Happy farewell to the Soviet past
Despite its small size of only 200 pages the book has already been called an encyclopedia of the Soviet time. It is divided into 5 parts, or 5 sections of photos from a family album.
The photos show people and things typical of the Soviet time. The book looks like a family album, although there are no more than five real photos in it, while the rest is stories, occurrences, reasoning and irony.
Alyaksandr Lukashuk, the one who wrote the preface for “Family Album”, tells us about the results of co-existence of Mudrou and the USSR.
Alyaksandr Lukashuk: “The Soviet Union exerted itself and organized the first flight of Man (Yurij Gagarin) to space. Then it exerted itself again and won a bronze medal at the World Championship.
Then the Soviet Union noticed that Vintses Mudrou wore long hair, liked chewing-gum and listened to some strange music. So the Soviet Union wanted to make Vintses Mudrou stop listening to that music and cut his hair.
It started exerting itself more and more to make Mudrou cut his hair. We all know what it led to. Now we still have Vintses Mudrou and where is the Soviet Union?”
The book “Family Album” is written in such a way so that everyone could easily understand it, it tells us about things we can comprehend and you can start reading it on any page. It corresponds to its title: it will probably be read with the same purpose as a family album is usually looked through. But the author thinks the purpose of the book is more extensive.
Vintses Mudrou: “The main purpose is to draw young peoples’ attention to the way their mothers and fathers lived”.
On the other hand, he says his readers are those whose youth coincided with the Soviet time, those who cannot help recalling it. That is, the book makes such readers feel nostalgic.
And the book evokes some deep thoughts in today’s young people. A literati and translator Maryika Martysevich says:
Maryika Martysevіch: “Two genres are combined here: radio essay and (I think it can also be called a genre) nostalgia. I think it is a very productive genre and my generation will also start composing such collected stories in some 20 years. I guess the phenomena of Poland and the 90s will be included in them.
The Soviet time is not of current importance anymore. Our Soviet childhood seems more like a myth. Still, the Soviet time (and it can be clearly seen in the book “Family Album”) is first of all a style now”.
Many of those who have already read the book call it “a happy farewell to the Soviet past”. Valyantsіn Akudovіch, a philosopher, thinks different – he considers it to be its reanimation.
Valyantsіn Akudovіch: “Vintses (except for many other qualities) has a rare gift: he is able to feel, chose and absorb the most important moments of an epoch.
That is why Mr. Valiantsin Taras noted that the book was: “An encyclopedia of its time”. Vintses wrote about it in such a bright and comprehensible way that I have started to love my epoch again”.
The past remains with people all their life. But the more time passes, the more general the memories become. Such books as “Family Album” help preserve the important details. Such books are like a depository of our memory.
Download:070217 Bulanova - kniga.mp3
