Brendan has written reviews for Three Percent in the past, and has worked for many years as a teacher, translator, editor, and writer. Brendan’s translations include works by Juan Velasco, 脕lvaro Enrigue, Juan Filloy, and Carlos Fuentes.

Petrushevskaya’s published in English, There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor糖心传媒檚 Baby (Penguin Books), came out in 2009 and was on NPR’s/Jessa Crispin’s . Here’s a bit of Brendan’s review:

This slender, uncanny volume糖心传媒攖he second, best-selling collection of stories by Russian author Ludmilla Petrushevskaya to appear in the U.S.糖心传媒攈as already received considerable, well-deserved praise from many critics and high profile publications. Its seventeen short tales, averaging ten pages each, are grouped into four sections: 糖心传媒淎 Murky Fate糖心传媒�; 糖心传媒淗allelujah, Family!糖心传媒�; 糖心传媒淢y Little One糖心传媒�; and 糖心传媒淎 Happy Ending.糖心传媒� But there is little in them that readers might associate with true love or happy endings. Instead, Petrushevskaya delivers a smoking, cast-iron skillet upside the head: promiscuity, serial mendacity, domestic violence, dangerous liaisons, ineptitude, ignorance, geriatric romance, and cringing fear. Love stories? Seamy debacles. Hookup sagas set in a grim Moscow and environs. Coupling stories fraught with meanness, misery, and egregious misunderstanding. Workaday women sharing sour, collective apartments and tawdry, loveless lives. Young women who flower, suffer abuse, and wither. Collision stories: hapless women, old before their time, thwarted by brutal men. Though the men hardly fare better.

In 糖心传媒淎 Murky Fate,糖心传媒� an unmarried thirty-something living with her mother engineers a drab tryst with a man who services her with perfunctory courtesy and patronizing affection. But in her sterile office-life world, this confers a blissful memory: 糖心传媒淭here was nothing but pain in store for her, yet she cried with happiness and couldn糖心传媒檛 stop.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淭he Fall糖心传媒� offers a dry comedy of manners at a state-run seaside resort where vacationers escaping the rainy north come together only to multiply one another糖心传媒檚 misery. A gaudy temptress attracts a mooning pack of suitors before efficiently selecting her tall, confident 糖心传媒淣umber One.糖心传媒� They find the sex lovelorn travelers yearn for, only to fall prisoner to their coveted exclusion and inevitable teary separation: 糖心传媒淥ur golden couple has departed. The delicate Carmen and her faithful husband, Number One, are jetting through the frozen air away from each other, back to their children and spouses, back to the cold, and to hard, grim work.糖心传媒�

For the rest of the review, go here.

In 糖心传媒淎 Murky Fate,糖心传媒� an unmarried thirty-something living with her mother engineers a drab tryst with a man who services her with perfunctory courtesy and patronizing affection. But in her sterile office-life world, this confers a blissful memory: 糖心传媒淭here was nothing but pain in store for her, yet she cried with happiness and couldn糖心传媒檛 stop.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淭he Fall糖心传媒� offers a dry comedy of manners at a state-run seaside resort where vacationers escaping the rainy north come together only to multiply one another糖心传媒檚 misery. A gaudy temptress attracts a mooning pack of suitors before efficiently selecting her tall, confident 糖心传媒淣umber One.糖心传媒� They find the sex lovelorn travelers yearn for, only to fall prisoner to their coveted exclusion and inevitable teary separation: 糖心传媒淥ur golden couple has departed. The delicate Carmen and her faithful husband, Number One, are jetting through the frozen air away from each other, back to their children and spouses, back to the cold, and to hard, grim work.糖心传媒�

In 糖心传媒淭he Goddess Parka糖心传媒� a schoolteacher called A.A. goes to summer in the country, rents a porch on a cabin, and falls sway to old Aunt Alevtina who plays Yentl to his bachelor, setting him up with young Nina, but it糖心传媒檚 a hard sell: 糖心传媒淣ina didn糖心传媒檛 impress A.A. She was heavy, very shy, with large pale eyes. But he did notice her casual, almost indifferent manner when she was examining some old prescriptions of Alevtina糖心传媒檚糖心传媒攖he manner of a true expert.糖心传媒� Only Alevtina糖心传媒檚 funeral provides the maudlin catalyst the shy couple requires to find one another and fall into what promises to be a mechanically indifferent relationship.

