A welcome revival of a 1980s comedy prophesying the collapse of the Soviet UnionHere is a revival of a 1983 film from the Georgian director Eldar Shengelaia (still alive at 90) and it is revealed as an intriguing, and perhaps even remarkable creation: a dapper, droll satire on Soviet bureaucracy, a shaggy dog story of absurd humour that creeps up on you, culminating in a truly bizarre apocalypse. The satire was arguably lenient enough to get the film made and lenient enough to win it the USSR State prize, but we can see from our 2023 vantage point that it is a deadpan prophecy of the Soviet Union’s imminent collapse. If we could go back in time to this film’s first release and tell Shengelaia that just six years later the Berlin Wall would come down and with it the entire Soviet system, would he have been surprised? Perhaps only about the fact that it was going to take so long.The scene is a state publishing company that also supervises printing and takes delivery of noisome chemicals in its basement courtyard. A would-be writer called Soso (Ramaz Giorgobiani) is scurrying about the building, desperately trying to interest its harassed or indolent functionaries in his novel, entitled Tian Shan, or The Blue Mountains – and therefore, we must assume, literally or metaphorically about the central Asian mountain ranges, although no one ever asks him about it or discusses literary matters in any way. No one definitively rejects him or accepts him. He is always referred to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-06 13:00:00 UTC ]
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In Streisand’s new audiobook recording for her chatty, brick-size memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” the superlative diva adds a little freestyling. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-23 12:45:40 UTC ]
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From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
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His charming memoir “What Have We Here?” traces the path from a Harlem childhood to “Star Wars,” while lamenting the roles that never came his way. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-13 10:00:45 UTC ]
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In “The Book of Love,” the Pulitzer finalist and master of short stories pushes our understanding of what a fantasy novel can be. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-12 10:00:46 UTC ]
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Black publishing industry figures weigh in on ERASURE and AMERICAN FICTION, Becky Chambers gets a Folio edition, and more, today in books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-06 15:31:08 UTC ]
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Lucy Sante recounts the trials and joys of her gender transition in the memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:14:55 UTC ]
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The actor reads “Collision of Power,” a new memoir by the famed former editor of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-02 10:00:17 UTC ]
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Our reviews of the books adapted into and inspiring this year's Academy Award–nominated films, from 'Oppenheimer' and 'Nyad' to 'American Fiction' and 'The Boy and the Heron.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-01 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The anthology “Burn Man” selects from decades of Mark Anthony Jarman’s work, bringing the writer’s lush and searing stories to new readers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-14 10:00:16 UTC ]
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The audiobook might be less, well, useful than it is entertainingly honest, unfiltered and even bizarre. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-12 10:00:27 UTC ]
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A Rush of Indian Stories: A Review of Redolent Rush, by Dustin Pickering Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 01/08/2024 - 14:12 In Redolent Rush, a recent short fiction collection published by Hawakal, based in New Delhi, India, we have nineteen... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-01-08 20:12:06 UTC ]
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Reading her audiobook memoir, “How to Say Babylon,” the poet gives voice to her Jamaican roots, her early ambition and the Rastafari father who would have quashed it. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-05 13:11:49 UTC ]
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This bracing anthology of Christopher Hitchens’s work for The London Review of Books is just the ticket. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-01 10:02:01 UTC ]
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In “Alice Sadie Celine,” Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s first novel for adults, a lauded feminist becomes entangled with her daughter’s best friend. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-22 10:00:21 UTC ]
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Not many, according to a new collection of correspondence from a science fiction master. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-18 10:00:54 UTC ]
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A new volume of the Black feminist’s previously unpublished writing is read in audiobook form by a full cast of Black women. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-15 10:00:20 UTC ]
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Of all the great premises™ boasted by this year’s slate of movies, the wonderful American Fiction has one of the very best. The film is about a veteran writer of literary fiction who, as a Black man, finds himself undesirable in the literary market for his lack of conforming to type. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-15 09:55:27 UTC ]
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