The Monkey Link

by Andrei Bitov, Susan Brownsberger (Translator)

Overview

In the waning years of the Empire, a poet traverses Russia, from the Baltics to the capital, to the shores of the Black Sea. Along the way, he discusses man's place in the scheme of things with, among others, a very sober scientist and a very drunken landscape painter. He is harassed by the authorities, spends time on a movie set, and is an eyewitness to the August 1991 coup. Full of talk, philosophical speculation and dark humor, this sweeping, intricately structured novel challenges the form even as it presents a highly original view of the world and the former Soviet Union.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374526283
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	12/01/1999
Pages:	373
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Andrei Bitov is the author of Pushkin House, Captive of the Caucasus, and The Monkey Link, among other works. He is a cofounder of the Russian PEN club and has received numerous awards and honors, including being named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He lives in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliant, richly allusive novel from the acclaimed Russian writer (Pushkin House, 1987, etc.), chronicling a search for the soul of a man and his country." - Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Bitov (Pushkin House, A Captive of the Caucasus) is clearly hugely talented, one of those Russian writers whose art-by turns wildly satiric, surreal and lyrical-attempts to fix the currents of the national soul in its kaleidoscopic course through history. He writes with prodigal invention and immense brio, all of which comes through in what is plainly a brilliant and highly empathetic translation. The problem, for a non-Russian reader, is that so much of the history, geography and poetic and political references with which The Monkey Link is packed hurtle by like scenery barely glimpsed from a speeding train. Bitov's protagonist, who speaks sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third, journeys around a Russia now mythical, now actual, debating the role of animals in men's lives, man in nature, man as artist, man as political creature; and always there is much drinking and jesting. Dozens of vivid moments leap out, but the pace, and the constant play of symbolism, are so unremitting that it is impossible to grasp the book's thrust or structure. Some explanatory notes by the translator only serve to emphasize the book's difficulty for even a sympathetic American reader. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The three distinct parts of this novel form a complex, interwoven examination of how man relates to nature, God, and to himself. The first story finds the hero in Konigsberg contemplating man's place in nature with the help of a scientist. The second story examines the Soviet regime by means of an allegorical journey with an artist. The third portion of the pilgrimage openly parodies the Soviet utopia and dramatizes the spiritual death of the hero's homeland. The book is replete with huge themes such as the meaning of a nation's soul and the epic struggle between man, God, nature, good, and evil. The writing is difficult, intense, philosophical, packed with cultural references, and not for the faint of heart. The notes provided by the translator are excellent, however, and those brave readers who persist will be rewarded. Recommended for collections of serious literature.-Ruth M. Ross, Olympic Coll. Lib., Bremerton, Wash.

Library Journal