21st Century Literature discussion
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The Life of an Unknown Man
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The Life of an Unknown Man - Parts 1 & 2 (Spoilers)
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Hugh
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Feb 15, 2021 04:59AM
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I was not impressed with Part 1 at all. Shutov was self-centered, depressed, and immature. He takes of for St. Petersburg seeking a past that he somehow thinks is better than the present. Part 2 is somewhat more interesting as Shutov is less focused on himself and more on describing the "new" Russia he encounters.
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After reading the entire book, I can see that the first part has a bit of caricature in it. While that doesn't make me like part 1 any better, I can see better how it fits in what the author seems to be doing with the book, a topic for another thread.
Wasn’t the contrast between Shutov’s and Vlad’s experiences with literature interesting? Talk about culture shock-Shutov:
p. 18: “An exile’s only country is his country’s literature.”
p.65: “He should have told Vlad that in the old days a collection of poems could change your life, but a single poem could also cost the life of its author.” “He imagines Vlad’s mocking reply: ‘And you think that was good?’ ……Why should the Gulag be a criterion of good literature? And suffering a measure of authenticity?”
Vlad:
p. 63: “Historians rewrite the truth every day. What interests us is the truth that gets the reader to reach for his wallet. You know what my boss’s motto is? ‘Only the blind are excused from buying our books’”.
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While Makine does not address it, I think the importance of literature to Russians under Stalin was similar to the importance of the prohibited religion. When communism abruptly ended, it through average Russians for a loop. Only a few were able to "capitalize" and become insanely rich like Yana, as seen by the occupants of the apartments that Yana had to have "resettled."
There are Harry Haller (Steppenwolf) qualities to Shutov and I believe they both stem from the same archetype. I think the novel challenges us in how to react to Shutov emotionally. He can be perceived as pitiful and ludicrous, but in truth both are at play. He is like the optical illusion that can be a vase or two faces depending on your perspective and if you shift your focus you can see one and then the other. I am not sure what Makine intended, but if one views Shutov this way, the reading of the next parts make an interesting parallel.
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Seems to me that Shutov has to be painfully self-indulgent and nostalgic about love and Russia or he would have nothing to learn from Volsky in the second half. The fact that he makes you uncomfortable is a tribute to how great the writing is in the first half. We are really inside his perspective. Russia in the wars and under Stalin was devastated, and no-one survived intact, least of all a poor clown growing up in an orphanage. Shutov has replaced his history with a pre-trauma version of aristocratic society as embodied by Chekov, casting a misty glow over memories too terrible to be remembered. And as we learn at the end, mis-remembering even Chekov to bend it to his needs. He goes back to Russia on a wave of this false nostalgia and discovers the continued displacement and disorientation of the modern kleptocracy, so far still from the literary and moral 19th century version he craves. In Secondhand Times, Svetlana Alexievich gives a very full picture of just how important anti-materialism was to the Soviets - huddled round the tables in their kitchens with nothing but friendship, forbidden manuscripts and ideas. Everything that was valued by those idealists wanting to get rid of the communist regime was promptly over-run by thugs and greed. I am not sure that I was fully convinced in the second half that it can all be redeemed by true love, but I'm cynical that way (and we can discuss separately).
While I did not get this from this book but it comes through in Alexievich's book, when I visited Russia (granted it was only 2 weeks), a number of the people we interacted with were not happy with the situation post-communism --The single mother who worked 3 jobs (teaching foreign languages at three colleges) who doubted she would be able to provide her daughter with the education she received.
The single mother who worked 2 jobs (administrator at the Hermitage and guide) whose son needed to get perfect scores on all the university entrance exams in order to secure a place at university because she did not have enough money to bribe officials to get him in.
The guide who invested all the money she received post conversion in a hotel scheme that never happened and her money disappeared into one of the new oligarchs pocket.
I do not think these people were anti-materialistic or idealistic; they just wanted not to have to struggle. It was early in Putin's second term of office when I was there and people liked him because the food lines were gone.
The Shutov in Paris bore no resemblance to these hardworking people. He was a dissident who had gotten out before getting caught and likely sent to the gulag. He was despondent and bad-tempered and thought the time pre-Stalin was a sort of golden age that he would like to return to. His visit to Russia was an awakening - the post-communist era had not brought a return of 19th century Russia, but rather a entry into the greed of capitalism.
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I read Second Hand Time a couple of years ago and I agree that it is very powerful.
Finally catching up to join in on this section. I have enjoyed both parts I and II. Shutov is an excellent character. Going "home" again after many years away is a unique feeling no matter where you're from.
Hmm.. My 'outside' reading produced an interesting link; Carrère's book after The Adversary, My Life as a Russian Novel: A Memoir focuses on two years of Carrère's life and his emotional involvement with a much younger woman, with a very similar tone to Shutov's. Carrère also found that visiting "modern" Russia was a release from his life in France.
Very interesting, Mark!
A few thoughts on the first two Parts: 1) They both drift into caricature, as LindaJ says. I think of it more as broad humor. In Part 1, we have the talk show, where the one participant Shutov has respect for is the one that Lea can't stand. In part 2, along with the repeating car commercials on every TV channel, the porn channel's "cries of pleasure in Russian are reminiscent of the instructions for a domestic appliance."
2) Shutov's St. Petersburg shows a very different part of Russia than Carrère's decaying provincial backwater. Each is equally alien to Paris and the west, however.
