From Library Journal
Based on interviews with inhabitants of the industrial Russian city of Omsk during the historically charged 1990s, virtual artist Pesmen's fascinating book is unique in its exploration of the Russian national character, the dusha, or "soul." Other books addressing this topic, such as Jerrold and Leona Schecter's Back in the USSR: An American Family Returns to Moscow (LJ 2/1/89. o.p.), have concentrated on Moscow or St. Petersburg, or, like Mikhail Bakhtin's Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, focused on literary texts. Pesmen contrasts dusha with byt, the boring and unimaginative routine of everyday life, and shows how her subjects stress the unpredictability of dusha, whose protean qualities make it difficult to define. These qualities, Pesmen states, are best explained by Bakhtin, who regards dusha as speaking not with one voice but as a dialog between differing voices. A brilliant book that is highly recommended. Bert Beynen, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Ankeny, IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
As the author herself notes, the idea of the Russian soul (dusha) has become something of a cliche; yet its metaphysical reality is undeniable. This book is an anthropological study of that reality--an attempt to come to grips through firsthand experience with dusha. Pesmen did most of her research in the Siberian city of Omsk and a neighboring village, and in this book, we are introduced to a group of people who are themselves struggling with the notion of dusha in late- and post-Soviet society. Pesmen grapples with her thesis from many points: linguistic, mask and carnival, ritual, power and authority, and, of course, economic. Her style is academic, meaning numerous citations, but the writing is only occasionally clunky (such as the use of the word collage as a verb), and it really takes off when she describes her own experiences. As you might expect, the conclusions she draws are ultimately not definitive, yet the book provides some wonderful insights into Russians' recent struggles with their own identities. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
