Cultural figures are writing open letters, responses to open letters, and responses to responses to open letters.
That reminded me that I’ve been meaning for a long time to recommend a certain book. It’s an unusual genre for me, but this book genuinely blew me away, and it’s the best thing I’ve read in recent months.
It’s a small, slim book.
You’ll finish it in two days and thank me for recommending it. Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time.
It’s a biography of Shostakovich. But don’t be put off right away. I, for one, have no interest in classical music at all and couldn’t tell Shostakovich from Yanukovych (the former Ukrainian president). While reading, I occasionally looked up the pieces mentioned in the book on YouTube and played them out of curiosity. Then they started getting in the way of the reading, so I turned them off. So don’t let that bother you: this isn’t really about music, but about time, people, and our country.
What amazed me most was how brilliantly this English author got inside the head of a Russian person. He really climbed in there, understood everything, picked up all the cultural codes, and then managed to put it all on paper.
At times it was almost outrageous—I kept reading and thinking: man, come on, you’re English, how did you understand this?
It’s a very good translation. Once I realized how excellent the book was, I tried reading it in the original, but gave up when I understood that in Russian it was even better—these words feel like they have to be written in Russian letters. A special pleasure is the translator’s notes: there are a lot of them, and they’re fascinating.
And to return to what I started with: all this business with open letters, with the “president’s trusted representatives” (and back then, the “great leader”), is dissected there brilliantly. Even more interesting is watching the disgrace of some and the courage of other cultural figures as they correspond with the authorities and about the authorities.
In short, it’s a must-read.
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