Ludmila Ulitskaya is an author who I had only heard of whenever the list of Nobel Prize for Literature contenders is bandied about. I was given her 2015 novel, The Big Green Tent (my version published by Picador US and translated by Polly Gannon) as a present, and what an rewarding gift it turned out to be. It’s a great Russian novel in many senses, with the story of two sets of three friends - one boys, one girls - growing up, their family of generations who influence them, and their attempts to develop themselves in Soviet era Moscow in the 1950s and 60’s. It’s set against a background of racial tension, propaganda and the illegality of protestation and any literature involving free thinking, and follows the characters’ meandering progress through to the 90s. It’s interestingly constructed, with the timeline jumping around in a way that took me time to fall in with. Each chapter almost acts as a short story and each of these elements of the patchwork reveals a little more of the overall image that the book conveys and the ultimate picture that stays with the reader. It’s brilliantly written, it trumpets family bonds, human rights, feminism, betrayal, and ‘the great truth of literature’. Epic indeed. ( )

Interesting book about life in the Soviet Union post-Stalin [in fact the book opens with the announcement of his death] through the stories of three boys who meet in grammar school and their lifelong friendships with each other, their families, and the trajectories the life of each of them takes over a period of decades. The novel treats of dissidents and samizdat. Fascinating look at that period of history through the eyes of common Russians. ( )

Ulitskaya' sweeping novel follows the tradition of her Russian literature forbears. It begins with Stalin's death in 1953 and ends in 1990. In some ways, the novel feels like a series of stories bringing to life what it was like to be a dissident in post-Stalin Russia; how they lived and managed to live in a society controlled by the KGB. The cast of characters is huge -some being introduced well over half way through. I kept a list and it continued to grow. But it helped to make things clear. Woven throughout is the story of three boys, who become best friends in school, and follows them through their coming of age and adulthood

At school the boys fall under the spell of their literature teacher, Victor Yulievich, who instills in them their love of Russian culture, particularly literature and poetry. He tells his students, "Literature is the only thing that allows us to survive, the only thing that helps us to reconcile ourselves to the time we live in."

This love of culture characterizes the lives of the boys and determines how they conduct their lives. It also envelopes the reader in the breadth of Russian literature, poetry, music, drama and art. My list of cultural references was longer than my list of characters! How much Russia has contributed to the world!

Because some of the "vignettes" were a little slow-going for me (especaially not knowing at the time the overall arc of the novel) I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Overall, this is a wonderful book that I recommend for an understanding of the post-Stalin era. ( )

A sweeping saga, it tells the story of three school friends who meet in Moscow in the 1950s and go on to embody the heroism, folly, compromise, and hope of the Soviet dissident experience. These three boys—an orphaned poet; a gifted, fragile pianist; and a budding photographer with a talent for collecting secrets—struggle to reach adulthood in a society where their heroes have been censored and exiled. Rich with love stories, intrigue, and a cast of dissenters and spies, The Big Green Tent offers a panoramic survey of life after Stalin and a dramatic investigation into the prospects for integrity in a society defined by the KGB. Each of the central characters seeks to transcend an oppressive regime through art, a love of Russian literature, and activism. Each of them ends up face-to-face with a secret police that is highly skilled at fomenting paranoia, division, and self-betrayal. An artist is chased into the woods, where he remains in hiding for four years; a researcher is forced to deem a patient insane, damning him to torture in a psychiatric ward; a man and his wife each become collaborators, without the other knowing. Ludmila Ulitskaya’s big yet intimate novel belongs to the tradition of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Pasternak: a work of politics, love, and belief that is a revelation of life in dark

The Big Green Tent by Ljudmila Ulitskaya

I recommend this sprawling, Russian novel. This is a book with a big scope, that gives a picture of life as a dissident in post-Stalin Russia. The structure is interesting... the book starts as a straight-forward narrative about three school friends with a shared love of literature, and then, switches into a non-linear narrative, a series of chapters, each focusing on different characters and events.

I ended up reading the book too fast (it was due back at the library) and felt like I missed parts of the stories. I wished I had a list of characters and relationships. (but that would have included too many spoilers). Also, I missed out because of my lack of knowledge about Soviet history and culture. But I did enjoy learning, and also enjoyed the Russian poetry quoted throughout the book. ( )