Izbrannoe ili Shepot shuma [Selected, or A whisper of noise]

Includes novel Day Equals Night; reviews:

"... Narbikova's debut novel, originally published in the Moscow journal Youth, is composed in the author's notoriously difficult and provocative style. Between digressions ranging from poetic asides to scholarly allusions, a three-way relationship unfolds among Sana, Otmatfeian and Chiashchiazhyshyn. Sana, made "of breakfast and sadness, and five hundred times of kisses from the wrong men," seeks escape from a dead-end relationship with her husband, Avvakum. Otmatfeian, a sexy Armenian, provides Sana with a diversion; however, Otmatfeian has diversions of his own, mainly a young male lover, Chiashchiazhyshyn. Eventually, the three make a home for themselves in an unfinished palace in which every show more piece of trash is a museum piece. Sana and Chiashchiazhyshyn find one another, but for Chiashchiazhyshyn, Sana is another means to get closer to Otmatfeian. None of this is meant to be tragic, however. "People engage in idiocies from morning to night. What else can they do, having only one organ for catching a high?" Gaining a reputation for her sexual frankness and subversive style, Narbikova (nominated for the Russian Booker and recipient of the Nabokov Prize, awarded in St. Petersburg) constructs sticky, dense sentences, the plot slipping into a jumble of aphorisms, euphemisms and jaded references to Russian literature at every turn. Still, the overall theme is clear: people aren't well adapted for anything, including "love."
(Cahners Business Information, Oct. 1999)

"Her plots are very sketchy and serve as a springboard for her poetic prose, ironic humor, and philosophical rumination. In Day Equals Night, she describes the relationship between Sana, her husband Avvakum, her lover Otmatfeian, whose wife or ex-wife shows up, and Chiashchiazyshyn. Sana's a unique character in Russian literature, a female bohemian who doesn't believe in monogamy. It's difficult for her to keep her men in line, though. They keep showing up at the same place and time and don't get along well. To complicate matters, Chiashchiazychyn is attracted by Otmatfeian, whom he tries to get to by having a physical relationship with Sana. "Chiashchiazychyn ... was looking at her as Andrei Bely had looked at Blok's wife, as D'Anthes had looked at Pushkin's wife. Of course Andre Bely did not love Blok's wife but Blok himself, and D'Anthes loved Pushkin, and hid it." As that passage indicates, Narbikova frequently refers to Russian literary figures. To her they seem alive, as if the past, present, and future exist at the same time.

"Open relations are usually a pain in the ass, with some participants having more power than others. Consequently, the weaker ones frequently get dumped on, frozen out, and, on top of everything else, made to feel guilty about it. Sometimes they're reduced almost to voyeurs, which happens to Chiashchiazyshyn, who, however, seems to get some pleasure from this role. Narbikova's portrait of these open relationships really hits the nail on the head, although she probably thinks they're worth enduring."

(Harvey Pekar, Austin Chronicle, Oct. 20, 2000) show less