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Mikhail Iosifovich Weller is a modern Russian prose writer, author of the novels “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin”, “Rendezvous with a Celebrity” and many others. The topic of today's article is the life and work of the writer.
early years
The hero of this article was born in 1948, in a military family. Kamenetz-Podolsky is the hometown of Mikhail Iosifovich Weller. By nationality, both father and mother were Jews. Like all military children, the future writer often changed schools. The family often moved. Mikhail was sixteen years old when his father was assigned to the Far East.
Traveling around the country
Weller graduated from high school with a gold medal, and after receiving a certificate of maturity he submitted documents to the institute, to the faculty of Russian philology. His student years passed in Leningrad. Mikhail Iosifovich Weller - an active person. And this quality manifested itself in his youth.
So, in 1969, in search of adventure, he went from the Northern capital to Kamchatka, using passing vehicles. There he entered the border zone by fraud. After this trip, Weller did take academic leave and went to Central Asia, where he wandered for several months. And these impressions were not enough for the future writer. He moved to Kaliningrad, took a second-class sailor course and went on a flight, upon return of which he continued his studies at the university.
For several years, Weller led a relatively calm lifestyle: he worked as a pioneer leader in the summer camp, published articles in newspapers.
Weller professions
Mikhail Iosifovich Weller devoted several years to teaching activities. But working as a teacher in an eight-year school did not appeal to him. In 1973, he quit and got a job as a concrete worker.
Mikhail Iosifovich Weller, as a true engineer of human souls, mastered many professions during his life, visited the most remote corners of a vast country, talked to people from different social backgrounds.
After the teacher bored him, he decided to know the life of a simple working man. And so, he worked a bit as a concrete worker, and then left as part of a group of loggers on the Kola Peninsula. He did not stay there long. In 1975, the young writer Mikhail Iosifovich Weller was already listed on the staff of one of the state museums. In his biography there are still many amazing facts. But, oddly enough, the prose writer considers the best period in his life the months that he devoted to the work of the distillation of imported cattle.
The beginning of creativity
After long journeys, Mikhail Iosifovich Weller, whose books are published today in huge print runs, tried unsuccessfully to publish at least a few stories. In 1976, he plunged into literary activity, writing in just a few months more than ten works. But no editors accepted them.
In 1976, a novice novelist entered the workshop of science fiction writers led by Boris Strugatsky. Weller managed to publish his first stories in 1978. They appeared in literary publications popular in those years with the Leningrad intelligentsia. In addition, he worked in the editorial office of the Neva magazine, creating reviews of the works of other authors.
In Tallinn
For more than a year, the writer lived in the Estonian capital, working as a journalist in a local newspaper. This edition was called Youth of Estonia. But here, the hero of today's story did not last long. What is the reason for his dismissal this time is unknown. However, it is known that soon the writer became part of the Union of Writers of Estonia. In addition, some of his works were published during this period.
Confession
Mikhail Iosifovich Weller, whose books began to be published in separate publications only in the 80s, wrote several more stories. Among them was the "Reference Line." This work, in which the author first tried to formalize his philosophical views, appeared on the pages of one of the literary magazines. But two years later, a collection was published, which included exclusively Weller’s works - “I Want to Be a Janitor”. After some time, the book was translated into several languages. Some works from the collection were published by French, Italian and Dutch publishers.
Weller became one of the most widely read authors in the USSR. Bulat Okudzhava and Boris Strugatsky personally enlisted him, as a result, Mikhail Iosifovich was accepted into the Writers' Union.
"Heartbreaker"
The book was published in 1988. The stories included in the collection are distinct, concise style. Literary scholars have long attributed these works to Russian classical novelist of the 20th century. The book includes stories “In passing”, “Monument to Dantes”, “Bermuda”.
"Rendezvous with a celebrity"
The book was published in 1990. It touched on the most important details of his biography, Mikhail Iosifovich Weller. Parents, childhood, the youth of the writer, his first steps in literature - you can learn about all this by reading the collection "Rendezvous with a Celebrity." Weller's style is characterized by philosophical and ironic narrative. Using his own biography as an example, he created a picture of an entire generation - a generation of offspring of winners, doomed to remain in the shadow of the glory of their fathers.
For the hero of this article, writing is a form of existence. “Rendezvous with a celebrity” is one of the stories of the eponymous collection. And it is in this work that the author gives an answer to the question of why he writes. Other stories in the collection: “Debts”, “Guru”, “Not at the wrong door”, “Kitchen and culinary specialists”, etc.
In the early nineties, Mikhail I. Weller lectured at US universities. This writer is the founder of the first Jewish cultural magazine in the USSR. Weller tells about the features of literary creativity in many of his works. Mikhail Iosifovich and his lectures, of course, devoted to literature, in particular, prose of the 20th century.
