Secondhand time: the last of the Soviets

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The magnum opus and latest work from Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—a symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new RussiaNAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Wall Street Journal • NPR • Financial Times • Kirkus Reviews When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions—a history of the soul.” Alexievich’s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation. In Secondhand Time, Alexievich chronicles the demise of communism. Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it’s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake. Through interviews spanning 1991 to 2012, Alexievich takes us behind the propaganda and contrived media accounts, giving us a panoramic portrait of contemporary Russia and Russians who still carry memories of oppression, terror, famine, massacres—but also of pride in their country, hope for the future, and a belief that everyone was working and fighting together to bring about a utopia. Here is an account of life in the aftermath of an idea so powerful it once dominated a third of the world. A magnificent tapestry of the sorrows and triumphs of the human spirit woven by a master, Secondhand Time tells the stories that together make up the true history of a nation. “Through the voices of those who confided in her,” The Nation writes, “Alexievich tells us about human nature, about our dreams, our choices, about good and evil—in a word, about ourselves.”Praise for Svetlana Alexievich and Secondhand Time“The nonfiction volume that has done the most to deepen the emotional understanding of Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union of late is Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history Secondhand Time.”—David Remnick, The New Yorker “Like the greatest works of fiction, Secondhand Time is a comprehensive and unflinching exploration of the human condition. . . . In its scope and wisdom, Secondhand Time is comparable to War and Peace.”The Wall Street Journal “Already hailed as a masterpiece across Europe, Secondhand Time is an intimate portrait of a country yearning for meaning after the sudden lurch from Communism to capitalism in the 1990s plunged it into existential crisis.”The New York Times “This is the kind of history, otherwise almost unacknowledged by today’s dictatorships, that matters.”The Christian Science Monitor “In this spellbinding book, Svetlana Alexievich orchestrates a rich symphony of Russian voices telling their stories of love and death, joy and sorrow, as they try to make sense of the twentieth century.”—J. M. Coetzee

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Contributors
Alexievich, Svetlana Author
Bramhall, Mark Narrator
Campbell, Cassandra Narrator
Carlin, Amanda Narrator
Farr, Kimberly Narrator
ISBN
9780399588808
9781524708337
9780399588815

Table of Contents

From the Book - First U.S. edition.

Chronology : Russia after Stalin
Remarks from an accomplice
The consolation of apocalypse : snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (1991-2001)
Ten stories in a Red interior. On the beauty of dictatorship and the mystery of butterflies in cement ; On brothers and sisters, victims and executioners ... and the electorate ; On cries and whispers ... and exhilaration ; On the lonely Red marshal and three days of forgotten revolution ; On the mercy of memories and the lust for meaning ; On a different Bible and a different kind of believer ; On the cruelty of the flames and salvation from above ; On the sweetness of suffering and the trick of the Russian soul ; On a time when anyone who kills believes that they are serving God ; On the little Red flag and the smile of the axe
The charms of emptiness : snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (2002-2012)
Ten stories in the absence of an interior. On Romeo and Juliet ... except their names were Margarita and Abulfaz ; On people who instantly transformed after the fall of Communism ; On a loneliness that resembles happiness ; On wanting to kill them all and the horror of realizing that you really wanted to do it ; On the old crone with a braid and the beautiful young woman ; On a stranger's grief that God has deposited on your doorstep ; On life the bitch and one hundred grams of fine powder in a little white vase ; On how nothing disgusts the dead and the silence of dust ; On the darkness of the evil one and "the other life we can build out of this one" ; On courage and what comes after
Notes from an everywoman.

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While these oral histories cover different times and places (Witness to the Revolution in the U.S., 1969-70; Secondhand Time in the last three decades of the Soviet Union), both provide rich insights through the accounts of people who experienced the events. -- Katherine Johnson
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Donald J. Raleigh, an American scholar, and Svetlana Aleksievich, a Russian journalist, offer intimate portraits of modern Russians through their oral histories. Aleksievich presents lyrical, eyewitness accounts full of vivid detail, while Raleigh filters his subjects through his scholarly lens. -- Katherine Johnson
While L.Z. Lungina writes personal memoirs and Svetlana Aleksievich compiles oral histories, both offer lyrical, compelling, and intimate views of the Russian and Soviet experience in the 20th and early 21st centuries. -- Katherine Johnson
While Serhii Plokhy presents his thorough research using a scholar's organization and writing style, while Svetlana crafts literary narratives out of extensive recordings of oral history, both present incisive evaluations of Soviet and Russian history. -- Katherine Johnson
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Published Reviews

