33 moments of happiness

Alternate Titles

• Thirty-three moments of happiness

Description

An intriguing, fabulously bizarre debut collection of short stories by prize-winning German writer Ingo Schulze, author of Simple Stories.These thirty-three macabre, often comical short pieces revolve around moments of odd bliss--moments seized by characters who have found ways to conquer the bleakness of everyday life in the chaotic world of post-communist Russia. Peopled by Mafia gunmen, desperate young prostitutes, bewildered foreign businessmen, and even a trio of hungry devils, the stories are by turns tragic and bleakly funny. From a sly retelling of the legend of St. Nicholas featuring a rich American named Nick, to a lavish gourmet feast in which the young female cook ends up as the main dish, these stories are above all playful and even surreal--and many of them are masterful tributes to Russian writers from Gogol to Nabokov.Translated by John E. Woods.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Description

An intriguing book of short stories by a prizewinning new German writer. Each episode in this dazzling debut collection captures the spark in some tiny detail of everyday life in contemporary St. Petersburg and fans it into a story that flares with comedy, surreal passion, heartbreaking indifference and mad Russian excess. There's a Mafia shoot-out in a disco, as told by a gun-toting Walter Mitty simultaneously thrilled and horrified by the carnage he is creating. There's a returning exiled writer so desperate to keep his reputation alive, now that he is no longer a professional dissident, that he will do anything to hold the interest of his retinue of reporters and cameras. There are three devils who appear for an evening at the steam bath, their revelries ending in cannibalism - or is the watching manager just mad? St. Nicholas comes back as a rich American. There is a gallery opening that gives new meaning to the term "installation." And on and on... These are sad, whimsical, macabre, bleakly funny stories, all told in a playful and voluptuous prose that is itself an homage to the great Russian masters whom Schulze is honoring - from Gogol to Pasternak, from Chekhov to Nabokov.

Subjects

Other Editions

• 33 moments of happiness: St. Petersburg storiesA.A. Knopf1998-01-01
• 33 moments of happinessPicador1999-01-01
• 33 Moments of HappinessPaperbackPicador2000-11-10
• 33 Moments of HappinessVintage2001-06-05
• 33 Moments of HappinesseBookKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group2007-01-01