On the way to Tobol

Abstract

A. Timofeev takes a close look at the works of A. Ivanov, from his early novel Dorm-on-the-Blood [Obshchaga-na-Krovi] (1992), both simplistic and bearing marks of apprenticeship, to Stormy Weather [Nenastie] (2015), the writer’s most popular book, along with The Geographer Drank His Globe Away [Geograf globus propil] (1995), all the better known thanks to their film versions. The critic finds that, rather than a gallery of accomplished works, Ivanov’s writing represents an agonizing search, his path characterized by alternating moments of success and failure and his ambitious preconceptions hindering his development and forcing his artistic intuition to overcome them. Speaking of Ivanov’s undeniable triumphs, A. Timofeev mentions The Heart of Parma [Serdtse Parmy] and the later novel Tobol, whereas Ivanov’s ‘transitional’ novel Bluda and MUDO [Bluda i MUDO], the ‘network’ duology Dog-Heads [Psoglavtsy] and Community [Kommiuniti], and even the cult novel Rebels’ Gold [Zoloto bunta] are presented as flops. Nonetheless, Timofeev rates Ivanov as one of the best writers of the 2000s–2010s.