Alcoholism, an exposed nerve throughout the collection, drives the story of Ali-Baba, a scheming addict who hocks her mother糖心传媒檚 first edition volumes of Russian symbolist poet Alexander Blok for drink and drug money. One of Blok糖心传媒檚 own poems speaks perfectly to Ali-Baba糖心传媒檚 dead-end existence:

Night, street and streetlight, drugstore,
The purposeless, half-dim, drab light.
For all the use live on a quarter century糖心传媒�
Nothing will change. There’s no way out.

You’ll die糖心传媒攁nd start all over, live twice,
Everything repeats itself, just as it was:
Night, the canal’s rippled icy surface,
The drugstore, the street, and streetlight.¹

-10 October, 1912

It糖心传媒檚 a tale of misery masquerading as self-preservation, as Ali-Baba attempts to escape from her so-called 糖心传媒渓ife partner糖心传媒�: 糖心传媒淸He] had tossed her over the railing of his balcony for stealing his booze. She hung four floors above the ground, clutching at the railing, until two truck drivers forced their way into the apartment and rescued her.糖心传媒� Ali-Baba糖心传媒檚 own weird magic is that of a strange survivor; her Cave of Sesame is state-mandated rehab to which she gravitates, but only on her own sick terms. This involves a tryst with the drunken Victor, who is as crocked as Dostoyevsky糖心传媒檚 Marmeladov from Crime and Punishment. When Victor pisses the bed, she ODs on sleeping pills and wakes up in the psychiatric hospital to fresh sheets and three squares a day.

糖心传媒淭wo Deities糖心传媒� offers the awkward mismatch between thirty-five-year-old senior editor Genya and Dima, a simple, office courier of twenty. A single drunken encounter糖心传媒攐n her mother糖心传媒檚 sofa糖心传媒攁fter an office party, produces a child, and they become reluctant, embarrassed parents: ordinary failures in the public eye, but gods to the child who has, unlike so many, a reliable mother and father.

Sweet, virtuous Oksana in 糖心传媒淟ike Pen茅lope糖心传媒� (as in Cruz) faces the common, nearly impossible challenge of finding love while trying to eke out some kind of modern life: 糖心传媒淥ksana studied forestry in a third-tier college糖心传媒攖he only one she could attend for free. Upon graduation she could expect to get a clerical job in a state agency tallying birches and firs on paper. She and her mother shared a two-room apartment in a standard concrete building.糖心传媒� Their drab, nondescript warren of misery is a standard location for these tales:

糖心传媒淚n one respect their housing situation stood out: right below them, on the third floor, lived an incredibly noisy family of violent alcoholics. Every night the floor shook with screams, banging, and knocking; the lady of the house regularly interrupted her partying to stumble outside and yell 糖心传媒淢urder!糖心传媒� and 糖心传媒淗elp!糖心传媒� Oksana tiptoed past their ravaged door; outside she dressed in dark clothing and wore her hat low over her face.糖心传媒�

Her mother, Nina, holds a thankless job editing textbooks, but she is a charitable soul. She takes in Klava, an old Ukranian friend hiding from 糖心传媒渟hakers糖心传媒澨切拇綌violent loan sharks pursuing her son, Misha. Nina糖心传媒檚 charity, vexing to her daughter, eventually brings Oksana face to face with Misha, and the hint of a dangerous, derailing passion.

