Bøger af Liudmila Ulitskaya

Shurik Korn is a modern Casanova in the guise of a boy from a good Moscow family. Fatherless from the cradle, his education is carried out by his energetic grandmother - the French teacher Yelizaveta lvánovna - and his weak mother, Vera Aleksándrovna, a failed actress whose fragility of soul and propensity to exalt herself place her in the background in the framework of that family triangle. Grandmother and mother instill in Shurik a sense of selflessness and love of neighbor, which in Shurik will result in a strange deviation: "In him, compassion and desire converge at the same point." Since he was young, Shurik has been attracted to lonely and helpless women, whom he feels sorry for, and this drives him to engage in frenetic sexual activity to offer them consolation... This is the story of Shurik Korn but also that of a family saga - there is talk of four generations of a Russian family, from the beginning to the end of the 20th century-, and especially that of the plethora of lovers who swarm around Shurik, women of different ages and social backgrounds. Matilda, the mature sculptress who lives with her family feline and debuts him in his Samaritan mission as a lover. Alia, the applied student from Kazakhstan corroded by complexes and shortcomings. Lena, whom he marries only to prevent the child he is expecting from a Cuban dissident from being illegitimate. Valeria, his boss at the library, a beautiful, jovial and energetic woman despite her handicap in her legs. Svetlana, the unbalanced young woman who works embroidering flowers for a cooperative of funeral wreaths. Zhanna, the dwarf who is part of a circus company, etc. Some of his relationships end in a mixture of love and friendship for life, others in tragedy - the most desperate of his lovers commits suicide. And above all his lovers Lilia stands out, his first and only love, the only one he did not comfort because she emigrated to Israel too soon. When they meet again after years, she will be surprised at his lack of character and insipidity.

In this book, which is presented as a serialized novel, the great Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya offers us subtle variations on the feminine lie. Well, according to our author, women's lies would be clearly distinguished from men's lies, and would almost always be devoid of purpose. Zhenia, the main character, is thus confronted with all kinds of inventions or fantasies. Like the story of Irene, who, while on vacation in the Crimea, receives the news of the death of her children, which moves Zhenya to tears. Little Nadia invents an older brother, Lialia a relationship with a famous painter and Ana pretends to be a poet... Each new chapter of this novel illustrates in its own way the breadth of Lyudmila Ulitskaya's talent, the precision of her sense of observation, the originality of her writing and, above all, a great tenderness towards her characters and, through them, towards the human being and his weaknesses.