Choice Review

Journalist Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, has published an intriguing new work that examines the lives of ordinary Russians from the collapse of communism in the early 1990s into the second decade of the 21st century. Using extensive interviews, the author reveals a complex picture of post-Soviet Russia that often defies propaganda and media accounts about the new Russia. Alexievich experiments with a new style of writing that combines oral history with traditional reporting, which results in a compelling, useful account of contemporary Russia. The work also reveals what ordinary Russians think of their Soviet past. Even though communism collapsed in the Soviet Union over 25 years ago, the power of that idea and regime has continued to influence Russia in both positive and negative ways. Probably the greatest contribution of this work is the chronicling of the varied views of contemporary Russia woven into a compelling story that grips readers from beginning to end. This work will be influential for its literary and historical merit. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --William Benton Whisenhunt, College of DuPage

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
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Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl, 2005), winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in the Ukraine and has lived periodically in Russia and Belarus. Her previous works focused on Soviet history in the post-Stalinist period. Here she concentrates primarily on the period from the emergence of Gorbachev to the current pseudo-democracy under the Russian state and Putin. Once again, she uses a plethora of short remarks, complaints, regrets, and other observations by one-time Soviet citizens who now must adjust to life in a non-Communist Russian nation. Her hope is that this jigsaw of micro histories will provide a larger insight into the present and future of Russian society. Some of those who came of age before Gorbachev and his liberal reforms express longing for the lost glories of socialism and the Soviet Empire. Despite the endless lines at stores and material deprivation, life apparently had more certainty and a sense of devotion to an ideal. Those who were just entering adulthood recall the sense of exhilaration as the casting off of Soviet restrictions promised a more normal future. There is also great cynicism and disappointment expressed here, as modern Russia is viewed as both materialistic and repressive. Those who wish to understand this important nation will find Alexievich's inquiry to be absorbing and important.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl), a Ukrainian-born Belarusian writer and winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, documents the last days of the Soviet Union and the transition to capitalism in a soul-wrenching "oral history" that reveals the very different sides of the Russian experience. Revealing the interior life of "Homo sovieticus" and giving horror-laden reports of life under capitalist oligarchy, Alexievich's work turns Solzhenitsyn inside out and overpowers recent journalistic accounts of the era. Readers must possess steely nerves and a strong desire to get inside the Soviet psyche in order to handle the blood, gore, and raw emotion. For more than 30 years Alexievich has interviewed then-Soviets and ex-Soviets for this and previous books, encountering her subjects on public squares, in lines, on trains, and in their kitchens over tea. She spends hours recording conversations, sometimes returning years later, and always trying to go beyond the battered and distrusted communal pravda to seek the truths hidden within individuals. Her subjects argue with and lie to themselves; nearly everyone talks about love and loss in the context of war, hunger, betrayal, financial ruin, and emotional collapse. Yet with little intrusion from Alexievich and Shayevich's heroic translation, each voice stands on its own, joining the tragic polyphony that unfolds chapter by chapter and gives expression to intense pain and inner chaos. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Library Journal Review

Journalist Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl), who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, captures the heartache, excitement, and harsh realities of life at the end of the Soviet era and the birth of modern Russia. A collection of oral histories linked by topic, theme, and the author's own musings, this impassioned and critical study, originally published in Russian in 2013, documents the immense changes the Russian people underwent in the 1990s and 2000s. Alexievich poses clear, pointed questions and is faithful in her transcriptions of the conversations that span 1991 to 2012, creating a riveting look at everyday culture, even as people recount their experiences through difficult economic and political transitions. Other oral histories have relied on a blended structure whereby the individual stories form the supporting elements to the historians' larger narrative; the grace and power of Alexievich's work is the focus on intimate accounts, which set the stage for a more eloquent and nuanced investigation. VERDICT A must for historians, lay readers, and anyone who enjoys well-curated personal narratives. All readers will appreciate the revelations about Russia's turbulent transition and present cultural and political status. [See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]--Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Kirkus Book Review

