Yury Dombrovsky (1909–1978)

I watched a documentary last night (2017) where many regimes recognized that torture seldom delivers useful information but it certainly sows fear.
My memory of this novel was the iconic depiction of dread. Stalin’s Terror allowed human self doubt to have lethal manifestation. I pondered that while walking today. I truly hate the day after thanksgiving. I feel estranged. My wife always works and I’m left to my few, futile, devices. Perhaps my plight is more Ballard and less NKVD. Here’s to my self awareness.… (more)

English translation of Yury Dombrovsky's massive, important novel, first published in Russian in 1978, reveals another master of the Stalinist era who can stand alongside Solzhenitsyn and Bulgakov. Dombrovsky's tale of an exiled intellectual who, in the far province of Alma-Ata, becomes an archeologist and is arrested and interrogated by a Stalinist prosecutor (who will later himself become a target of the Great Terror), is largely autobiographical. It is also vivid and courageous fiction, bringing to life a host of stunning characters including a young archeologist, an ex-priest obsessed with Christ's betrayal in the Gospels, and an eccentric street artist with a penchant for outlandish attire and evocative, illogical paintings. The Faculty of Useless Knowledge is the crowning achievement by the author of The Keeper of Antiquities .… (more)