Olga Grushin The Dream Life of Sukhanov

The Dream Life of Sukhanov

Olga Grushin

Putnam, Jan 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0399152989

Russian avant-garde artist Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov once admired the freedom and boldness of western art; his early work reflected that "decadent" influence. His inspiration changed when he married Nina, daughter of Soviet sponsored painter Malinin. That marital connection gets Sukhanov a bureaucratic job as a state critic of western decadence and cheerleader of Communist endeavors. Quickly Sukhanov rises up the bureaucracy to become Editor-in-Chief of Art of the World, a publication that ridicules Western art. With his rise, he receives the elitist Moscow apartment and other perks.

By the late 1980's and in his fifties, Sukhanov knows his wife and daughter have no respect for his sell-out, while his ambitious son disregards him because he has no polish to rise any further. Sukhanov also suffers from writer's block and is unsure whether to cheer or fear that Gorbachev will change his upper class lifestyle. His past and present collide when he meets a former artist friend who didn't sell out so never gained material advantages, but the edge is reached when someone else's positive freelance review of Russian painter Marc Chagall replaces his diatribe on the decadence of Dali.

This is an insightful biographical fictionalized account of an individual, who by selling his beliefs in the Soviet bureaucracy receives all the perks, but has lost his self-esteem and knows his family belittles him. Interestingly Sukhanov senses his lifestyle is about to end, but his feelings are mixed; as he welcomes this, but also fears he can never go home. Olga Grushin writes a fantastic insightful look at a man broken by a system.