Lyudmila Petrushevskaya

This was an incredibly interesting collection of three novellas to start 2026 off with a bang, with an equally interesting back story. As the introduction (by the translator) expands on, Petrushevskaya wrote these 3 novellas between 1988 and 2002, but because they lay bare the hardship, brutality and often tragedy associated with every day domestic life in Russia, it was many years before they could be published due to Russian censorship. "She spoke for all those who suffered domestic hell show more in silence, the way Solzhenitsyn spoke for the countless nameless political prisoners".

Petrushevskaya doesn't hold back in these three novellas: the domestic lives she describes in each are violent, bleak and depressing, yet she has fun with them too, and as a reader you reach the end quite discombobulated, not sure if it's right to have enjoyed something so monstrous quite so much.

The longest novella is The Time is Night, in which the protagonist, an ageing poet tries desperately to survive in her own home as her grown up son and daughter exploit her and her apartment in every which way they can, whilst she also deals with her mother in the sanitarium. In Chocolates with Liqueur, a husband applies his ready violence towards getting rid of his family so he can move on with his new love interest, and in Among Friends a mother commits an unspeakable act in a demonstration of the strength of a mother's love.

I really enjoyed this collection, not just for sheer readability, but also because they give an insight into life behind many a closed Russian apartment door. Petrushevskaya takes the stories to the extreme, but her writing was fuelled by the every day troubles and tragedies of the average Russian on the street, living in overcrowded identical State managed dwellings and dealing with violence and alcoholism as part of the fabric of every day life.

4.5 stars - a collection that does absolute justice to the hallowed reputation of the Russian short story greats. show less

Like those of a dark, bleak, surreal O. Henry, most of these stories end with a twist, but they aren’t exactly linear up to that point in any case. They are very dream-like, or nightmarish, starting at one point that’s soon forgotten after taking a 90-degree turn to somewhere unexpected, settings and plots suddenly metamorphosing into something else with the logic of dreams. Most of the stories could be said to be about how dismal life was in the Soviet Union: Characters full of show more paranoia, suspicion, and selfishness. Stories of betrayal, abandonment, poverty, illness, and death. Fortunately, the last section offers stories with some hope or redemption, but until then what a long, strange, grim trip it’s been. show less

You know when you start a book titled There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories that you're not going to get happy times. And yet/but/however, Petrushevskaya manages to twist the bitter into something ... not quite sweet, but not so unpalatable.

In her introduction, translator Anna Summers provides a little context for Petrushevskaya's stories; they range from publication in 1972 to 2008, and describe a varying, changing, and changeless show more urban Russian. (Tip: don't read the introduction until after you read the volume or you'll be spoiled for the twists of all the stories.)

The seventeen stories in this volume range from the outright depressing to the darkly comedic, and they paint an urban Russia filled with tiny apartments cramped with family (usually unemployed), alcoholism, abandoned mothers, mind-numbing jobs, and lovelorn women grasping at affection where they can. The stories that most resonated with me were those of young, gawky teenaged girls, outcasts for one reason or another, self-conscious, shy, prone to irrational crushes, too smart for their own good. Petrushevskaya is gentle with these girls although they don't always have happy endings, they don't have sad ones. (In fact, in all of these stories, the endings could be considered 'happy'. It's a strange kind of happiness, but there you go.) In the end, I felt bemused rather than depressed, and I can't shake some of the images and moments Petrushevskaya evokes.

I can't say whether Summers' translation is good or faithful; the stories read very quick, clean, a little modern in style. I enjoyed them over a few nights, but that was me using epic restraint and not saying up and reading them all in a single night. If you like short fiction, get this; if you like dark Scandinavian crime fic and want the dark without the crime, get this; and if you want a different view of domestic life, women's life, urban life, get this. show less

‘’Oh, great mother nature! Why do you have to trick us? Why do you need all this mucus, stench, violence, our sleepless night and exhausting work? Presumably to make things right, but nothing ever turns out right.’’

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s stories in this volume are part of an absurd, nightmarish universe. Except that this ‘’universe’’ is very, very real. This is the living Hell of the Soviet society, built on lies, treachery, corruption and violence. This is beautiful show more Moscow turned into a den of worms where people try to survive another day in communal apartments because All Hail the Great Collectivization, beloved comrades! This is the journey within the turbulence of their feelings, the terror of living with your enemy. This is how the future is destroyed, this is how family members turn into enemies over a piece of bread, a potato and a few centimetres of space. This is why we need to study some serious History.

The Time Is Night: A poet is trying to survive under a series of threats. Eviction, a daughter who can’t close her legs, creating babies by the minute, a son who is a coward, a criminal and an all-around accomplished Soviet parasite. Poetry echoing Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva and her grandson are the only sources of light in her life. But they are far from enough…

Chocolates With Liqueur: This harrowing story is divided into three chapters. We start at the heart of the story, we continue with the origins of Lelia’s ordeal in the hands of a monster and the end comes in the final chapter. You will drive yourselves mad trying to comprehend Lelia’s docility, you will find yourselves murdering her husband in your mind in approximately 200 different ways but I promise you, the closure will satisfy you 200%!

Among Friends: A troubled mother resorts to extreme actions to ensure that her son will have a better life. But even that is highly doubtful.

‘’Recently my memory grew hazy and I began losing my eyesight. How many years passed in our Friday gatherings? Ten? Fifteen? We heard of the political unrest in Czechoslovakia, then in China, then in Romania, then in Yugoslavia; after that came the news about the trials of the culprits, followed by the trials of those who had protested against the original trials, then the trials of those who had collected money to support the families of the incarcerated dissidents, but all these events rolled past our nest on Stulin Street.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less