Stravaging Strange (Russian Library)

About this book

Im not on good terms with the present day Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky once mused but posterity loves me. Virtually unknown during his lifetime and unpublishable under Stalin he now draws comparisons to Beckett Borges Gogol and Swift. This book presents three tales that encapsulate Krzhizhanovskys gift for creating philosophical satirical and lyrical phantasmagorias. Stravaging Strange details the darkly comic adventures of an apprentice magus: lovesick he imbibes a magic tincture to reduce himself to the size of a dust mote the better to observe the young lady in question. He stumbles across a talkative king of hearts a gallant flea a coven of vindictive house imps and his romantic rival along the way to a cinematic dnouement. Catastrophe wryly parodies Kants philosophy: an old sage decides to extract the essence from all things and beings in a ruthless attempt to understand realityand chaos ensues. Material for a Life of Gorgis Katafalaki set in Berlin Paris London and Moscow recounts the absurd trials of an otherworldly outsider of uncertain nationality and unfixed profession with boundless curiosity but scant means. This book also includes excerpts from Krzhizhanovskys notebooksaphoristic glimpses of his worldview moods humor and writing methodsand reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong companion Anna Bovshek beginning with their first meeting in Kiev in 1920 and ending with his death in Moscow in 1950.