"Two
distinct polarities appear to have emerged among the current spread of
literary genres in Russia: on the one hand, there is a yearning for
nonfiction, including biographies, "true stories", travelogues and
investigative novels; one the other hand, there is "a fortunate impregnation of fantastic elements into realistic narratives", as writer
and critic Alisa Ganieva puts it. She goes on to say: "There is an
obvious drive to record the reality as true to lofe as possible (your
non-fiction fad), while simultaneously looking beyond the horizons and
trying to perceive what awaits this country and all of humanity in the
future, taking the country's current political and social system and
projecting it into a not-so-distant future. In other words, it is in a
way realistic prose posing as fantasy."
Jennifer Weiner on Book Clubs' selection
“A book club will by all means pick up Franzen. It’s being written about everywhere — you can’t avoid it. But are they going to read ‘The Unknowns’ or even [Meg Wolitzer's] ‘The Interestings’ — books with covers that are not playing into warm and fuzzy feelings or with a portrait of a woman shot from the back, the kind that say to book clubs, ‘This one’s for you’?”
Jennifer Weiner on Book Clubs' selection
“A book club will by all means pick up Franzen. It’s being written about everywhere — you can’t avoid it. But are they going to read ‘The Unknowns’ or even [Meg Wolitzer's] ‘The Interestings’ — books with covers that are not playing into warm and fuzzy feelings or with a portrait of a woman shot from the back, the kind that say to book clubs, ‘This one’s for you’?”
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