The Golden Subbotnik

“Muscovite is the shortest path from something serious to something funny,” said writer Boris Minaev. That path brought Marina Москвина to the dazzling “Golden Sunday” — a celebration for those who have already planted not one, but their tree(s) in life during community workdays. Yuri Nikulin, Slava Polunin, Tonino Guerra, Viktor Chizhikov, Dina Rubina, artists, publishers, musicians, actors, wandering minstrels— all of them are the culprits behind the funny, strange, and sad cases that the author collected for many years, like precious gems. The blues-driven energy of this book invites you above all to value life—because there won’t be another, better one. “— And write about everyone with humor,” said the artist Leonid Tishkov. “But many are already gone…” “Then write with humor about those who, it seems, are here even though they aren’t—and without humor about those who, it seems, aren’t here even though they are.” At a festival in Nizhny Novgorod, a representative of the organizing committee said to me in parting: “Come to us more often. I haven’t read anything by you and I know nothing about you at all. And many people—sorry for saying it like this—many people order you.”