Год обмана

by Andrey Gelasimov, Андрей Геласимов

1998, l'année du grand krach financier, année du mensonge en Russie, Mikhai͏̈l Vorobiov, un looser grand amateur de boissons fortes et d'aventures féminines, se voit confier une singulière mission. Il doit apprendre à boire, fumer et courir les filles au fils renfermé et agoraphobe d'un nouveau Russe, PDG de son état. Or, l'héritier de 17 ans est amoureux d'une petite banlieusarde moscovite...

Genres: Fiction, Russia, Contemporary, Russian Literature, Crime

393 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Andreï Guelassimov est né en 1965 à Irkoutsk. Après des études de lettres, il partà Moscou suivre au Gitis (l'Institut d'études théâtrales) les cours du prestigieux metteur en scène Anatoly Vassiliev. Spécialiste d'Oscar Wilde, il a enseigné à l'université la littérature anglo-américaine. Fox Mulder a une tête de cochon, son premier livre, a été publié en 2001. La Soif (Actes Sud, 2004), son second ouvrage, un récit sur la guerre de Tchétchénie publié en Russie en 2002, a confirmé sa place sur la scène littéraire russe. Il a été la révélation des Belles Etrangères russes en France à l'automne 2004, et son dernier roman vient d'être consacré par le Booker Prize des étudiants 2004.

Reviews

[Tim Roast · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lying Year is the tale of Mikhail over one year of his life which he spends basically lying. He loses a job, gets lucky in that he is employed by his former company boss to teach his son the ways of life, gets mixed up with his girlfriend leading to a show-down in the middle of the book, before the second half where he becomes a kidnapper. And thanks to his lying there are some really funny, but ultimately disastrous, moments where he keeps digging his own hole.

This is a Russian book that has been translated into English. At first I was struggling with the translation and thought it was quite poor, although maybe that is just me as the translator has awards. Anyway I got used to it. And to its credit the conversations worked alright.

The format of the book is funny because it starts as a straight narrative before breaking into a diary and letters to show other characters viewpoints in the centre as there is a dramatic crescendo in the story as the gun makes an appearance. Then it goes into narrative again with the diary element returning at the end for the next crescendo. This worked well.

Mikhail gets into all sorts of situations through his “lying” but also his cowardice, which makes the book very funny, and the book is very fast-paced but I did have the translation issues at the beginning so it has to be a 4 out of 5.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better books exist that celebrate/laugh at/criticize the random nature of life in Russia. They are wittier, the characters are more interesting, and the plots more original. Those books are also better translated, which may have been part of the problem here, but I can't help but feel it's the original that was lacking the ability to make the reader sympathize even with the scoundrel, credible observations of life's inexplicable nature, and that incomparable richness of language Russian writers are known for.

[Alona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Книга повествует о неком раздолбае Михаиле, которого больше всего в жизни интересуют понты. Именно поэтому его и нанимает некий бизнесмен, чтобы воспитывать своего сына. Сын у него "странный", только и сидит в компьютере, а папа хочет сделать его "нормальным". В какой-то момент этот сын знакомит Михаила с девушкой Мариной, в которую влюблён, и Михаил влюбляется в неё сам.
Далее начинают разворачиваться события и не все из них кажутся логичными. Аннотация даёт нам понять, что между Михаилом и сыном папочки разгорается конкуренция за внимание девушки, но куда уж там, если последний так и не вылазит из-за компьютера. Девушка Марина то представляется какой-то охотницей за деньгами, то просто скромняшей, влюбленной в Михаила. События совершенно не помогает осветить тот факт, что некоторые части книги написаны от разных лиц, причём иногда в форме дневника или писем. Обычно такая форма повествования помогает взглянуть на события со стороны разных героев, увидеть их перспективу, но тут этот другой взгляд слишком обрывочен, ничего особенного он не проясняет.
Где-то в середине книги начинаются какие-то криминальные разборки, которые там вообще ни к селу, ни к городу. Главный герой Михаил морально вырос, теперь он думает не только о себе, но тем не менее он только и делает, что совершает глупости. Остальные герои книги как были, так и остались, с ними вообще никаких перемен не произошло. Даже будто это вообще не герои книги, а статисты.
Отдельным героем тут выступает ситуация в стране. Последствия перестройки, финансовый кризис 98го года, общая тяжелая ситуация в стране. Но всё это проходит как-то мимо, задним планом, на героев особо не влияет.
В общем, книга читается, конечно, очень легко и быстро, и даже с неким интересом, но вот глупость происходящего иногда раздражала.

[Dinara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well,If I was asked to describe the plot in short, I would say: rich people also have their problems. And they cry too.
The drama is closely connected with humor and this is all just in the center of Economic crisis in USSR that should collapse soon. If you are interested in malinovyi jackets and how it was there, you should read it.
The book is also full of Russian jargon. I personally liked it, because I missed it.

