Revision

17 hrs. 49 min.

Language Russian

Author Lyudmila Miklashevskaya

Narrator Nadezhda Vinokurova

Description

If this book were a little thinner, it could be read in a single night as an engaging novel. In any case, the life of Lyudmila Pavlovna Eisenhardt (by marriage, Miklashevskaya) really resembles a novel: its characters include well-known writers, actors, directors, artists (their list in small print takes 5 pages). She closely communicated with Gorky and his circle, knew Blok, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Wells, and the Paris circle of Ehrenburg; she collaborated with Marshak. Men courted her quite seriously—Fedin and Zoshchenko; a young Zabolotsky offered his hand and heart. She lived in the same apartment with T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik. And so on, and so on.

“Repetition of the Past” is hard to call the hackneyed word “memoirs,” even though the narration is documentary. It’s actually a favorite genre of the modern reader. It is indeed very good prose, with vivid episodes and details. For example, a portrait of Lili Brik: "… the large, brightly greased-up mouth could not possibly close over neat teeth, and the small upturned nose looked too—at everyone—with nostrils flaring wide. What was there more in her: self-confidence, domineeringness, sensuality, self-satisfaction? There was plenty of everything. /.../ She smiled and looked at everyone with eyes—or nostrils."