Limonov is not a fictional character, but he could have been. He's lived a hundred lives. He was a hoodlum in Ukraine, an idol of the Soviet underground, punk-poet and valet to a billionaire in Manhattan, fashion writer in Paris, lost soldier in the Balkans, and now, in the chaos after the fall of communism a charismatic party leader of a gang of political desperados.
Emmanuel Carrere, novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and biographer, is the award-winning internationally renowned author of The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), Lives Other Than My Own, My Life As A Russian Novel, Class Trip and The Mustache. Carrere lives in Paris.
He's the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who
is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into
the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty ... His "non-fiction
novel", Limonov, has two explicit modes - part adventure story,
part cultural-historical analysis ... it is about Carrère's
exploration of himself, his Russian heritage, and what it means to
be a European after the second world war, especially since the end
of the cold war
*Observer*
I loved Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère, which happens to be a book
about a Russian guy. Like all of Carrère's work it's a sort of
masterclass in creative writing
*Evening Standard*
Carrère covers a lot of ground with cool honesty and careful
humanity
*New York Times*
A beguiling writer . . . Graceful and important
*NPR*
You might not have heard of [Limonov], and after you have read this
you might wish you had not heard of him, but you will certainly
have enjoyed reading about his life, thanks to the verve of
Emmanuel Carrère's exhilarating narration. You will probably also
understand considerably more about the country that produced such a
narcissistic and controversial figure, whom the author finds
alluring and repellent in equal measure . . . Carrère has seized on
Limonov's projection of himself as a literary hero (or anti-hero)
straight out of the pages of Dostoyevsky, Celine, or Henry Miller,
and run with it
*Independent*
This is an extraordinary, fantastic book about an extraordinary,
fantastic life. It's billed as a novel, can be read as a novel and
would be a good novel if Eduard Limonov had never existed. But he
does . . . you will learn an awful lot about Russia now and in the
days of the Soviets
*Scotsman*
Russia, they say, cannot be understood with the mind alone, and
neither can her looniest son to date, Edichka Limonov. It also
takes a heart, a spleen, a liver and this beautiful book by
France's greatest writer, Emmanuel Carrère. Get ready for the last
real adventure of the 20th Century!
*Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure*
To paraphrase Calvino, Emmanuel Carrèrre's Limonov is a book about
two things: Limonov, and everything else ... This virtuosically
unclassifiable thing is somehow at once the liveliest of novels,
the most illuminating of biographies, and the most consequential of
philosophical inquiries - a loopy, hilarious, gut-punching quest
after the shifting spirits of war, loyalty, discipline, pity,
empathy, scorn, vitality, honor, ego, and, above all, the heroism
of decency
*Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction*
There are few great writers in France today, and Emmanuel Carrère
is one of them
*Paris Review*
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