Bookatlas
1938–1990Russia & Eastern Europe
Portrait of Venedikt Yerofeev

Venedikt Yerofeev

USSR

Woozy and digressive, philosophical riffing and drunken non sequitur running together in one unbroken confessional monologue, hilarious right up until it isn't.

Born in 1938 on the Kola Peninsula in Russia's far north, Yerofeev was expelled from Moscow State University's philology department for irregular attendance and nonconformity, and drifted afterward through a string of manual jobs across the Soviet Union (cable-layer, laborer, night watchman), never managing to hold a Moscow residency permit of his own.

He wrote Moscow-Petushki in a concentrated burst in 1969 and 1970 while working as a cable layer, an account of a doomed alcoholic's train journey that could not be published through official Soviet channels. It circulated for nearly two decades only in samizdat, passed hand to hand and read aloud at gatherings, before glasnost finally allowed it into official print near the end of his life.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in the 1980s, Yerofeev underwent surgery that took away his voice and spent his final years communicating through a mechanical voice box and written notes. He died in 1990, just as his one legendary book was reaching the wide readership it had waited decades for.

The Soviet Century

Their books in the atlas

  1. 1970
    Cover of Moscow-Petushki
    Moscow-Petushki
    Lvl 7postmodern

Meanwhile, elsewhere

Portrait of Marguerite Duras1914–1996Marguerite DurasFrance / VietnamWestern Europe · France / VietnamPortrait of Alain Robbe-Grillet1922–2008Alain Robbe-GrilletFranceWestern Europe · FrancePortrait of Natalia Ginzburg1916–1991Natalia GinzburgItalyWestern Europe · ItalyPortrait of Alberto Moravia1907–1990Alberto MoraviaItalyWestern Europe · ItalyPortrait of Umberto Eco1932–2016Umberto EcoItalyWestern Europe · ItalyPortrait of José Saramago1922–2010José SaramagoPortugalWestern Europe · Portugal

If you like Yerofeev, try

Portrait of Vladimir Nabokov1899–1977Vladimir NabokovRussia / USAshared movement: The Soviet Century · kindred genres: postmodern, satire · both write in RussianPortrait of Yuri Olesha1899–1960Yuri OleshaUSSR (Ukraine)shared movement: The Soviet Century · kindred genres: satire · both write in RussianPortrait of Andrei Platonov1899–1951Andrei PlatonovRussiashared movement: The Soviet Century · kindred genres: satire · both write in RussianPortrait of Mikhail Bulgakov1891–1940Mikhail BulgakovUkraine / Russiashared movement: The Soviet Century · kindred genres: satire · both write in RussianPortrait of Vladimir Sorokinb. 1955Vladimir SorokinRussiakindred genres: satire, postmodern · both write in Russian · same region & eraPortrait of Nikolai Gogol1809–1852Nikolai GogolUkraine / Russiakindred genres: satire, picaresque · both write in Russian · neighboring movements