Комары

Bogatai͡a vdova, vostorzhennai͡a pokrovitelʹnit͡sa izi͡ashchnykh iskusstv, priglashaet kompanii͡u iz Novogo Orleana prii͡atno provesti vremi͡a na vode za besedami ob iskusstve. Na bortu i͡akhty "Navsikai͡a" sobirai͡utsi͡a sklonnyĭ k rozygrysham izvestnyĭ pisatelʹ, t͡sinichnyĭ i grustnyĭ kritik, skulʹptor-neli͡udim, ėkzalʹtirovannai͡a khudozhnit͡sa, utonchennyĭ i beznadezhno kholostoĭ t͡senitelʹ prekrasnogo, devochka-ėmansipe, ee masterovityĭ brat, butleger, ego muza i eshche neskolʹko chelovek, udachno dopolni͡ai͡ushchikh ėtot prazdno stranstvui͡ushchiĭ panoptikum. Uveselitelʹnai͡a progulka pochti srazu vykhodit iz-pod kontroli͡a: muzhchiny nalegai͡ut na viski, nevinnyĭ flirt pererastaet v bezotvetnui͡u strastʹ, odni gosti ischezai͡ut sredʹ bela dni͡a, drugie sazhai͡ut i͡akhtu na melʹ, a vse prochie so skuki prevrashchai͡ut vozvyshennyĭ dosug v formennyĭ balagan. Kazhetsi͡a, dovolʹny tolʹko mestnye komary, obitateli pribrezhnykh bolot, kotorym udaetsi͡a vdovolʹ polakomitʹsi͡a svezheĭ krovʹi͡u novoorleanskoĭ bogemy. . . Budushchiĭ laureat Nobelevskoĭ premii po literature, velikiĭ amerikanskiĭ pisatelʹ Uilʹi͡am Folkner v molodosti provel v Novom Orleane mnogie burnye mesi͡at͡sy, i ikh plodom stali "Komary" - modernistskiĭ opyt, vdokhnovlennyĭ T. S. Ėliotom, Khaksli i, vozmozhno, Dzhoĭsom, satiricheskiĭ "roman s kli͡uchom", kotoryĭ uspeshno obidel ochenʹ mnogikh. Kak ni stranno, vpervye na russkom!

A wealthy widow, an enthusiastic patroness of the fine arts, invites a company from New Orleans to spend time on the water talking about art. A famous writer, a cynical and sad critic, an unsociable sculptor, an exalted artist, a refined and hopelessly single connoisseur of beauty, an emancipated girl, her masterful brother, a bootlegger, his muse and several other people who successfully complement this idly wandering panopticon gather on board the Nausicaa yacht. A pleasure trip almost immediately gets out of control: men lean on whiskey, innocent flirtation turns into unrequited passion, some guests disappear in broad daylight, others run a yacht aground, and everyone else turns sublime leisure into a form of farce out of boredom. It seems that only the local mosquitoes, the inhabitants of coastal swamps, are happy, who manage to feast on the fresh blood of New Orleans bohemians. The future Nobel Prize winner in literature, the great American writer William Faulkner, spent many turbulent months in New Orleans in his youth, and their fruit was "Mosquitoes" — a modernist experience inspired by T. S. Eliot, Huxley and, possibly, Joyce, a satirical "novel with a key" that successfully offended many. Oddly enough, for the first time in Russian!