Oleg Zaionchkovsky

It is not often, dear Reader, that I sit down in front of the pc screen to write a review of a book, let alone one which I've written and in which I'm the Protagonist. Then again, it is not often that I sit down and write anything at all. My public might think otherwise, but being an Author is a tough job. Just ask Oleg Zaionchkovsky! Speaking for myself, I prefer to lounge around in my Moscow flat with, at my feet, ever-faithful Phil, a particularly chummy exemplar of a Man's Best Friend. Phil also likes to accompany me on my walks around the city. Global warming might be bad news for the polar bears cavorting at the North Pole, but it's fine by me and Phil if it makes it easier for us to go out in the Moscow air. Even then, I am working, observing my fellow city-dwellers, gathering raw materials from which to fashion my unfortunately-not-so-quick-selling books.

But I digress. What are the strengths of this novel? And conversely, what are its weaknesses? Aah, I hear you say, but this is not a novel! It is, rather, a collection of vignettes, a loosely-connected set of short stories. You may be right, but isn't Life itself like that? "We don't remember days, we remember moments" another author once said. I wouldn't have put it exactly like that (rather saccharine prose, in my opinion) but it is true that some moments and images linger in the mind. These stories are like snapshots, an album in which the recurring subjects are Phil, myself and my ex-wife Tamara. Eh, my lovely Toma! She may be married to a successful businessman now, but she still honours me with the occasional visit to my flat and (admittedly more rarely) to my bed. The background to my vignettes is always Moscow, the great and beautiful city which has shaped me and Tamara and the lonely characters who seeking love and happiness in the pages of my books.

Apologies if my humour sometimes falls flat. It is certainly not the fault of translator Andrew Bromfield who has done a great job - it is not easy to express the Russian way of life in a foreign language. The publishers (an unusually friendly lot who go by the intriguing name of "and other stories" ) have also managed to convince a quite well-known British author to provide an introduction to the book. I'm told that this "[a:A.D. Miller|1158347|A.D. Miller|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379233436p2/1158347.jpg]" has himself written a novel about Moscow which won a prestigious prize. Or nearly did. His novel features murder, financial crime and a sexy Russian belle. Hmmm, why am I not surprised?

The doorbell's ringing and Phil's barking his head off... I wonder if it's my Toma and whether her husband's with her?… (más)

It is not often, dear Reader, that I sit down in front of the pc screen to write a review of a book, let alone one which I've written and in which I'm the Protagonist. Then again, it is not often that I sit down and write anything at all. My public might think otherwise, but being an Author is a tough job. Just ask Oleg Zaionchkovsky! Speaking for myself, I prefer to lounge around in my Moscow flat with, at my feet, ever-faithful Phil, a particularly chummy exemplar of a Man's Best Friend. Phil also likes to accompany me on my walks around the city. Global warming might be bad news for the polar bears cavorting at the North Pole, but it's fine by me and Phil if it makes it easier for us to go out in the Moscow air. Even then, I am working, observing my fellow city-dwellers, gathering raw materials from which to fashion my unfortunately-not-so-quick-selling books.

But I digress. What are the strengths of this novel? And conversely, what are its weaknesses? Aah, I hear you say, but this is not a novel! It is, rather, a collection of vignettes, a loosely-connected set of short stories. You may be right, but isn't Life itself like that? "We don't remember days, we remember moments" another author once said. I wouldn't have put it exactly like that (rather saccharine prose, in my opinion) but it is true that some moments and images linger in the mind. These stories are like snapshots, an album in which the recurring subjects are Phil, myself and my ex-wife Tamara. Eh, my lovely Toma! She may be married to a successful businessman now, but she still honours me with the occasional visit to my flat and (admittedly more rarely) to my bed. The background to my vignettes is always Moscow, the great and beautiful city which has shaped me and Tamara and the lonely characters who seeking love and happiness in the pages of my books.

Apologies if my humour sometimes falls flat. It is certainly not the fault of translator Andrew Bromfield who has done a great job - it is not easy to express the Russian way of life in a foreign language. The publishers (an unusually friendly lot who go by the intriguing name of "and other stories" ) have also managed to convince a quite well-known British author to provide an introduction to the book. I'm told that this "[a:A.D. Miller|1158347|A.D. Miller|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379233436p2/1158347.jpg]" has himself written a novel about Moscow which won a prestigious prize. Or nearly did. His novel features murder, financial crime and a sexy Russian belle. Hmmm, why am I not surprised?

The doorbell's ringing and Phil's barking his head off... I wonder if it's my Toma and whether her husband's with her?… (más)