma's man."
| Grandma knows how to survive the pain of others and talk about it without accusatory vulgarity and a torn collar. The invincible and unkillable tenderness of life - even in the most clumsy corner of this uncomfortable world. |
Among Grandpa's predecessors, the literary critic Olga Balla mentions [4] Oberiuts, Brecht, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Andrei Platonov and Franz Kafka.
| Grandma - in direct kinship with those authors of the last century, who were fascinated by the tragedy of human existence. The ineradicability of this tragedy and its incomprehensibility, belonging to the very foundations of being. Tragedy is not (only) horror, not even first of all. It is also - mainly - a miracle and a mystery. Difficult. Superior to our understanding. The “Bible of the poor” is like that. |
The writer Veronika Kungurtseva also notes [5] the relationship of the “Bible of the poor” with the prose of the Soviet avant-garde, but criticizes the unsuccessful composition of the book, in which the journalistic part far exceeds the artistic one.
| The stories are very, very good, transparent: through them the split world shines through. I haven't taken such wonderful stories about poor people in my hands for a long time, I thought, the last time was Andrei Platonov. There was no limit to my delight, or rather, the limit came here. Because, unfortunately, in terms of stories, these make up not even a quarter of the book - but much less. |
The critic Elena Makeenko writes [6] that the texts in the book are “witty, scary, and full of paradoxical love for man,” which makes it stand out significantly against the Russian literary landscape of recent years.
| Yevgeny Babushkin is an unusually talented storyteller. Telling his stories, he seems to be dancing and swinging his top hat against the background of the flames that engulfed the city. |
Notes
- ↑ Russian literary prize "National Bestseller" - Long List . www.natsbest.ru. The appeal date is January 26, 2018.
- ↑ Sergey Kumysh. Suitcase with Russian literature . Poster Plus . fontanka.ru (April 24, 2017). The appeal date is January 5, 2019.
- ↑ Things and their people. Afterword to Yevgeny Babushkin’s book The Bible of the Poor (rus.) (Neopr.) ? . Alexey Tsvetkov (May 10, 2017). The appeal date is January 5, 2019.
- ↑ Olga Balla. The long, difficult road // October . - 2018. - № 2 .
- ↑ Veronika Kungurtseva. Poor people . Russian literary award " National Bestseller " . natsbest.ru. The appeal date is January 5, 2019.
- ↑ Elena Makeeva. New Russian prose: end of June . " Bitter " (June 23, 2017). The appeal date is January 5, 2019.