Novel
The Naked Year
Голый год
Boris Pilnyak · 1922
Synopsis
Ordynine, a provincial town, in 1919, during the civil war. The old Ordynin family falls apart in its big house: the father clings to the holy images, the children lose their way. Men in leather jackets arrive, strong and handsome in their leather, figures of the new power, and Archip Arkhipov with his shaggy beard. The novel has no continuous plot: it juxtaposes tableaux, impressions and commentaries, through which the snowstorm sweeps.
Context
Written in 1920, while the fighting was still going on, the novel appeared in 1922 from the publisher Z. I. Grzhebin, between Petersburg and Berlin, under a cover by Vladimir Konashevich; a library record dates it to 1921. It at once made its author's reputation. Shklovsky praised the inventiveness of its composition, while Trotsky reproached it for failing to grasp the logic of the revolution and other critics accused it of “Pugachevism”. The English translation appeared as early as 1928.
Who it is for
A short novel, made of fragments set side by side with no continuous narrative thread; translated into French and reissued in 1998.
Prizes and reception
Hailed as one of the first novels of the civil war, it made its author one of the major voices of his generation.
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