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Abstract:
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When Liudmila Ulitskaia published The Funeral Party in 1997 the novella received
the critical scrutiny warranted by the latest work of an already prominent figure in postSoviet
letters. The
plot, set in New York
in the humid summer of 1991, revolves around the
dying
artist Alik
and the crowd of friends, former and present lovers, and chance
acquaintances
gathering in his Chelsea loft. Booker Prize laureate Ol'ga Slavnikova
misdiagnoses
this narrative as an engaging failure: it attempts to achieve the impossible by
trying
to fill the void left by the deceased. |
