Getting Ahead of the Obituary
6 hrs. 43 min.
Language
Russian
Author
Alexander Shirvindt
Author
Alexander Shirvindt
Narrator
Mikhail Shirvindt
Narrator
Mikhail Shirvindt
Description
In 2019, Alexander Shirvindt—the nationwide-loved actor, director, and TV host—celebrated a milestone anniversary. “When I turned 85, I thought this was a perfectly serious number to use to formulate myself,” he writes in the foreword to his memoirs, “Ahead of the Obituary.”
Divided into two parts, this is a book of memories—from early childhood to the present day—about family and loved ones, about his work in the theater, about filming in cinema. And of course, about his favorite friends. With unmatched humor, Alexander Shirvindt shares his thoughts and, with tenderness and warmth, recalls Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Eldar Ryazanov, Arkady Arkanov and Bulat Okudzhava, Andrey Mironov and Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Oleg Tabakov, Mark Zakharov, Yevgeny Primakov, and many others.
“Earlier, when I was in a burst of writing for writing’s sake, I used to think: don’t try to aim at monumental memoirs with the modest sections ‘Me about myself’ and ‘They about me, and I about them.’ Now I thought: why not? Let yet another little book collapse into the stacks of literary reserves. ‘To immortalize’ is a clumsy and unpleasant word, though it’s accurate in meaning. It’s impossible to immortalize everyone who’s dear to me and whom I don’t forget—and yet I want to. So I came up with a principle for choosing the characters of my fate. I walked up to the book shelves and, to the astonished looks of my household, laid out all the literature on the shelf except Shakespeare, Gogol, Beaumarchais, and other authors whose encounters didn’t leave a mark. In the end, I selected only books with inscribed autograph dedications from friends. I wanted to tell them something very tender, honest, and witty in return—but those things are incompatible, so I have to be sincere.”
The book is read by Mikhail Alexandrovich Shirvindt.
Divided into two parts, this is a book of memories—from early childhood to the present day—about family and loved ones, about his work in the theater, about filming in cinema. And of course, about his favorite friends. With unmatched humor, Alexander Shirvindt shares his thoughts and, with tenderness and warmth, recalls Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Eldar Ryazanov, Arkady Arkanov and Bulat Okudzhava, Andrey Mironov and Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Oleg Tabakov, Mark Zakharov, Yevgeny Primakov, and many others.
“Earlier, when I was in a burst of writing for writing’s sake, I used to think: don’t try to aim at monumental memoirs with the modest sections ‘Me about myself’ and ‘They about me, and I about them.’ Now I thought: why not? Let yet another little book collapse into the stacks of literary reserves. ‘To immortalize’ is a clumsy and unpleasant word, though it’s accurate in meaning. It’s impossible to immortalize everyone who’s dear to me and whom I don’t forget—and yet I want to. So I came up with a principle for choosing the characters of my fate. I walked up to the book shelves and, to the astonished looks of my household, laid out all the literature on the shelf except Shakespeare, Gogol, Beaumarchais, and other authors whose encounters didn’t leave a mark. In the end, I selected only books with inscribed autograph dedications from friends. I wanted to tell them something very tender, honest, and witty in return—but those things are incompatible, so I have to be sincere.”
The book is read by Mikhail Alexandrovich Shirvindt.
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