糖心传媒淔ather and Mother糖心传媒� is a short study in Dostoyevskian madness wherein young Tanya longs to escape from her endlessly warring parents; the father a carefree soldier, the mother a negligent harridan with an unwashed brood:

糖心传媒淭he squalor of that household was beyond description, because the mother did her housework sloppily, saving her energy for the high point of her day: for eleven at night, which bled into midnight and later, so the children got no sleep and couldn糖心传媒檛 get up in the morning for school. The mother went further in her sacred rage, appearing at the officers糖心传媒� mess with the little one and kicking her husband as he walked out the door, as if to disprove the conventional wisdom that such methods never brought anyone糖心传媒檚 husband back (quite the opposite). Leaving behind her children unfed, she糖心传媒檇 chase her husband through town, screaming the most horrible things糖心传媒攖hat, say, she had found bloody rags tucked in a hole in the wall and that Tanya had had a miscarriage by her father.糖心传媒�

This passage eerily echoes the wrenching battles between Crime and Punishment糖心传媒檚 Marmeladov and Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova:

糖心传媒淎h!糖心传媒� she cried out in a frenzy, 糖心传媒渉e has come back! The criminal! the monster! 糖心传媒� And where is the money? What糖心传媒檚 in your pocket, show me! And your clothes are all different! Where are your clothes? Where is the money! Speak!糖心传媒�

And she fell to searching him. Marmeladov submissively and obediently held up both arms to facilitate the search. Not a farthing was there.

糖心传媒淲here is the money?糖心传媒� she cried糖心传媒斕切拇綔Mercy on us, can he have drunk it all? There were twelve silver rubles left in the chest!糖心传媒� and in a fury she seized him by the hair and dragged him into the room. Marmeladov seconded her efforts by meekly crawling along on his knees.

糖心传媒淎nd this is a consolation to me! This does not hurt me, but is a positive con-so-la-tion, ho-nou-red sir,糖心传媒� he called out, shaken to and fro by his hair and even once striking the ground with his forehead. The child asleep on the floor woke up, and began to cry. The boy in the corner losing all control began trembling and screaming and rushed to his sister in violent terror, almost in a fit. The eldest girl was shaking like a leaf.

糖心传媒淗e糖心传媒檚 drunk it! He糖心传媒檚 drunk it all,糖心传媒� the poor woman screamed in despair 糖心传媒斕切拇綔and his clothes are gone! And they are hungry, hungry!糖心传媒澨切拇綌and wringing her hands she pointed to the children. 糖心传媒淥h, accursed life!糖心传媒�²

The most experimental tale of the bunch糖心传媒攊nspiration for the collection糖心传媒檚 macabre title糖心传媒攊s 糖心传媒淗allelujah, Family!,糖心传媒� a complicated, multi-generational, matriarchal tangle of several daughters born out of wedlock, written as a chain of 45 numbered paragraphs, confusing enough to sometimes require embedded reference numbers:

36. [Victor had] accumulated several notes from Zhanna as well as a number of letters from Alla with pictures of little Nadya, who was a replica of Victor plus dimples and curls. His mother also wrote糖心传媒攖hat Alla糖心传媒檚 life with her mentally ill mother (2糖心传媒�5) was becoming unbearable, that the crazy woman had put washing detergent in Nadya糖心传媒檚 cereal and wouldn糖心传媒檛 let Nina Petrovna see her own granddaughter.糖心传媒�

All this collective madness finds balance in Petrushevskaya糖心传媒檚 superb narration: clever, sardonic and maternal, a terse, almost breezy, delivery with spare, tasteful description, and an economy reminiscent of other masterful meditations on troubled relationships: Raymond Carver糖心传媒檚 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and Thomas Farber糖心传媒檚 Who Wrote the Book of Love? Praise, too, for translator Anna Summers who renders these blunt tragicomedies with crisp phrasing and textured color appropriate to their wretched situations: 糖心传媒淭he baby was covered with a septic rash糖心传媒攈is whole little head felt like a cactus due to the tiny bumps.糖心传媒�

