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Indlæser... Nachtwegen roman (original 1991; udgave 2014)af Gajto Gazdanov (Forfatter), Arie Van der Ent
Work InformationNight Roads af Gajto Gazdanov (1991)
  
Ingen Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Out collection (  ) Honisoitquimalypense | Nov 1, 2022 |  After having fought for the Whites in the Russian Civil War, Gaito Gazdanov fled for Paris in 1920, and after a few years of miscellaneous factory work and hard labor, he took a job as a late night taxi driver, which he would do for about 25 years. About midway through, before WWII, he would write a non-fiction account of this life in ‘Night Roads’. It’s pretty bleak, as he came into contact with all sorts of derelicts, drunks, and prostitutes in the wee hours of the night, and over the years, in contrast to the romantic Victor Hugo, formed a very negative impression of “les misérables”. Highly intellectual, he was also bitter for having to drive a cab in the first place, and it shows in his writing. Gazdanov is at times philosophical and at times lyrical, and I do enjoy the sophistication in his writing, but in this book he too often resorts to negative conclusions about humanity and his own state of mind, too often ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’. It’s not that there aren’t any characters or events; we meet an alcoholic and an aging prostitute who was once a society woman, among a few others. There is a pathos to their stories and their outlooks on life, but they are so banal that it’s very hard to connect with them. This may be a perfect snapshot of Gazdanov’s life in 1939-41, and it’s all the more remarkable that he would write such great fiction while a cabbie given what he was going through. If you’re a big Gazdanov fan I would recommend the book for the autobiography it provides, otherwise, I would suggest skipping it. (  )2  gbill | Jun 20, 2017 |
...a book that seemed to me to deserve to be called a major Russian novel by an important, if neglected, émigré writer... Tilhører Forlagsserien
Drawing together episodes of rich atmosphere, this novel is as deep and brooding as the Paris nights that serve as its backdrop. Russian writer Gaito Gazdanov arrived in Paris, as so many did, between the wars and would go on, with this fourth novel, to give readers a crisp rendering of a living city changing beneath its people’s feet. Night Roads is loosely based on the author’s experiences as a cab driver in those disorienting, often brutal years, and the narrator moves from episode to episode, holding court with many but sharing his mind with only a few. His companions are drawn straight out of the Parisian past: the legendary courtesan Jeanne Raldi, now in her later days, and an alcoholic philosopher who goes by the name of Plato. Along the way, the driver picks up other characters, such as the dull thinker who takes on the question of the meaning of life only to be driven insane. The dark humor of that young man’s failure against the narrator’s authentic, personal explorations of the same subject is captured in this first English translation. With his trademark émigré eye, Gazdanov pairs humor with cruelty, sharpening the bite of both. No library descriptions found. |
Populære omslag
 Google Books — Indlæser...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.734Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction USSR 1917–1991LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit: (3.65)
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