Опубликовано в журнале Дружба Народов, номер 7, 2005
DINA RUBINA.“A Quest for the Sense”. These three new novels seem to be not quite written but rather painted by an artist’s brush. And as the nature of a character or the author’s mood show through a picture — memory, history, philosophy of life, human sufferings and delights show through the plots of these writings-paintings.
The new novel by our regular author DMITRY STAKHOV “Formula” is composed as an unfolding monologue. Its protagonist, a chemist, turns out to be the only keeper of the secret formula of a potent synthetic narcotic. He changes his name and makes a fresh start in hope to use his advantage. But no one has power to escape from oneself or one’s past.
“Caucasian Frontier”. In their round-table conference SERGEI MARKEDONOV (head of the Interethnic problems’ department of the Institute of Strategic and Military Analysis), NICKOLAY SILAEV (senior scientist of the Center of Caucasian Research) and Irina Doronina (the mediator) discuss the burning questions of the North Caucasus: is Chechnya a normalcy or an anomaly for the NC; is the NC doomed to endless disturbances; does it need stability just for the sake of stability and many others.
H. SELDON. “Putin’s Era: Preliminary Results”.
An attempt of analysis of Russia’s interrelations with the states of the ex-Soviet territory from geopolitical point of view.
NATALYA TRAUBERG. Islands in a Strange World.
Formally it’s “marginal notes” from two books published in Russian this year: “A Biography of Tomas Ventslova” (translated from Lithuanian) and “A Collection of Articles on Joseph Brodsky” written by Ventslova himself. In reality it’s a political and personal portrait of this well-known literary man, poet, translator and culturologist. The text is full of citations and friendly observations.