"The Adventures of Major Zvyagin"
The novel was published over thirty years ago, but is still controversial. Someone admires the work of Weller. For someone, this novel is a book "on the verge of a foul." According to some critics, the author argues ideas that can adversely affect the moral position of the reader (if he believes in these ideas, of course). Major Zvyagintsev is the ideal “Weller” hero. To the best of the cynic, to the best of the moralist. The total circulation of the book is about a million copies.
Celebrity Stories
In the early nineties, the book "Legends of Nevsky Prospekt" was also published, in which, along with fictional characters, there are also real personalities. Biography of Weller Mikhail Iosifovich also includes a short period of work at one of the universities in Denmark, where the writer also gave lectures on Russian literature. “Legends of Nevsky Prospect” was first published in a small edition. Subsequently, the book was reprinted several times and translated into several languages.
Mikhail Iosifovich Weller, whose family lived in Israel since 1995, worked for some time in one of the Jerusalem publishing houses, and at the same time lectured at a local university. In the late nineties, he left for the USA, where he performed in front of New York, Boston, Chicago audiences. At this time, the writer was working on the creation of the novel “The Messenger of Pisa”.
"Legends of the Arbat"
The basis of the short stories included in this collection is myths about famous artists, writers, politicians. In style, the works remind of "Legends of Nevsky Prospect." This book, like other works by Weller, caused a mixed reaction from critics. The refinement, accuracy of each phrase is characteristic of "Legends of the Arbat." Novels were created, by the definition of one of the literary critics, in the socio-political genre.
The book contains characters whose prototypes are quite famous personalities. Their reaction to Weller’s work is far from enthusiastic. So, Nikita Mikhalkov called individual episodes in the short story, in which the author tells about individual acts from his biography, slander. TV presenter Posner also tried to refute the veracity of Weller's works.
The works of Mikhail Weller (2000s)
If we are talking about a book that tells about real-life personalities, facts, even unpleasant ones, should not be concealed. So claims Weller Mikhail Iosifovich. “How to write memoirs” is a small work in which the author gives recommendations on writing a biographical work. At the same time, as regards the collection “Legends of the Arbat”, the writer admitted in an interview that for the most part it is still based on fiction (for example, the short story about Z. Tsereteli).
The latest works by Mikhail Weller include the books “Not a knife, not Seryozha not Dovlatov”, “Homeless”, “Our Prince and Khan”, “My business”, “Makhno”, “About love”. Readers' reviews of Weller’s book are also rather mixed. The collection “On Love” is called by fans of the writer's work an extraordinary combination of journalism and satire. The book consists of several small works, each of which contains bitterness, contempt, and despair. But it is precisely these features that have caused indignation among other readers, mostly women, who are not happy with the author’s excessive use of jargon, inappropriate satire and cynicism.
"Bum"
Significantly more positive reviews about this work than about the book “On Love” and the collection “Legends of the Arbat”. Writers often use a success story in their work. The author of the novel “Homeless”, on the contrary, spoke about the feelings of a man who once had no financial difficulties, but for a number of reasons found himself on a social bottom. The book is filled with fairly realistic episodes, which by no means always cause pleasant feelings in the reader. But this is a feature of Weller's style.
The hero of the book "Homeless" once lived in luxury. He drove expensive cars, used delicacies. All this he could afford thanks to activities based on deception and scams. But nothing lasts forever under the moon. Hero Weller once had to pay for everything. The author conveyed extremely realistically the feelings of a hero who can only remember the past luxury and pleasures that he can no longer experience.
Journalism
The bibliography of Mikhail Weller contains several dozen journalistic works. Among them: “Kassandra”, “Everything about life”, “Technology of the story”, “Russia and recipes”, “Energy evolutionism”, “Friends and stars”, the essay “How to write memoirs”, which was already mentioned above.
“Word and Profession” is also devoted to literary creation, and is of interest to both beginners and experienced writers. The thorny path of a prose writer is primarily associated with not always pleasant clashes with critics, editors and publishers. This is discussed in the journalistic work “Word and Profession”. In it, the author conveyed his own experience, and also cited many examples, an analysis of the stories and stories of Russian and foreign writers.
The Messenger of Pisa
The book combines in a bizarre manner grotesque and social satire. According to readers' reviews, she recalls Radishchev's "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." A cruiser called Aurora sets off from the Northern capital to Moscow. The author of the book denotes the problems of modern Russia, such as banditry, corruption, ruined enterprises, abandoned villages. The writer worked on the “Messenger of Pisa” in the last year of the last century. Apparently, after the famous historical event that happened on New Year's Eve, Weller had to change the ending a little. Hence the optimism in concluding the story, contrasting with the main, rather pessimistic part.
Mikhail Weller is known not only for literary work, but also for the scandals that occurred in early 2017. In March, he had a live fight with a TV presenter on TVC. A month later, he splashed water from a cup into a presenter during a radio broadcast. In the first case, the scandal was caused by the writer’s accusations of lying. In the second, Weller lost control of himself as a result of the fact that the radio host allegedly led him astray.