Pioneer

Author: (Russian) Vladimir Makanin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: The Forerunner embodies the highly typical traditional characteristics of Russian literature as well as contemporary Russian traits. The protagonist of the novel—the shaman Yakushkin—is a quintessential ordinary man swept into the tide during the transition from a highly conservative, rigid social system to an open, Westernized, and anomalous society. His personality is eccentric, his thoughts bizarre, and his behavior absurd, making him difficult for others to understand, while his own life resembles a tragic song. Vladimir Makanin, one of the most influential and esteemed contemporary Russian writers, is the recipient of the Russian Booker Prize and the Pushkin Prize. The Forerunner is one of his works. The protagonist of the story is a. Makanin places him in a realistic setting while exaggerating his eccentricities, diminishing the human aspects of his character, thereby giving the figure a symbolic meaning and pointing, from a philosophical height, to the individuality and spiritual world of humanity. The Forerunner is Makanin's most representative work and also one of the most controversial.