Scribe
| Thursday, May 5, 2011 7:01AM | | | | Is Sorokin the Russian Bolano? | Posted By: Jane Ciabattari
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| | Although his arrival was delayed by visa problems, Vladimir Sorokin, with his leonine mane of silver hair, was much in evidence at the PEN World Voices Festival.
A daring samizdat postmodernist in the waning Soviet days, Sorokin was known for stories that threw grenades at the long forced march to socialist realism. He was onstage on April 30 in conversation with Russian-born n + 1 editor and critic Keith Gessen. (Footnote: Sorokin’s usual translator, Jamey Gambrell, was delayed in traffic, so FSG’s Mark Kirov stepped in, adroitly handling translation for the first half of the conversation).
Gessen described Sorokin’s "Normal," [The Norm], in which everyone goes about normal life and at least once a day eats... | | | | | | | |
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