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Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer: A Novel - Hardcover

 
9781628729344: Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer: A Novel
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They are virtual brothers, Arkady and Alyosha, young pioneers in Stalin's postwar world, marching to the clarion call of socialism, to the stirring beat of the drums. The future, they are assured, is bright and beautiful. But what, then, are those endless miles of barbed wire they encounter everywhere along their route?

This is the moving, two-generational tale of two families, those of Yakov Zinger and Pyotr Yevdokimov, fathers of the two young pioneers. Inseparable, the two men have been through the grueling war against the Germans, with all its horror and senseless carnage. Yakov—or Yasha, as he was known—emerged physically intact but scarred forever "from the moment he had been lifted out of a mountain of frozen bodies at a camp in liberated Poland.” Pyotr, a skilled sniper who operated behind the German lines, lost both his legs, not at the hands of the Germans, but as a result of an artillery "mistake" by his own forces. Together, in these postwar, Cold War years, the two families try to piece together their shattered lives.

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Review:
Confessions of a Lapsed Standard Bearer, Makine's second novel, is a lyrical account of growing up in a small town outside Leningrad in the 1960s. Remarkably free of any overtly anti-Soviet polemic, Confessions sketches in loving detail the life-histories of two boys, Alyosha and Arkady, and their parents, spanning the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War to the invasion of Afghanistan in which Alyosha serves as a soldier. Written in the first-person by Alyosha in Paris as an extended letter to his friend Arkady either in Portland or Cleveland, the novel reads like an elegy for a lost world. Eschewing both nostalgia and sentimentality, the novel evokes a space of childhood resonant beyond the confines of history while utterly saturated with the triumphs and struggles of what it asserts as ordinary life in the Soviet Union.

The action culminates in an episode in which the two boys engage in spontaneous disobedience during the opening ceremony of their local new pioneers camp by continuing to play their musical instruments after the national flag has been raised: "we hardly felt we were present on that overheated parade-ground. The orgy of sound was too intense. Dazzled by the glittering, brassy cascade, deafened by the thunder that made every cell in our bodies vibrate, we were far away. Somewhere beyond the bounds of the forests and meadows that swayed in the hot air. Somewhere beyond the horizon." The responses to their actions are refreshingly banal, the motivation and consequences of them is what the book seeks to trace.

Geoffrey Strachan's translation rings true and in limpid and haunting prose, Makine evokes a tragic, hilarious and poignant place and time.--Neville Hoad

Review:
'In spite of the harsh background there is nothing depressing about Makine's work. He shows how tenderness and humour can alleviate human distress, his poetic use of language illuminating everything he writes' The Good Book Guide

It is easy to understand Makine's success. He writes lyrically, with an intensity that appeals to all our senses. He is adept at evoking both the everyday - men playing dominoes in the courtyard - and the extraordinary (Robert Chandler, Independent)

'Makine masterfully illuminates some very dark corners' Zulfikar Abbany, The Times

Wonderfully sharp, sensuous imagery and delicate delineation of feeling...a moving and gripping story (Derwent May, The Times)

''A beautiful piece of work, as good as Chekhov...a superb achievement...You will be lucky if you happen upon a better book than this'...Scarcely more than a novella, this story of a boy growing up in the Khrushchev years and later serving in Afghanistan, is truthful, nostalgic, and moving. Makine is as good as anyone writing today' Allan Massie, The Scotsman

A glory and a dream

Makine is a master word-painter and, even in translation, you can admire his precise brush-work...it has the panoramic sweep of the great Russian novels of the nineteenth century (David Robson, Sunday Telegraph)

'Perhaps his most exquisitely wrought work. It is one of those books that proceed almost sotto voce, as its author quietly lays his groundwork; then it grabs your mind and heart and never lets go...Mr Makine fashions a tale of remarkable strength and poignancy...He is a poet of the meaning that lies in the discrepancy between the 'ideological torrent' as Alyosha calls it, and the ordinary struggle of ordinary people to live ordinary lives...brillliant...Russia may be past for Mr Makine, but he continues to find ways of remembering it that produce novels striking in their depth and beauty' Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

A beautiful piece of work, as good as Chekhov...a superb achievement...You will be lucky if you happen upon a better book than this (Allan Massie, The Scotsman)

Stunning ... the lasting impression from this excellent novel is one of hope

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  • PublisherArcade Publishing
  • Publication date2012
  • ISBN 10 1628729341
  • ISBN 13 9781628729344
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages144
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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

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