Ventilation hole

Author: (Russian) Vladimir Makanin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: The Vent tells the story of two men with homes competing for a lover. Mikhailov, an engineer at a woodworking factory, and Strepetov, a mathematics teacher, both fall in love with the poet Alefkhina. Alefkhina has no home, but she has poetry, coffee, and love, making her the "vent" that both men yearn for. Vladimir Makanin, one of contemporary Russia's most influential and acclaimed writers, is the recipient of the Russian Booker Prize and the Pushkin Prize. The Vent is one of his works. Poetry, coffee, and love symbolize art, and art is the vent for a rigid life—not personal, but for the entire secular world. However, this pursuit is so fragile that when it conflicts with practical interests, it is firmly abandoned. Once again, people are shrouded in the "slow, draining, yet gentle and hopeless emptiness."