[Malcolm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing in nearly every way. At times it is hard to tell if the fault lies with the author or the translator. But the end result is a story that paints most of the characters as dolts and describes a lot of wild antics that ultimately go nowhere. The use of multi-character narratives, diary entries and letters fails completely.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pas aimé la fin mais sinon bien

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the benefit of 10-20 years of distance, it's unarguable that the decade following the dissolution of the USSR was more or less a disaster for the average Russian. Treated to a series of bewildering economic and political reforms that rendered state services completely unreliable, their savings more or less worthless, the rule of law shaky at best, and funneled wealth and power into the hands of a select band of oligarchs/mafia, it's hardly surprising that the effects continue to resonate across Russian society today. This novel from one of Russia's more well-regarded writers revisits those uncertain times with a story set the months leading up to the 1998 Russian fiscal crisis (aka the "Ruble crisis").

Mikhail Vorobyov is a twenty-something screwup/slacker who's recently been fired from his job at a large industrial firm in Moscow for boozing on the job. To his astonishment, he is summoned to the boss's office, where he is made an offer he can't refuse. The boss (a budding oligarch) is concerned that his teenage son is some kind of deviant or sissy, as he spends all day in his room on his computer. The boss wants Mikhail to teach him to be a man, take him out on the town, introduce him to vodka and women -- for which he will be paid a very handsome salary and given the use of a shiny new Land Rover. Naturally, Mikhail jumps at the offer and wacky hi-jinks ensure. Or rather, somewhat wacky hi-jinks sometimes ensue.

After this promising setup, the book never picks up a head of steam, instead meandering all over the place with little urgency or focus. It turns out the teenager has a secret lover, but his father has pledged him to the daughter of an Italian concrete magnate, so that's one thread. Mikhail turns out to be attracted to the kid's lover, so that's another thread. There's plenty of deception (hence the title), plenty of intragenerational issues, plenty of "New Russia" problems (like a gangster who takes over a market stall), some comic set pieces, some gunplay, some diary excerpts, some other voices -- but none of it really adds up to anything really compelling. It's more a series of vignettes or impressions or moods, as opposed to a compelling story. Those who need their fiction to be plot-driven will likely be frustrated, while those who feed on character will find a little more to chew on -- a little, not a lot. Worth trying if you've got some connection to Russia or Russian fiction, otherwise I can't recommend it. It's never a good sign when I'm able to put a book down for a few days and completely forget about it, and that happened several times with this book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Lying Year" shares many of the ineffable qualities of classic Russian literature in its approach to characters, tragedy, and comedy. The primary setting is late '90's Moscow during the Yeltsin regime and the painful transition to free market economy, but while the setting enables some of the plot points, it is not what really makes the novel. Rather, it is the characters and their various and tangled inter-relationships.

Without being as overtly philosophical as Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, Gelasimov still manages to deal with questions of love, happiness, money, mental health--in general, why do people do the things they do. He is masterful at interweaving comedy and drama, with some of the most intense scenes also being the funniest--the characters Mikhail and Sergei, especially, seem often unable to get out of their own way, landing themselves in ever more ridiculous situations.

The narrative structure also deserves a mention. Gelasimov presents the viewpoints of multiple characters, who each have their own voice, which in turn provides alternative context for events seen from the perspective of another. But rather than just getting different first-person narrations, each character's thoughts are communicated in a manner uniquely suited to their persona, whether that be straight-ahead first-person, journal entries, letters, voicemail recordings, or stream of consciousness. Perhaps most noteworthy, however, is that the character who motivates everyone else's actions never receives her own voice, leaving a satisfying space to contemplate the necessity, or "rightness," of all that has transpired.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Franetic fast paced story about a man fired from a regular job for misdeeds and then hired for double salary to teach the bosses son how to drink and carouse with women. The father believe his son is a computer nerd with few social skills. Little does dad know his boy has been seeing an older Ukrainian girl for 2 years. Mikhail, the employee, finds himself lead by Sergei the younger man into parts unknown. A problem crops up when Mikhail finds himself in love with Marina too and actually has a chance with her. Chaos ensues. The story was upbeat and silly but I found not very entertaining. It wasn't bad but in my opinion not that good either.

[Andy Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suspect it's a case of 'lost in translation' but this was quite hard to read and understand at times, and for me the switch between narrative and diary extracts - at the two crucial points in the plot - jarred. There were so many plot strands on the go at once that at times I felt the author got into even more of a knot than the protagonist.

[Violeta Staykova · Rating 3 out of 5]

безспорно забавна, но не и повърхностна книжка. главният герой е голям образ, с който споделяме общо мнение, че пространните разсъждения за дълбоката поетика на безсъдържателната руска драматургия са идиотско дърдорене...и преводът е много добър, напоследък имам чувството че руските книги ги превеждат по-добре от англоезичните.

[Célia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un roman palpitant et révélateur sur la Russie actuelle. Le renouveau de la littérature russe s'annonce sous les meilleurs augures.

[Evan]

Another preview book I NEED to buy... *Sigh*

[Alan Fricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow unsatisfactory