Какаду

Povesti i rasskazy Patrika Uaĭta, voshedshie v sbornik "Kakadu", vpervye opublikovannyĭ v 1973 godu i uspevshiĭ voĭti v klassicheskiĭ fond ne tolʹko avstraliĭskoĭ, no i mirovoĭ literatury KhKh veka, - ėto svoeobraznyĭ "mir odinochestva", naselennyĭ li͡udʹmi, lishennymi sposobnosti "razgovarivatʹ". Kto by oni ni byli i gde by oni ni zhili - v tikhikh burzhuaznykh gorodkakh i ui͡utnykh prigorodakh prot͡svetai͡ushcheĭ poslevoennoĭ Avstralii ili golodnoĭ, pronizannoĭ kromeshnym uzhasom nemet͡skoĭ okkupat͡sii Gret͡sii, - kazhdyĭ iz nikh neset v sebe svoĭ sobstvennyĭ ad i boretsi͡a so svoimi demonami v odinochku. Li͡ubai͡a popytka probitʹ stenu totalʹnogo odinochestva privodit lishʹ k eshche bolʹshemu neponimanii͡u i otdalenii͡u drug ot druga dazhe samykh blizkikh i li͡ubi͡ashchikh. V vozdukhe razlito oshchushchenie skoroĭ tragedii, izbezhatʹ kotoroĭ mozhet pomochʹ lishʹ chudo… i inogda ono proiskhodit - prichem ne v metaforicheskom, a v samom pri͡amom i bukvalʹnom smysle ėtogo slova. . .

The novels and short stories by Patrick White, included in the collection "Cockatoo", first published in 1973 and which managed to enter the classical fund of not only Australian but also world literature of the twentieth century, are a kind of "world of loneliness" inhabited by people deprived of the ability to "talk". Whoever they are and wherever they live - in the quiet bourgeois towns and cozy suburbs of prosperous post-war Australia or hungry, riddled with the utter horror of the German occupation of Greece - each of them carries his own hell and fights his demons alone. Any attempt to break through the wall of total loneliness only leads to even greater misunderstanding and distance from each other, even the closest and most loving. There is a sense of imminent tragedy in the air, which only a miracle can help to avoid... and sometimes it happens - and not in a metaphorical way, but in the most direct and literal sense of the word...