Give Me: (Songs for Lovers) [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Irina Denezhkina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

In 2002, 20-year-old Irina Denezhkina woke up to find herself famous. Brought up in the provincial, industrial town of Yekaterinburg, she had amused herself by writing stories about the lives of the teenagers she saw around her. When she published them on the internet, they were spotted by a well-known literary critic and nominated for Russia's 'National Bestseller Award'. Immediately she got a publisher in Russia and, following that, international publishers across the world, including America and Britain. Her stories tell it like it is for Russia's new generation, brought up in a complex post-Communist world where the influences are more MTV than Marx. Teenage sex, alcohol, violence - preoccupations familiar to the urban youth of the West - are mixed with brilliant observations of particularly Russian problems - the effects of the war in Chechnya on a young soldier for example. Compared in Russia to Salinger and Hemingway - or to the cult film Kids, this extraordinary debut has shaken up the rather stagnant, old-fashioned Russian literary scene with the freshness of its language, form and subject matter and has paved the way for the future.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Russian student Denezhkina initially published this brash, frenetic collection (her first effort) on the Internet, she was 19, and her partially autobiographical stories are unvarnished portrayals of teenage life in Russia. Breezily grim episodes—two young teenagers having bewildered first-time sex at summer camp; a suicide attempt on a lonely New Year's Eve; numerous drug and alcohol-blurred house parties—are recounted with the candor and indifference of adolescence. The intended edginess is dulled by the indistinct characters, most of whom suffer from indistinguishable angst and are casually dismissive of anyone uncool ("Natashka doesn't like anyone much on principle.... She only likes musicians, stars"). The best stories are short and simple, like "Remote Feelings," a focused, thoughtful tale about two university students who exchange love notes. Elsewhere, brutal beatings alternate with empty (or unsubstantiated) "I love you"s. The collection undeniably evokes the disorienting and melodramatic world of young adulthood, though the tonally underdeveloped and thematically fuzzy writing prevents Denezhkina's subjects from ever quite coming into sharp focus.
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From Booklist

These 11 short stories, and indeed the youthful author herself, made a big splash in the late 1990s on the Internet, where she gained a networked following. The stories deal with Russia's contemporary youth culture, people who have little if any recollection of life under Communism. The characters are mostly high-school and college age, apolitical, a bit confused, narcissistic, and primarily concerned with sex, drugs, alcohol, music (primarily punk rock and hip-hop), and, to a lesser extent, violence. Perhaps the most disturbing story in the collection, "Valerochka," deals with pubescent children at a summer holiday camp whose preoccupations mirror those of their elder brothers and sisters. In a collection that is entirely subversive, it is undoubtedly the most so, although a close second is "Vasya and the Green Men," an exercise in the grotesque. Although the title piece, which contains all the author's themes, perfectly introduces the collection, many readers will find the novella-length "Songs for Lovers," an expansion of those themes, the most satisfying. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743254627
• ISBN-13: 978-0743254625
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,712,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BOOK., May 26, 2005

By 

Tui (Hawaii808) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Give Me: (Songs for Lovers) (Paperback)

If you are worried about "character development" this book is not for you. The book is strictly for your entertainment, to tickle your imagination. There is a different story in each chapter. Some containing relationships between poverty strucken kids. How drugs, alcohal, and sex ruins there lives or brings excitment to it. Other chapters on fictional characters such as one of my favorite called "Green Men" where these "green men" monsters wander the streets at night raping, killing, and eating people... if you don't share my ill interest on these topics please, don't waste your money.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read--recommended, January 26, 2006

By 

C Turner "ceegoose" (Brighton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Give Me: (Songs for Lovers) (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book. Written by Irina Denezhkina, who was only 21 at the time of publication, she orginally published her short stories on the internet where they were noticed and later published as a volume. It has been translated into 12 languages and is a Russian national bestseller. Denezhkina writes authentically and first-hand about vodka, drugs, young love and pubescent sex in post-Soviet Russia. Written on the surface of life's happenings and very sparse on commentary, there is a hardness and detachment in her voice that lacks the whiny angst of many, young, American writers. That's okay with me, because although I enjoy narrative reflection, very young writers sometimes make the mistake of imposing their opinions at the detriment of telling an authentic story.

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good snapshots of lives and fantasies, December 26, 2005

By 

VictoryClassWoman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Give Me: (Songs for Lovers) (Paperback)

This is a collection of short (and long) stories written in the late 90s and published in 2002 in Russia by a woman who was born in 1981. The stories are largely just "snapshots" of the lives of teenagers in Russia -- the kinds of teenagers who play or listen to punk rock and rap, do drugs, drink lots of beer and vodka, beat each other up, and hook up. The stories don't really have a real "resolution," problems aren't solved, and the stories just have a beginning and an end (with an end that comes very quickly and leaves you wondering where that leaves the characters). Some of the sex and violence is pretty graphic and not good for the stomach. And I can't think of a character who I would want to be, even for a day.

Personally, I found some aspects of the stories confusing, and I'm not sure if it's a cultural difference or something else. For example, the story "Give me!" has the narrator having married a guy online and visiting him an hour away from where she lives -- they don't live together and I'm not sure her mother knows she has a husband. Is it usual for couples to sometimes live apart? Are they really married?

Or, in the story "Valerochka," a boy throws a white ball out of a closed window on a train, right through the glass. Later, the ball comes back in through another window. All I'm wondering is "what just happened?"

There is sex and violence in a number of stories, but "Vasya and the green men" and "Postscript" are truly gruesome and are to be avoided if you can't stand extreme abuse and sexual violence.

Still, other stories were very nice to read, such as "Death in the chatroom," where a strange person carrying a scythe visits someone sitting at her PC. And after pretty much every story, I am left wondering "so what happens next?" Where do the characters go from here? I get the feeling that the author simply hasn't lived long enough to be able to tell us that, yet.

These stories were an interesting ride. They were somewhat awkward and not always clear, but gave me a good picture in the lives and psychology of some Russian teenagers (I'm sure not all are like this!). Although I was pretty glad when I got to the end, I am likely to re-read some of the stories. I am interested enough to try and figure them out a second time.