Word: limonov
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Dates: during 1983-1983
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...LIMONOV, however, is writing not about losing a wife but about losing a country. Elena's defection spurs Eddie's fantasies and seductions, the meat of the novel. Yet it is his move to America that gives her the freedom to leave him in the first place. Thus she becomes a symbol for the losses the exile must suffer in his adopted home. As the imaginary object for all Eddie's nostalgic yearnings for the old country. Elena is naturally less wonderful in reality than in memory...
...language and so his trade. In the Soviet Union he could at least publish a few underground volumes, but in America he loses his voice altogether. Eddie's resentment toward the Soviet dissidents who urge others to emigrate without ever having been in the West themselves is, then, understandable. Limonov repeatedly attacks that paragon of dissidents Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for instigating Eddie's immigration. For Eddie, Solzhenitsyn is a propaganda artist. In one scene, "the prophet" talks on television; while frustrated Eddie and Elena make their big statement by having intercourse in front...
Russian emigres have generally denied Limonov's portrayal of their life and feelings for America; no self-respecting Russian, they claim, could lead a life of such decadence, and they point to the material advantages of emigration. But for Eddie the two political systems, capitalist and communist, are the same. "Both states bullshit about the justice of their systems, but where's my money?" And while the dissidents claim there is freedom in the West, Eddie knows otherwise: "They've got no fucking freedom here, just try and say anything bold at work. No fuss, on muss...
...Eddie the child, the streets of New York are a playground. There he cavorts with the lowest of the low, enjoying great sexual satisfaction with bums and bagwomen, while at once mourning the loss of his ideal love, his "Angel Fucker," Elena, whom the rich have spirited away. Thus Limonov hopes to demonstrate the vacuity of American culture; all emigres, not only Eddie, have betrayed their own natures by giving up a homeland where there is at least a little love (though we are never told why this is so) for a place which offers no love, and money...
...character of Eddie, Limonov attempts to demonstrate this socio-political viewpoint carried to the nth degree. With his version of what he calls Russian Maximalism he gives us minimal insight; his social analysis is old and boring, and he leaves the reader with only a shell of bizarre acts and feelings without cohesion...