Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov

Julie Hansen (Uppsala University)

Ed. by Andrei Rogatchevski, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2006

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

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Novel

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Olga Grushin’s debut novel

The Dream Life of Sukhanov

was published in 2006 to critical acclaim. A native Russian speaker born in the Soviet Union in 1971, Grushin moved to the United States in 1989 and subsequently adopted English as her literary language. Although written in English, the novel’s setting and characters are Russian, and it examines the universal themes of betrayal, creative genius, and the role of the artist in society within a Soviet context.

The plot unfolds in perestroika-era Moscow, over the course of eleven days in early August 1985. The narrative also contains flashbacks to earlier periods in the life of the eponymous protagonist, Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov, the 56-year-old editor-in-chief of the magazine Art of the World, who leads a comfortable life among the

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2547 words

Citation: Hansen, Julie. "The Dream Life of Sukhanov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 March 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34201, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov

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