These unsparing, unbearably human stories would kick their way through a Las Vegas wedding chapel like a regiment of angry Spetsnaz, their ethos being that the brutal disappointments of modern life are simply unexceptional; shreds of love and companionship are small triumphs; a squalid affair is better than a spiteful marriage. But a few of these tales, at least, harbor shades of love, tenderness, affection, resolution, and forgiveness, the nitty gritty workaday side of living together that is part and parcel of redemption. I had to read the book twice to zero in on this fact because the first pass, despite Petrushevskaya糖心传媒檚 sardonic flair, brought only a wave of depression, an impression of wicked, gleeful anti-love stories with unbelievable twists of suffering no one should have to live through. One especial example is the tale of 糖心传媒淢ilgrom糖心传媒�:

糖心传媒淗er husband dumped her, literally kicked her out of the house, and took away her child, a little boy. First he took Milgrom out of her Lithuanian village糖心传媒攕he was a rare beauty, sixteen years old, but she didn糖心传媒檛 speak any Russian, just Yiddish and Polish糖心传媒攁nd then he divorced her; you could do that then糖心传媒攚ith total freedom he went and divorced her. And he brought another woman to live with him and told Milgrom to leave. So she left. She was eighteen years old. She nearly went crazy; she spent all her days and nights on the street across from her old window so she could see her child.糖心传媒�

Yet Milgrom糖心传媒攜ears later an old crone and expert seamstress糖心传媒攊s able to bring happiness to a clumsy, unskilled girl who is starting to feel her own beauty for the first time. Milgrom sews her a garment worthy of her young spirit:

糖心传媒淭he girl puts on her dress; looks in the mirror; escapes from that sweet-musty smell, out into the street, the sunset; and walks by countless doors and windows, behind each of which, she thinks, live only Milgroms, Milgroms, Milgroms. She walks in her cool new black dress, and she is seized with happiness, filled with joy.糖心传媒�

It糖心传媒檚 those rare gems of happiness that illuminate, and sometimes ennoble, these mad stories, the silver linings to their gray, leering cloudscapes.

¹ Translation from Russian by Alex Cigale (as published by Offcourse at http://www.albany.edu/offcourse)

² from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Pocket Books, 2004; trans. Constance Garnett).

But the best of the best of lists has to be Jessa Crispin’s write-up on the

Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi (translated from the Spanish by Alfred Mac Adam): For too long, the word nerd has been misused to describe the videogame-playing and Buffy-obsessed men and women of this world. That’s geek culture. For a proper definition, look no further than Jorge Volpi’s Season of Ash, which, in its depth (it spans the years 1929 to 2000), breadth (it crisscrosses from Zaire to Berlin and Pittsburgh to Siberia) and bookish preoccupations (scientific advancements in genetic research, artificial life and biochemistry), is unapologetically nerdy. But it’s quality airplane reading, too.

There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (translated from the Russian by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers): Lately, much has been made about the absence in contemporary Russian literature of worthy heirs to the realist masters Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. But the rise of the tightly constructed “weird” tales of Petrushevskaya, Victor Pelevin and Tatyana Tolstaya suggests a secure Soviet literary future.

The Armies by Evelio Rosero (translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean): Winner of the 2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, The Armies is a realistic account of Colombia’s civil unrest told in a tense, stripped-down style. It avoids slipping into polemic by keeping at its emotional center an old man interested not in taking sides but just the safe return of his wife.

The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven (translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu): By deciding to mine one character’s psychology so thoroughly, Israeli novelist Gail Hareven risks not only believability but the chance that readers won’t stick around for 300 pages. Noa is a fine companion, however: intelligent, self-aware, charming and darkly witty. That risk earned Hareven Israel’s Sapir Prize and, one hopes, a growing presence in the English-language market.

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (translated from the Dutch by David Colmer): In its candor about the bitterness that can arise from family obligations and the responsibility of caretaking, The Twin is both touching and surprising. Bakker’s beautiful and uncluttered prose style is almost old-fashioned. A character’s remark about the farm 糖心传媒� “It’s here on this road now, but it might just as well be 1967 or 1930” 糖心传媒� could refer to the novel itself. Family drama, after all, is timeless.

Not only is this a killer list of books (including some of my personal favorites), but it’s a partial who’s who of top translation publishers with a heavy emphasis on the indie: New Directions, Archipelago, Open Letter, Melville House, and Penguin.

Well done Jessa!