Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers - Tapa dura

Laird's book provides a window into the extensive Russian literary world that exists outside of the political arena. Voices of Russian Literature is an excellent resource for scholars, students or anyone interested in life and the literary experiene in Russia over the last forty years. (Erika Haber, Slavic and East European Journal)

Laird's study is not simply for the Slavic scholar or student. For the non-specialist, Laird includes plentiful footnotes to explain references and provide background. (Erika Haber, Slavic and East European Journal)

To those who have been proclaiming the death of Russian literature in recent years, Sally Laird's Voices of Russian Literature provides proof to the contrary ... Laird's knowledgeable approach to her subjects is evident from her specific, individualized questions as well as her ability to follow-up and probe deeper. As a result, the interviews convey a wealth of interesting information, especially concerning the genesis and publication of individual works. (Erika Haber, Slavic and East European Journal)

This splendid collection offers unusually engrossing interviews with a diverse selection of contemporary Russian prosaists ... Her prose is crisp and lucid, her translations fully idiomatic. Since the authors respond generously to Laird's intelligent probing, the interviews brim with unexpected and eloquent insights. (H Goscilo, CHOICE December 1999)

Laird is an excellent interviewer and she is able to draw expansive comments from almost all her subjects ... Sally Laird is to be congratulated for bringing forth such a fascinating book, and despite the academic imprint, such an accessible one. (Emran Mian, The Herald (Glasgow), 21/04/99.)

a fascinating insight into the beliefs and attitudes of the Russian generations after Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. (John Weightman, TLS, 20/08/99)

In short, Voices of Russian Literature is not just a companion volume to contemporary Russian fiction. Laird, a British writer and translator now working in Denmark, has drawn on her experience as the editor of the journal Index on Censorship and set literature in a philosophical and political context. So although her book concerns Russian authors, it will be intelligible and interesting to those who have only the vaguest acquaintance with them ― no mean feat ... For Laird has captured a fascinating era, beginning before the breakup of the Soviet Union and continuing today, in which questions of identity are hotly debated ... Voices of Russian Literature is a valuable reminder that ideologies take shape in private conversation as well as in public writing, and interviews not only reflect but develop attitudes. (Karen Rosenberg, The Nation, 18/10/99)

Voices of Russian Literature presents in-depth interviews with ten of the most interesting figures writing in Russian today. They range from established authors such as Fazil Iskander and Andrei Bitov, who began their careers in the post-Stalinist Thaw, to newcomers like Viktor Pelevin, hailed as one of the most original writers of the present era. It offers an insiders' account of the fate of Russian literature over the past four decades. Rather than cataloguing the opinions of 'dissidents' or 'defenders' of the former regime, it presents the views of artists who have sought, against the odds, to express their unique visions of a changing world.

Each interview acquaints us with the author's distinctive voice and provides important insights into the genesis and interpretation of individual works. Sally Laird has prefaced the interviews with biographical and critical sketches of each writer, and her introductory essay sets the whole in historical context. Voices of Russian Literature will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in Russia's contemporary literary experience.