THE LOSS: A Novella and Two Stories

by Vladimir Makanin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1998

More fiction from the prizewinning Russian author of Escape Hatch and Baize-Colored Table with Decanter. The title novella, about its obsessive protagonist whose efforts to dig a tunnel beneath the Ural River earn him eventual canonization, wheezes with conventional and predictable ironies--as does ""Klycharov and Alimushkin,"" a fable-like tale of its title characters' crisscrossing and conflicting destinies. Far better is ""The Prisoner from the Caucasus,"" a spare and direct story (made into an acclaimed recent film) detailing the relationship between a Russian soldier and his Chechen captive. It's the least tricky and mannered, as well as most affecting, example of Makanin's seemingly overpraised work to have reached English translation thus far.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Northwestern Univ.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998

Categories: FICTION