Live and Remember

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Macmillan, 1978 - Fiction - 216 pages
Live and Remember is one of the most important works of Russian literature of the post-Stalin, pre-glasnost era. First published in Russian in 1974, it was immediately hailed by Soviet critics as a superb-if atypical-example of war literature and a moving depiction of the degradation and ultimate damnation of a frontline deserter-although it did provoke controversy for its sympathetic portrayal of the deserter's wife. But the novel has also attracted the attention of both Western and Soviet critics for it masterly psychological portrait of two characters caught in a hopeless situation. The novel tells the story of a Siberian peasant who makes a tragic miscalculation by deserting in the last year of the war, and the loyal wife who embraces his fate as her own. Rasputin examines the doomed relationship of these characters, sharply evoking the ties that bind individuals to their land, their community, their family. More than commentary on the nature of Soviet power or on the conduct of the war, Live and Remember is simultaneously a timeless tale with universal appeal and a very Russian story.

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Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
14
Section 3
19
Copyright

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About the author (1978)

Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937 in Ust-Uda, Soviet Union. He graduated from Irkutsk State University in 1959. He worked as a journalist for many years. He became a head of the village prose writers who emerged in the 1960s to address moral and environmental issues and depict a rural Russia about to be consumed by industrialization. His books included Farewell to Matyora, The Fire, and Money for Maria. He died on March 14, 2015 at the age of 77.

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