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Though he died in exile in 1990 and his US-born son does not read Russian, Sergei Dovlatov's posthumous volume of uncollected articles is all the rage in Moscow on the 65th anniversary of his birth -- showing he remains one of Russia's most beloved writers.
On September 3, Dovlatov's birthday, Moscow actors produced a theatrical show dedicated to the immensely popular author, staging short scenes from his largely autobiographical novels.
"Documentary theater, which is very much in fashion these days, was inspired by what Dovlatov did," said Eduard Boyarkov, the show's director.
The writer's wife and daughter, Elena and Katya Dovlatov, came to Moscow from their home in the United States to celebrate the occassion, and to help present the author's latest work: "Writing for No Reason, or Editorial Columns."
The book of editorials Dovlatov wrote for the Russian-language magazine Novy Americanets (The New American), which he ran in New York in 1980-1982, is "the number one bestseller is some Moscow bookstores," said Arkady Vitruk, director of the Mashaon publishing house.
"Of the first 27,000 copies printed, 20,000 have already been sold," he said, adding that there would be additional printings.
Ironically, Dovlatov's son Nick, who was born in New York during the writer's days at The New American, does not read Russian, according to his sister Katya, who heads the Dovlatov Foundation and herself admitted to the need to re-learn Russian.
The writer's editorials, dedicated to great events of the time, criticize the reflexive intolerance that emigrants imbibed from the Soviet regime and suggest that they change themselves rather than slam the totalitarian system.
"Soviet leaders are not extraterrestrials. Soviet power comes from our own habits... The key is to change what is within ourselves," he wrote.
The editorials also contain prototypes of characters and even whole chapters from his main novels, including the "The Zone" and "The Filial," which Russian readers did not discover until the 1990s, after Dovlatov's death.
Dovlatov emigrated to the United States in 1978 and was never published in the Soviet Union. His works, now translated into numerous European languages as well as Japanese, described the absurdities of Soviet life through his own experiences as a prison guard, guide and reporter.
"Many idols have been toppled over the past few years, but Dovlatov's success stands firm," said Pyotr Vail, a literary critic who worked with Dovlatov at The New American.
"He never used violent methods: there is neither suspense nor grotesquery in his works. He spoke in a simple, clear language that had an enduring effect," Vail explained.
Dovlatov's concise, often aphoristic sentences hide the care he applied to his style -- for example, no two words in any sentence start with the same letter.
Poet Joseph Brodsky, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1987, was a great admirer of Dovlatov's.
"He is the only Russian writer whose works will be read all the way through," Vail quoted Brodsky as saying, adding that Brodsky considered Dovlatov's popularity in the United States "natural" and predicted that one day he would be as popular in his Russian homeland.
As Brodsky once wrote of Dovlatov: "The decisive thing is his tone, which every member of a democratic society can recognize: the individual who won't let himself be cast in the role of a victim, who is not obsessed with what makes him different."
neo/cal/spb/smc
AFPEntertainment-Russia-culture-literature-publishing
AFP 051050 GMT 09 06
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