Two solitudes
Two loneliness ( Russian Один и одна / Odin i odna ) is a novel by the Russian writer Vladimir Makanin , which was published in the November 1987 issue of the Moscow literary magazine October (Russian Октябрь). The translation into German by Ingeborg Kolinko was brought out by Neue Malik Verlag in Kiel in 1995.
The two lonely Moscow protagonists, a man and a woman, cannot “recognize” one another. So they continue to live next to each other - despite their common area of interest in poetry ; each for himself. Nevertheless, there is joy in every communication, no matter how insignificant.
Overview
The generation conflict is discussed . The scene of action is mostly Moscow. Twardovsky is no more and the Khrushchev era is over. So the novel is set in the 1970s. The writer Igor Petrovich tells the story of two secluded office workers who are thrown to the scrap heap by the younger generation. Gennady Pavlovich Golostschokow, a personality with the “ability to think deeply”, has been demoted from head of department to group leader; loses his post to the younger, aspiring Ptyschkow. When he tries to place an old fellow student in his group, he is disciplined. After work he runs into a car and dies as a result of the traffic accident. The single innocent Nina - actually Ninel Nikolajewna - loses her job to the young mistress of her superior. When the “straightforward, sincere woman”, who grew up in a small town behind the Volga , defends herself against the unforgivable act of arbitrariness, the fighter nature among colleagues is regarded as an informer and at home - “disgusted by herself” - turns on the gas. However, in the latter case, the first-person narrator Igor intervenes as a lifesaver. Of course, the occasional visitor, Igor, leaves the care of the sick to two young relatives from the Volga homeland. The nephew robs the aunt. Nina is looked after by the niece.
content
The 50-year-old Gennady, "a lonely man who knows neither friendship nor love", inherited a small apartment in Moscow from his parents, who died at an early age, full of books. The bachelor lives in it; on Sundays lies on the sofa with a tie and collar and freshly ironed trousers reading. But there is no visitor - except for the first-person narrator.
Gennadi had made a few attempts to break out of isolation; met the 35-year-old chief engineer Konstantin Dajew and his friend. Dayev took advantage of Gennady to the end; brought two models into that small apartment, slept with one, but the other didn't want to hear anything from "Grandpa" Gennadi. About thirty years ago, Gennadi, the top student at the Polytechnic, was scolded for his leading role in thought-provoking discussion evenings because of the “whip”. It was precisely those “cascade of brilliant ideas”, culminating in unwise proposals, that had brought the highly educated person the name “babbler” and finally brought him down in his later professional life at the Polytechnic. During his time as a lecturer at the Polytechnic, Gennadi had no shortage of young admirers. But Gennadi had not endured long with a woman at the time. So he was finally left alone. Gennady is something of a dreamer. Before his fatal traffic accident mentioned above, he had already had several such collisions - for example in winter, also as a pedestrian, with a snow clearing machine.
The combative Nina, also a graduate of a technical faculty, does not have an easy life at another Moscow job. Nobody likes the severely dressed woman - at almost forty years of age, she is the oldest in the group of colleagues. The gaunt, slightly withered Nina screeches as soon as a smoker gets in her way in the hallway. Their "biting, aggressive language" makes anyone who smokes cringe. On the day she was accused of denouncing, however, she smoked for the first time in her life, three cigarettes in a row.
Igor and his wife Anja, who is ten years younger than him, couple the two loners. At first the experiment succeeds. Gennadi actually goes to bed with Nina. But soon the couple parted without a sound. After Igor and Anja have made a second attempt to “merge”, the two loners finally break up. Vladimir Makanin writes: "On this day Gennady Pavlovich and Ninel Nikolaevna saw each other for the last time." Gennady has to overcome depression . Nina falls in love with a new neighbor, a handsome fifty-year-old divorced gentleman who pays alimony. Strictly with herself, Nina forbids herself the inclination. The woman feels much more comfortable every summer in the beloved Pyatigorsk . There, “in this complete calm of your personal life”, on the trail of Lermontov , with a view of the Maschuk and the Beschtau, walks compensate for months of misery in Moscow, two thousand kilometers away. Back in the capital, she envisions the next suicide attempt during one of Igor's rare visits. The intention remains. Nina complains, “… there are no more men!” But as a sensible woman she doesn't want to and doesn't want to turn the head of the somewhat younger visitor. Although, sometimes she could have, she claims.
Quotes
- Wladimir Makanin writes about Nina, who is still quite young: "Life has turned into the last straight."
- Nina defends herself against the resentment of her enemies: "... little people are people too."
shape
The first-person narrator Igor Petrovich appears towards the end of the first of the seven chapters. As a writer, he is nowhere employed and has no direct superior. Sometimes he gives the impression of being omniscient. Igor visits his two protagonists alternately at intervals of several months. He, who wants to make a story out of his "soul-comforting visits", writes: "Sometimes I hope ... that one day ... I don't have to visit you at all." The plot runs for about a decade. Igor is only a few years younger than Nina. Gennady is over ten years older than Igor. Igor knows Gennadi as one of the well-known senior graduates from his college, but it remains unclear how he met Nina's acquaintance. Actually there is a psychological study of aging. Igor affirmed that he had to be much more tactful with Gennadi than with Nina. The narrator gives no reason for this. The reader is challenged as a psychologist.
Alternately, episodes from the everyday life of the two protagonists are presented in a sophisticated way. For example, Gennadi's death is succinctly reported in Chapter 4. Afterwards, Igor cheerfully continues telling stories from the dead man's life until the end of the novel - just as if he were still alive. In the latter excursions, the causes of the aforementioned fatal traffic accident are discussed in more detail. The Nina case is drawn across the novel with the same strange technique. After her unsuccessful suicide attempt, Seiten later reveals the why. Before attempting suicide, the reader cannot quite figure out the cause of the incident.
Strangely, the otherwise simply structured text is already built. For example, in the sixth chapter, the narrator thinks about how the novel should be packaged in a film scenario. This pamphlet in the sixth chapter is partly written in the if-and-but tone and also reveals a few new details about the lives of the two protagonists.
German-language editions
- Vladimir Makanin: Two loneliness. Novel. Translated from the Russian by Ingeborg Kolinko . Neuer Malik-Verlag, Kiel 1995. ISBN 3-89029-092-2 (edition used)
Web links
in Russian language
- The text online at litmir.net
- The text online at e-reading.me
- The text online at bookmate.com
- Statements by two literary critics from the journal Issues of Literature Issue 2/1988 at makanin.com