A lively, deeply moving cacophony of Russian voices for whom the Soviet era was as essential as their nature. Nobel Prize-winning (2015) Russian writer Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl, 2005, etc.) presents a rich kaleidoscope of voices from all regions of the former Soviet Union who reveal through long tortuous monologues what living under communism really was like. For a new generation of Russians born after World War II, the era of Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika and glasnost, the attempted putsch of the government, collapse of the Soviet Union, and subsequent economic crises of the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin heralded a sense of freedom and new possibility, yet many Russians were left disillusioned and angry. What was socialism now supposed to mean for the former Homo sovieticus, now derogatively called a sovok ("dustbin")? Indeed, how to reconcile 70-plus years of official lies, murder, misery, and oppression? In segments she calls "Snatches of Street Noise and Kitchen Conversations," Alexievich transcribes these (apparently) recorded monologues and conversations in sinuous stream-of-consciousness prose. People of all ages delineate events with bewilderment and furye.g., those who had taken to the barricades during the putsch of 1991 hoping for another utopia ("They buried Sovietdom to the music of Tchaikovsky") and ending up with a scary new world where capitalism was suddenly good and "money became synonymous with freedom." The older generation had lived through the era of Stalin, the KGB and arbitrary arrests, betrayal by neighbors and friends, imprisonment, torture, and the gulag, and these remembrances are particularly haunting to read. One horrifying example is an older neighbor and friend of a man who burned himself alive in his vegetable patch because he had nothing left to live for. The suicides Alexievich emphasizes are heart-wrenching, as is the reiterated sense of the people's "naivete" in the face of ceaseless official deception, the endurance of anti-Semitism, war in the former Soviet republics, famine, and the most appalling living conditions. The author captures these voices in a priceless time capsule. Profoundly significant literature as history. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl, 2005), winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in the Ukraine and has lived periodically in Russia and Belarus. Her previous works focused on Soviet history in the post-Stalinist period. Here she concentrates primarily on the period from the emergence of Gorbachev to the current pseudo-democracy under the Russian state and Putin. Once again, she uses a plethora of short remarks, complaints, regrets, and other observations by one-time Soviet citizens who now must adjust to life in a non-Communist Russian nation. Her hope is that this jigsaw of micro histories will provide a larger insight into the present and future of Russian society. Some of those who came of age before Gorbachev and his liberal reforms express longing for the lost "glories" of socialism and the Soviet Empire. Despite the endless lines at stores and material deprivation, life apparently had more certainty and a sense of devotion to an ideal. Those who were just entering adulthood recall the sense of exhilaration as the casting off of Soviet restrictions promised a more "normal" future. There is also great cynicism and disappointment expressed here, as modern Russia is viewed as both materialistic and repressive. Those who wish to understand this important nation will find Alexievich's inquiry to be absorbing and important. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Journalist Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl), who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, captures the heartache, excitement, and harsh realities of life at the end of the Soviet era and the birth of modern Russia. A collection of oral histories linked by topic, theme, and the author's own musings, this impassioned and critical study, originally published in Russian in 2013, documents the immense changes the Russian people underwent in the 1990s and 2000s. Alexievich poses clear, pointed questions and is faithful in her transcriptions of the conversations that span 1991 to 2012, creating a riveting look at everyday culture, even as people recount their experiences through difficult economic and political transitions. Other oral histories have relied on a blended structure whereby the individual stories form the supporting elements to the historians' larger narrative; the grace and power of Alexievich's work is the focus on intimate accounts, which set the stage for a more eloquent and nuanced investigation. VERDICT A must for historians, lay readers, and anyone who enjoys well-curated personal narratives. All readers will appreciate the revelations about Russia's turbulent transition and present cultural and political status. [See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

[Page 87]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl), a Ukrainian-born Belarusian writer and winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, documents the last days of the Soviet Union and the transition to capitalism in a soul-wrenching "oral history" that reveals the very different sides of the Russian experience. Revealing the interior life of "Homo sovieticus" and giving horror-laden reports of life under capitalist oligarchy, Alexievich's work turns Solzhenitsyn inside out and overpowers recent journalistic accounts of the era. Readers must possess steely nerves and a strong desire to get inside the Soviet psyche in order to handle the blood, gore, and raw emotion. For more than 30 years Alexievich has interviewed then-Soviets and ex-Soviets for this and previous books, encountering her subjects on public squares, in lines, on trains, and in their kitchens over tea. She spends hours recording conversations, sometimes returning years later, and always trying to go beyond the battered and distrusted communal pravda to seek the truths hidden within individuals. Her subjects argue with and lie to themselves; nearly everyone talks about love and loss in the context of war, hunger, betrayal, financial ruin, and emotional collapse. Yet with little intrusion from Alexievich and Shayevich's heroic translation, each voice stands on its own, joining the tragic polyphony that unfolds chapter by chapter and gives expression to intense pain and inner chaos. (June)

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