If I was asked which book was the most significant one for the year 2008, I would say straight off that it was Tamara Hundorova’s monograph Kitsch and Literature. The author’s reflecting on and theorizing about the nature of kitsch is instrumental in characterizing some twists and turns of the year 2008 in terms of literature, to say nothing about the way in which her book helps to understand some specificities of Ukrainian cultural life as such.
If I were a child, a tiny child born in Ukraine, I would have loads of advantages. Imagine, I begin to talk, and then to walk. And this is where my first books are waiting for me, them being Ivan Andrusyak’sKotyky ta kytsi (Cats and Kitties) and Zviryacha abetka (Animals’ ABC), and Ivan Malkovych’sABC-book. But a person can’t live on abecedaries, can one?
Detective or crime fiction can be compared to comfortable clothes. Fashion changes, but regardless of the actual trend people generally give preference to comfort, with only minor details of style really changing. The same is true for the genre of crime fiction: it is ever up-to-date as a means of both entertaining readers and expressing certain concepts. It is only minor features of style that change with time.
Ukrainian literature has ancient traditions, and fairy-tales and legends make the most delicious part of these. Stories of fabulous events and fantastic creatures have been in abundance here since the era of tales told by our ancestors near the fireplace. All things strange, mysterious, fantastic and incredible naturally thrive in this land, so it’s no wonder so many interesting authors were born here.
Every creative personality begins with learning of the world, reflecting on it and then reflecting it through their work — as honestly as possible. But it seems that in Soviet era totalitarian pressure on Ukraine’s creative minds was so strong and so masterfully organized, that many Ukrainians would associate Ukrainian literature with nothing but Soviet official policy.
Futurologists, as ever, seem to have been wrong in their surmises. A couple of decades ago they announced the forthcoming «death of the novel», that is of narrative literature as such. But it is still beyond doubt that a good story always finds its reader.
Rapid growth of interest to the books written by modern Ukrainian authors, especially on the part of young readers, is hard to come unnoticed.
