The Supervisor of the Sea & Other Stories [Paperback]

Emil Draitser (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1879378477 | ISBN-13: 978-1879378476 | Publication Date: March 15, 2003

Draitser is best known for his short humorous stories and his collection of jokes entitled "Forbidden Laughter." "The Supervisor of the Sea" presents his longer and more serious stories in a sequence that moves from Russia to America to the fantastic beyond. Included is a deeply psychological "Faithful Masha," a story portraying the clash of Soviet and American cultures in the person of one visiting Soviet dignitary; "Wedding in Brighton Beach," a rapturous tribute to the color and passion of Russian emigre life; and "Zugzwang," an uncanny love story. "Beautifully wrought contemporary short fiction.... A valuable contribution to contemporary Russian émigré literature. " -- Slavic and East European Journal

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Draitser's language is precise and expansive, his storyline is meticulously designed, his colors are rich." -- "The New Russian World," New York

"Russian literature has never known such a book. In Draitser's stories, America and Russia are whimsically yet inseparably intertwined." --"World Literature Today"

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 149 pages
• Publisher: Xenos Books (March 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879378477
• ISBN-13: 978-1879378476
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,804,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Emil Draitser has published both fiction and nonfiction since 1964. His work appeared in leading Soviet journals (Youth, Literary Gazette, and Crocodile) under his pen name "Emil Abramov." He began his writing career as a freelancer contributing satirical articles for Soviet newspapers and magazines. Eventually, he was blacklisted for criticizing an important official, prompting him to leave for the United States.

He immigrated to Los Angeles, where he earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature from UCLA. In 1986, he took a job at Hunter College in New York City, where he continues to teach. Besides twelve books of artistic and scholarly prose, Emil Draitser's essays and short stories have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, North American Review, Prism International, and many other American and Canadian periodicals. His fiction has also appeared in Russian, Polish, and Israeli journals.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Unconventional Tales, July 21, 2003

By 

Regina Grol (Buffalo, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Supervisor of the Sea & Other Stories (Paperback)

Readers bored with straightforward narration will be seduced by Emil Draitser's style of writing. The stories included in this volume are compelling, sometimes even startling. Draitser resorts to unconventional language and imagery. The realistic mingles with the figurative and the mystical in his prose. That very mix renders Draitser's writing original and fascinating.His stories offer profound insights into the human condition, yet they are not humorless. The underpinnings of subtle, acerbic wit add special flavor to the texts. Some stories are probing analyses of Russian immigrants' process of acculturation in the US; most are intriguing existential tales. This review is not a perfunctory hat-tipping to the author. While inevitably something is lost in translation, Draitser's stories are truly original and informed by a shrewd and unique vision of the world.

5.0 out of 5 stars Belonging and Alienation, April 17, 2003

By 

Selim Karady (Vista, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Supervisor of the Sea & Other Stories (Paperback)

I have been following Emil Draitser's career ever since he published his bilingual edition of Soviet underground jokes. This collection of 14 short stories is a more ambitious work that fully deserves a wider audience. The stories may vary in length, tone, content or point of view, but the author invariably tailors them to illuminate one or more aspects of the human condition. Whether he is masterfully depicting the poignant no-exit situation in Zugzwang, or the pathos of belonging and alienation in American Lady, or the precarious existence of the writer in the former Soviet Union in Faithful Masha, Mr. Draitser is always engaging. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars At Sea in a New Genre, April 7, 2003

By 

A.F. Saidy (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Supervisor of the Sea & Other Stories (Paperback)

When you launch into "The Supervisor of the Sea," be prepared to leave behind your compass of familiar landmarks. In these haunting dreamlike tales, Emil Draitser has charted a new genre: Russian-American surrealism. This is a marriage of Ilf & Petrov's satire with Garcia Marquez' magical realism, filtered thru Andre Breton's sensibility making an honored guest of the unconscious. To boot, some stories take place in the Kafkaesque U.S.S.R., whose mystique cannot be shed by the mere expedient of emigration.
As a chess devotee, this reader zeroed in on the story "Zugzwang." This term in the royal game denotes a situation where one must move, but any move makes the position worse. Non-players may appreciate the feeling if absorbed in a Draitser tale and suddenly forced to evade a flood or an avalanche. Short of those, you will not want to put it down.
-Anthony Saidy