The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia
by Emmanuel Carrère
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2014
352 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
This is how Emmanuel Carrère, the magnetic journalist, novelist, filmmaker, chameleon, describes his subject: "Limonov is not a fictional character. There. I know him. He was a rogue in Ukraine; an idol of the Soviet underground under Brezhnev; a bum, then a multimillionaire's valet in Manhattan; a fashionable writer in Paris; a lost soldier in the Balkan wars; and now, in the chaotic ruins of postcommunist Russia, the elderly but charismatic leader of a party of young desperados. He sees himself as a hero; you might call him a scumbag: I suspend my judgment on the matter. It's a dangerous life, an ambiguous life: a real adventure novel. It is also, I believe, a life that says something. Not just about him, Limonov, not just about Russia, but about all our history since the end of World War II."
So Eduard Limonov isn't fictional - but he might as well be. This pseudo-biography isn't a novel, but it reads like one: from Limonov's grim childhood; to his desperate, comical, ultimately successful attempts to gain the respect of Russia's literary intellectual elite; to his emigration to New York, then to Paris; to his return to the motherland. Limonov could be read as a charming picaresque. But it could also be read as a troubling counter-narrative of the second half of the twentieth century, one that reveals a violence, an anarchy, a brutality that the stories we tell ourselves about progress tend to conceal.
"Starred Review. In this astute, witty account, Limonov has found his ideal biographer. There are few more enjoyable descriptions of Russia today." - Publishers Weekly
"?A searching portrait of an arrogant, heroic and willful man: a mix of Jean Genet, Don Quixote and King Lear." - Kirkus
"The French, who are notoriously divided on literary matters, all seem to agree: there are few great writers in France today, and Emmanuel Carrère is one of them." - The Paris Review (France)
"Limonov... is the human being who more than any other embodies Carrère's three demons and adds a crucial one of his own: the desire to challenge the world." - Corriere della sera (Italy)
This information about Limonov was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Writer, scriptwriter, and film producer Emmanuel Carrère was born in Paris in 1957. He is the author of The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), My Life as a Russian Novel, Class Trip, The Mustache, and Lives Other Than My Own. Limonov was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 2011 as well as the Prix Européen de Littérature and the Prix des Prix. Carrère lives in Paris. A native of Vancouver, John Lambert studied philosophy in Paris before moving to Berlin, where he lives with his wife and two children. He has also translated Monsieur, Reticence, and Self-Portrait Abroad by Jean-Philippe Toussaint.
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