It's No Good (Eastern European Poets)

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About It's No Good

Product Description Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Translated from the Russian by Keith Gessen with Mark Krotov, Corey Mead and Bela Shayevich. Edited and introduced by Keith Gessen, IT'S NO GOOD includes selected poems from Kirill Medvedev's four books of poetry as well as his most significant essays: "My Fascism" (on the failure of post-Soviet Russian liberalism, politically and culturally); "Literature and Sincerity" (on the attractions and dangers of the "new sincerity" in Russian letters); "Dmitry Kuzmin, a Memoir" (a detailed memoir and analysis of the work of the 1990s Moscow poet, publisher, and impresario Kuzmin, and what his activity represents). This is Medvedev's first book in English. "Kirill Medvedev is the most exciting phenomenon in Russian poetry at the beginning of the new century. To be fair, that's not a compliment. It's a judgment. You get the sense that Medvedev has no fear, and that this fearlessness costs him nothing. Such things are rarely forgiven."—Dmitry Vodennikov Review It's No Good is an event. Archimedes said: Give me a place to stand, and a long enough lever, and I'll move the world. Kirill Medvedev and his translators have given American readers another place to stand, a kind of Zuccotti of the mind. Now if only we can keep our grip on the lever. --Garth Risk Hallberg, The Millions Medvedev's unique mixture of poetry and prose, artistic and political at once, gives It's No Good a lasting power that immediately places him in the forefront of international activist art. --Will Evans, Three Percent Review He is a Russian humanist, writing about Russia and for Russians, but lucidly aware of the global system in which national literatures have their place, and of the universal concerns that ripple through these literatures. It is pornographic and caring, composed by a good person whose phantasms are firing, who can't just write the sort of poetry he has written here and be happy about it. --Justin Eric Halldor Smith Part of the nightmare world that It's No Good evokes is one that both Orwell and the members of Pussy Riot would understand. It's a nightmare of euphemism and cant. "This is what happens," Mr. Medvedev writes, "when the authorities don't want to speak clearly and don't want to be spoken of clearly, either." --Dwight Garner, the New York Times Part of the nightmare world that It's No Good evokes is one that both Orwell and the members of Pussy Riot would understand. It's a nightmare of euphemism and cant. "This is what happens," Mr. Medvedev writes, "when the authorities don't want to speak clearly and don't want to be spoken of clearly, either." --Dwight Garner, the New York Times He is a Russian humanist, writing about Russia and for Russians, but lucidly aware of the global system in which national literatures have their place, and of the universal concerns that ripple through these literatures. It is pornographic and caring, composed by a good person whose phantasms are firing, who can't just write the sort of poetry he has written here and be happy about it. --Justin Eric Halldor Smith Part of the nightmare world that It's No Good evokes is one that both Orwell and the members of Pussy Riot would understand. It's a nightmare of euphemism and cant. "This is what happens," Mr. Medvedev writes, "when the authorities don't want to speak clearly and don't want to be spoken of clearly, either." --Dwight Garner, the New York Times He is a Russian humanist, writing about Russia and for Russians, but lucidly aware of the global system in which national literatures have their place, and of the universal concerns that ripple through these literatures. It is pornographic and caring, composed by a good person whose phantasms are firing, who can't just write the sort of poetry he has written here and be happy about it. --Justin Eric Halldor Smith About the Author Born in Moscow, in 1975, Kirill Medvedev has recently emerged as one of the most exciting, unpredictable voices on the