This week’s book is one I picked up from the inheritance pile thinking it would be a quick read, at only 95 pages.
It was not…
Book 27 – The Trial Begins, by Abram Tertz. This book follows the inter-connected stories of Vladimir Petrovich Globov, his son Seryhoza and wife Marina, and her potential lover Yury Karlinsky. The story is set in a Totalitarian state where the people live under the watchful eye of The Master, and thoughts outside his accepted parameters are dangerous and potentially life-threatening. The Master is written to represent Stalin, and the dangerous thoughts are alternative forms of Communism than the Stalinist-accepted principles.
As Globov dreams of proving his political purity through show trials of doctors who perform unlawful abortions, his wife terminates her own pregnancy and his son becomes involved in a group whose principles are deemed incompatible with proper Socialism. Through his machinations Karlinsky condemns Seryhoza, destroys Globov’s standing and persuades Marina into his bed only to find that once he has all he wanted, he no longer has any passion for it.
All this plays out against a backdrop of fantasy and allegorical references, and with the knowledge that the book you are reading could condemn someone to imprisonment or death, just as happened to Seryhoza.
This book was, indeed, written by a Russian author living under the Totalitarian rules of the state. Abram Tertz is a pseudonym for Andrei Sinyavsky, who wrote this book in 1960 when censorship was extreme and unforgiving – he was imprisoned in 1966 for his writings, which were described as anti-Soviet activity.
That is what gives the book its depth and strength: these words were dangerous, illegal – they have a sense of vibrant energy in them because the reader knows this. They are more intense because they are taboo.
Now, as a reader who did not really experience the Cold War, or the closed-down Stalinist state, it is hard to imagine the impact this book could have made in the Western world when it was released. However, I can only admire a writer who took such huge risks to share his words with the world.
This book was not at all what I expected, and you might think I’d be surprised that my grandparents owned this, but I’m not, at all. I have inherited my desire to learn. to know and to understand from them, after all. Why should I be surprised?
So this week was a short, intense, complex book that took all my time but I’m glad I read it because it makes me feel a little closer to my grandparents. I just wish I could have discussed this book with my grandfather, I’d love to know what he thought of it!
Happy reading
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 