BOOK NOTES
New novel by Andrukhovych released by CIUS Press
EDMONTON - "Recreations" by Yuri Andrukhovych is a novel of carnavilesque vitality and acute social criticism. It celebrates newly found freedom and reflects upon the contradictions of post-Soviet society. Four poets and an entourage of secondary characters converge on fictional Chortopil for the Festival of the Resurrecting Spirit, an orgy of popular culture, civic dysfunction, national pride and sex.
First published in Ukrainian in 1992 and now available in English in an edition published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, "Recreations" established Mr. Andrukhovych as a sophisticated, yet seductively readable comic writer with penetrating insights into his volatile times. The novel delights with its extravagant and eccentric variety. For all of its artful devices it aims to be lucid, not dark, and readable, not forbidding.
Mr. Andrukhovych was born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, in 1960. He studied in Lviv, served in the Soviet Army in 1983-1984, and worked for a regional newspaper.
His poems began appearing in 1982. His first collection of poetry, "Sky and Squares" (1985) was followed by "Downtown" (1989) and "Exotic Plants and Flowers" (1991).
"The Moscoviad: A Horror Novel" (1993) and "Perversion" (1996) continue the satirical and grotesque vein of "Recreations."
Mr. Andrukhovych is also active as a translator, literary critic and scriptwriter.
"Recreations" was translated into English by Marko Pavlyshyn, the Mykola Zerov Senior Lecturer in Ukrainian Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of "Canon and Iconostasis" (Kyiv, 1997) and many articles on contemporary Ukrainian literature.
The publication of this novel fortuitously coincides with the Mr. Andrukhovych's appearance at the International Festival of Authors at the Harbourfront Reading Series in Toronto, between October 22 and 29. After that, Mr. Andrukhovych will be making appearances in a number of East Coast cities in the U.S., including Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
The book is available in both cloth ($29.95) and paper ($19.95) and contains 12 illustrations by the Paris-based Ukrainian artist Volodymyr Makarenko.
To order "Recreations" contact: CIUS Press, 352 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8; telephone, (403) 492-2972; fax, (403) 492-4967; e-mail, [email protected].
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 11, 1998, No. 41, Vol. LXVI
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