Trepanation of the Skull - (Niu Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) by Sergey Gandlevsky (Paperback)

About the Book

"Sergey Gandlevsky is widely recognized as one of the leading living Russian poets and prose writers. His autobiographical novella Trepanation of the Skull is a portrait of the artist as a young late-Soviet man. At the center of the narrative are Gandlevsky's brain tumor, surgery, and recovery in the early 1990s. The story radiates out, relaying the poet's personal history through 1994, including his unique perspective on the 1991 coup by Communist hardliners resisted by Boris Yeltsin. Gandlevsky tells wonderfully strange but true episodes from the bohemian life he and his literary companions led. He also frankly describes his epic alcoholism and his ambivalent adjustment to marriage and fatherhood. Aside from its documentary interest, the book's appeal derives from its self-critical and shockingly honest narrator, who expresses himself in the densely stylized version of Moscow slang that was characteristic of the nonconformist intelligentsia of the 1970s and 1980s. Gandlevsky is a true artist of language who incorporates into his style the cadences of Pushkin and Tiutchev, the folk wisdom of proverbs, and slang in all its varieties. Susanne Fusso's excellent translation marks the first volume in English of Sergey Gandlevsky's prose, and it will interest scholars, students, and general readers of Russian literature and culture of the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods"--

Book Synopsis

Sergey Gandlevsky is widely recognized as one of the leading living Russian poets and prose writers. His autobiographical novella Trepanation of the Skull is a portrait of the artist as a young late-Soviet man. At the center of the narrative are Gandlevsky's brain tumor, surgery, and recovery in the early 1990s. The story radiates out, relaying the poet's personal history through 1994, including his unique perspective on the 1991 coup by Communist hardliners resisted by Boris Yeltsin. Gandlevsky tells wonderfully strange but true episodes from the bohemian life he and his literary companions led. He also frankly describes his epic alcoholism and his ambivalent adjustment to marriage and fatherhood.

Aside from its documentary interest, the book's appeal derives from its self-critical and shockingly honest narrator, who expresses himself in the densely stylized version of Moscow slang that was characteristic of the nonconformist intelligentsia of the 1970s and 1980s. Gandlevsky is a true artist of language who incorporates into his style the cadences of Pushkin and Tiutchev, the folk wisdom of proverbs, and slang in all its varieties. Susanne Fusso's excellent translation marks the first volume in English of Sergey Gandlevsky's prose, and it will interest scholars, students, and general readers of Russian literature and culture of the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods.

Review Quotes

Few books capture the proverbial spirit of their time and place as effectively: for all its introspective, indeed confessional, character, this memoir is a paean to a motley crew of individuals who chose freedom of expression in obscurity over conformity in dishonor.... Those of us teaching courses on (not-so-) Soviet Russian literature should thank Fusso for giving us a chance to offset the effects of Venedikt Yerofeyev's Moscow to the End of the Line with this genuinely uplifting, if decidedly unorthodox, tale of survival and absolution.

-- "Slavic and East European Journal"

Fusso has provided an outstanding translation, drawing on her deep knowledge and understanding of Russian culture and language. Her choices of English equivalents for Gandlevsky's colloquial Russian and her sensitivity to English readers' need for additional cultural translation are remarkable.

-- "Canadian Slavonic Papers"

Fusso's translation admirably retains Gandlevsky's dizzying cocktail of literary diction and slang, his relentless allusiveness to high and low culture.

-- "Cosmonauts Avenue"

Susanne Fusso has done an admirable job with this immensely complicated text.

-- "The Russian Review"

That the poetry of [Gandlevsky's] prose resonates in translation is a tribute to Susanne Fusso's mastery of both modern, colloquial Russian and Gandlevsky's milieu.

-- "World Literature Today"

This is a short, dense read (kudos to Fusso for her translation) that evokes all of the hopelessness and haplessness that filled life in that unusual period. And it is so beautifully written that is requires multiple visits.

-- "Russian Life"

We owe Susanne Fusso a great debt of gratitude for resourcefully tackling the challenge of bringing a major contemporary Russian prose text to the attention of a wide range of readers.

-- "Slavic Review"

About the Author

Sergey Gandlevsky is widely recognized as one of the most important living Russian poets and prose writers and has received numerous literary prizes.