Trepanation of the Skull

Moscow, early 1990s. The main character suffers from unbearable headaches, and soon doctors find a benign tumor in him. While waiting for surgery, life goes on, encompassing vernissages and poetry evenings, trips to the dacha, drinking bouts with friends, and... of course, painful self-reflection and fear of the future. Like Dovlatov, the protagonist of Gandlevsky is autobiographical, with real people — friends and colleagues of the author — appearing here and there: Timur Kibirov, Lev Rubinstein, Alexander Soprovsky, Semyon Faibisovich, Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov, and many others. The narrative "here and now" is often interspersed with memories of a "non-censored" youth, and vivid everyday details make this prose especially memorable. "NRZB" is a novel about the poet-studio artist Lev Krivorotov (the surname in this case is telling); in his youth, he aimed for the trajectory of "creativity, love, masterpieces, a period of persecution, gray hair, tailcoat, Stockholm, laureate speech," but alas, what was envisioned did not come to pass. Twenty years later, Krivorotov has pushed creativity to the background and is dealing with the legacy of Viktor Chigrashov, a poet about whom contemporaries once said: "We will only be remembered for breathing the same air as him." The bitterness of unfulfilled hopes, jealousy, and suppressed grievances are Krivorotov's life fuel, but even in this stagnant water, there will be surprises... Sergey Gandlevsky is a poet, prose writer, and essayist. He graduated from the philological faculty of Moscow State University. He has worked as a schoolteacher, tour guide, stage worker, and night watchman; he is currently the editor of the journal "Foreign Literature." He has been writing poetry since the age of eighteen and was a member of the poetry association "Moscow Time." He is a laureate of many literary awards, including the "Small Booker," "Anti-Booker," "North Palmira," the Apollon Grigoryev Prize, "Moscow Bill," and "Poet."