“Писатель всегда платит за все валютой собственной жизни: за счастье, за творчество, за любовь, за увлечения...”: О романе Дины Рубиной На солнечной стороне улицы

Abstract

The article deals with Dina Rubina's novel On the Sunny Side of the Street, published in 2006. The writer's name became known in Russia in the 70-ies when as a young girl she began publishing her first short stories in the liberal literary magazine Junost ́, and got her first recognition among the reading public as a promising story-teller.
After her emigration to Israel in 1990 a new period in Dina Rubina's writing started. A new theme made itself apparent in her stories - the theme of Jews from the former Soviet Union discovering their new Motherland, their new experience of living under absolutely different geographical and social surroundings. She managed to create in her stories a gallery of characters almost recognizable in their uncertainty and fumbling attempts at survival. The stories she wrote then were a success with the public not only because of their plot but also because of a peculiar mixture of humour and sadness, and very vivid and convincing speech characteristics of the protagonists, they also witnessed about the awakening of patriotic feelings of the newcomers. Dina Rubina's artistic style seemed to combine the vividness of the psychological characterization and caleidoscopic variety of depicted situations.
The novel On the Sunny Side of the Street is different both in the topic and in the artistic means used by the author. It is telling a story of two gifted persons, mother and daughter, and their different ways of using their talents.
This particular story is shown on a wide background of different events taking place in Tashkent during some four decades after World War II with a picturesque variety of characters of different nationalities and beautiful scenery, tragic and comic signs of the Soviet time - all this helps to create a panoramic view of both the city and its inhabitants.
The structure of the novel is complicated, the story is often interrupted by voices of former inhabitants of Tashkent telling about their impressions from the town or by the voice of the author telling of her own private experiences and even meetings with the main protagonist, Vera, who is a painter. This fact accounts for the author's masterful use of colourful details both in descriptions of the characters, their speech and the nature.
This novel was rewarded with a special Radio-Booker prize in 2006, and with a very prestigious literary prize "Bol ́šaja kniga" in 2007. Dina Rubina has proved that she remains a very important part of Russian literary life.