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The short-story collection suits Kalfus; its eclecticism let him come at his subject from as many angles as he can dream up (and that's a lot). It's harder to sustain the same kind of imaginative momentum in a longer form, which makes the book's final novella an unexpected success. "Peredelkino" follows two writers through an intricate dance of literature, politics, jealousy, and desire, and then closes on a lovely and moving image. The narrator--discredited, disillusioned, his career finished--stands outside his own house "in the dark nowhere place from where authors always watch their readers." Inside is his wife, to whom he has been repeatedly and flagrantly unfaithful, oblivious to his presence but transfixed by his book:
I knew that shortly there would be many explanations to be made, however imperfectly, and then confessions and recriminations, protestations of grief and loss, and then at last hard, practical calculation. Before that, I wanted to absorb, place in words that I would always be able to summon, an image of her like that, the passionate reader.In a sense, that's us he's looking at, absorbed in the book we've just finished. Kalfus is the kind of writer who can tip his hat to the reader--who can acknowledge our complicity--all without ever lifting us out of the world he's created. Most fiction speaks to either the heart or the head; his does both with ease. --Mary Park
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Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition 1.17. Seller Inventory # bk1571310290xvz189zvxnew
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition; First Printing. Book and DJ New. NO notes. No other names or ANY markings. Not remaindered. New DJ not price clipped ($22) ; 289 pages; Flat signed by Kalfus at the title page. NOT inscribed. ; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 11313
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Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # V9781571310293
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The acclaimed short story and novella collection by "a virtuoso of the dismal comedy of Soviet life"--and the basis for the HBO film PU-239 (The New York Times). A PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist. Ken Kalfus traverses a century of Russian history in tales that range from hair-raising to comic to fabulous. The astonishing title story follows a doomed nuclear power plant worker as he attempts to hawk plutonium in Moscow's black market. In "Budyonnovsk," a young man hopes that the takeover of his town by Chechen rebels will somehow save his marriage. "Salt" is an economic fairy tale, featuring kings, princesses, and swiftly melting currencies. Set in the 1920s, "Birobidzhan" is the bittersweet story of a Jewish couple journeying to the Soviet Far East, where they intend to establish the modern world's first Jewish state. The novella, "Peredelkino," which closes the book, traces the fortunes of a 1960s literary apparatchik whose romantic intrigues inadvertently become political.Together, these works of fiction capture the famously enigmatic Russian psyche. They display Kalfus' ability to imagine a variety of believable yet wholly singular characters whose lives percolate against a backdrop of momentous events. The award-winning author of "Thirst" plucks individual lives from a century of Russian history and serves them up in tales that range from hair-raising to comic to fabulous. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781571310293
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.17. Seller Inventory # Q-1571310290