3. September 2005, 15:33

As I've already mentioned, the other day I have read the book "Komm" ("Daj mne!") by Irina Deneshkina.

I have heard of this book about one, two years ago, when Irina Deneshkina and her book was the new big star at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Well, I thought, the critics are usually older men and older men usually like to read dirty stories written by young nice girls, and that's why they reviewed her short stories very well. And it was said, this book shows the situation, the thinking and the life of Russian teenagers in our time. So, I became interested, but also was a bit careful and sceptical.

I began to read the book not with the first story, I started with "Post Scriptum", because it was rather short and I could read it quickly. But this story hit me like a hammer in the face. I haven't expected such a thing. Such a open and dramatic language and words - and a story with something behind these words, which is not written down. I like it most and I also like the story "Valerotchka".

This reminded me a little bit of my own youth, although it never was like this, but there were some little similarities and it could have been like this, too. And what else we look for, when reading a favourite book - we look for answers of our own questions to life and we wanna see, that other people have similar life expiriences and similar questions and we are interested, how they look at that life and how they try to find those answers.

Well, finally a very good story book. But I am not sure, that I can take this for the Russian youth in general. I doubt this.

But what I have learnt and what have surprised me, was to read, that a female could feel such a big love and longing to a partner, too, as described in the story "Song for Lovers". Before, I thought only a boy can fall in love so badly, because I thought, when a girl couldn't get one partner she wants, she just hast to go to another one - it's so easy for a girl...