'The Librarian' by Mikhail Elizarov

When the writer Gromov (1910-1981) died his books passed, deservedly, into obscurity. Some time later and under various circumstances that fulfilled the requirements, various persons discover that reading these books endowed them with superhuman abilities: Fury, Memory, Strength, Power, Endurance, Joy, Meaning. Throughout the USSR, and especially from the ranks of the outcast and unfortunate, cells of readers, known as Libraries, form in secret and battle each other for control and collection of Gromov’s works. What will happen when the young and exceptionally unremarkable Alexei inherits a Book of Memory (a.k.a. The Quiet Grass) and becomes a Librarian? The absurdity in this book has a very Russian flavour (incidentally, Elizarov won the Russian Booker Prize), and Elizarov sets out to see just how far silliness can get him. There is something of Daniil Kharms in this work, but with two differences: Kharms’ absurdity necessarily expends itself in extremely short stories and dramaticules whereas Elizarov extends absurdity to relentlessly epic length; also, Kharms’ absurdity was eloquent in its rejection of any serious attempt at meaning in a society in which any meaningful statement he might make was likely to earn him a ticket to the Gulag. In the absence of this context for the contemporary Elizarov, the absurdity of this book stands in relation to a different kind of powerlessness and a different sort of frustration. To read this book is like riding a wheelybin downhill: pointless if you go slowly but somewhat more fun (though just as pointless) the faster you go.

Sept 15