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Fw: VN's French works in the original & Andrei Makine
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergey Karpukhin" <shrewd@irk.ru>
> I searched the Internet for any material concerning Andrei Makine. There
is
> a 2001 interview where he sounds rather Solzhenitsyn-like. He seems to
> dislike profoundly the age he lives in. In that interview he is said to
have
> started with writing his novels in Russian and then translating them
(ploho,
> inadequately) into French. Makine's most successful fourth novel "The
French
> Testament", which won a Goncourt and a Medicis prizes, was translated into
> Russian not by him but by a couple of professional Russian translators
> (published in "Inostrannaya Literatura", 1996, #12). In an article
published
> in "Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye" his fellow writers in emigration show
> little or no enthusiasm at all when talking about him (one of them said
that
> if a Chukchi wrote in French he would be an even greater success).
Besides,
> among emigrants Makine seems to be considered as a sort of castaway
because
> he strives to become a French author.
> I hope this will be of some interest.
>
> Best regards,
> Sergey Karpukhin
-----------------
EDCOMMENT. Thank you for the info. Makine's best-known book here is _Dreams
of my Russian Summers_. Apparently Makine spent a good deal of time in his
boyhood with his French grandmother who lived in Siberia.
From: "Sergey Karpukhin" <shrewd@irk.ru>
> I searched the Internet for any material concerning Andrei Makine. There
is
> a 2001 interview where he sounds rather Solzhenitsyn-like. He seems to
> dislike profoundly the age he lives in. In that interview he is said to
have
> started with writing his novels in Russian and then translating them
(ploho,
> inadequately) into French. Makine's most successful fourth novel "The
French
> Testament", which won a Goncourt and a Medicis prizes, was translated into
> Russian not by him but by a couple of professional Russian translators
> (published in "Inostrannaya Literatura", 1996, #12). In an article
published
> in "Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye" his fellow writers in emigration show
> little or no enthusiasm at all when talking about him (one of them said
that
> if a Chukchi wrote in French he would be an even greater success).
Besides,
> among emigrants Makine seems to be considered as a sort of castaway
because
> he strives to become a French author.
> I hope this will be of some interest.
>
> Best regards,
> Sergey Karpukhin
-----------------
EDCOMMENT. Thank you for the info. Makine's best-known book here is _Dreams
of my Russian Summers_. Apparently Makine spent a good deal of time in his
boyhood with his French grandmother who lived in Siberia.